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Plumbing
Hot water cylinder not filling up?
Anonymous user 9 March 2024 - 3.27 PM
Hi All
We had no water mains for 6 days and ran the hot system dry
Now the water has come back there’s potentially a massive airlock that I’m trying to shift
We have a hot water cylinder on the first floor with an inlet at the bottom for the cold feed, an outlet 2/3 of the way up for the hot water taps and an outlet at the top for the power shower
I have blocked a bath mixer tap with a coin and gaffer tape and opened both taps. It filled the cylinder perfectly
However, when I run the power shower, it works for a minute then spits and dries up. If I have the bath mixer taps open (with the coin and gaffer) it continues to run ok.
I’ve checked the header(?) tank in the loft and it is full and all valves open.
I hoped that the power shower would eventually spit out the air but it seems that the cylinder isn’t refilling.
Any ideas? (I’m a diyer)
I’m thinking I need to verify that the header feed is working - perhaps it’s got blocked somehow - are there any easy tricks?
Many thanks
Are you a tradesperson and able to answer this question?
Sounds like a blockage in the pipe that feeds the hot water cylinder
It is possible that Debris of some kind was floating in the storage tank, and has been sucked into the pipe work when the water level in the tank dropped.
You could try. Blocking the expansion pipe in the loft the pipe that hangs over the tank.
The repeat the operation with mixer tap to force water up the cold down feed.
Alternative get a wet and dry vacuum cleaner and use it to try and clear the feed pipe
Also check that the pipe are clear where they are connected to the storage tank .
There is a bad air lock in the pipes, so you will need to get either a plumber or heating engineer to back fill these pipes to force out the air lock is the quicker solution or sometimes waiting some hours it can eventually clear.
go to the kitchen tap if u got a mixer then put ur hand over the spout where water comes out and block it with ur hand open tap inbetween the hot and cold blocking any water coming out move the handle to hot. That will push any air up the pipe hope that helps