Flow from hot tap in bathroom reducing to nothing

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oopsbuddy

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We have a second bathroom off our utility room at the back of the house (a bungalow). When this room was built as an extension about 5 years ago, the water flow in the hot tap was never great (perhaps because of the distance from the hot tank to that part of the house) but it was always there! Now, and only since relatively recently, it seems to be almost completely gone! It works a little sometimes, but mostly hardly at all, but is not consistent. The hot water supply in the adjacent utility room is only OK and was also never great, but at least is still the same as it ever was. Any suggestions for a DIY fix?
 
Could be difficult to diy fix. Several possibilites
Partial airlock on HW supply
Partial blockage on HW supply.
Hot tap in question may be sticking leading to insufficient flow.
Unseated washer in tap leading to poor flow.
Poor hot water pressure due to insufficient height of storage tank that supplies hot water storage cylinder(Can be a problem in Bungalows).
This is a problem on low pressure gravity fed hot water systems and if plastic supply pipes are used the inserts used in pipe fittings can slow down the flow even further.
Call a suitably qualified plumber and he should be able to advise on your next course of action.
Hope this helps.
 
We had a similar problem recently .............Reason why the pressure has always been poor , is probably because of the gravity flow.

SO, to fix this , you need to reverse the water supply to blow out any airlocks / dirt etc which may have caused your water tap in bathroom , to slow down to a trickle .

Find a water hose long enough to travel from the mains supply in kitchen , to this bathroom. When you have this hose connected , firstly turn on the tap in the faulty bathroom , and then turn on the tap in the kitchen ( mains ).

It worked for me .............best of luck !
 
Airlock a possibly ,if you have a mains water supply adjacent attach a hose pipe between the taps and blow out air lock.How ever it seems that you never really had a decent hot water supply in the line of pressure so I believe that your problem lies in the roof space.The draw off for the hot water supply must come either from the top of the cylinder via underground pipework (Preferred system),or it may have been carried across the roof space and if this is the case it should have been run in 22mm copper at a gradient ,tapped into hot water expansion pipe approx 200mm above joists falling towards bathroom .This would remove any build up of air.It is possible that your tank is not high enough to create a head of pressure to over the long distance required.A pumped hot water system would the be advised.

38 years a plumber.
 
allthedoyles said:
Find a water hose long enough to travel from the mains supply in kitchen , to this bathroom. When you have this hose connected , firstly turn on the tap in the faulty bathroom , and then turn on the tap in the kitchen ( mains ).
The pressure from the adjacent cold tap is usually sufficient here. So connect hot and cold at this sink, fully open the hot tap at this sink, and turn on a nearby hot tap (where the air will be expelled). Then turn on the cold tap at the problem sink. Water flow spluttering at the second hot tap indicates air being cleared.
Leo
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Perhaps I am being a bit thick here, can the "Hose & Taps" process be explained a bit clearer?
 
Thanks everyone. So can I attach a short hose from the bathroom cold tap (where the pressure is good) to the adjacent bathroom hot tap, and turn them both on, as well as a nearby 'other' hot tap? Sorry if I also appear to be thick, just checking. Thanks again.
 
mairtinmor said:
Airlock a possibly ,if you have a mains water supply adjacent attach a hose pipe between the taps and blow out air lock.How ever it seems that you never really had a decent hot water supply in the line of pressure so I believe that your problem lies in the roof space.The draw off for the hot water supply must come either from the top of the cylinder via underground pipework (Preferred system),or it may have been carried across the roof space and if this is the case it should have been run in 22mm copper at a gradient ,tapped into hot water expansion pipe approx 200mm above joists falling towards bathroom .This would remove any build up of air.It is possible that your tank is not high enough to create a head of pressure to over the long distance required.A pumped hot water system would the be advised.

38 years a plumber.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mairtinmor, I am fairly sure that this is an underfloor "preferred system", and the fact that there is not much gravity over a fairly long distance is part of the problem. However, although the pressure was never great, it was always adequate, until recently at least, so I will try the hose blast tonight and post back tomorrow. Thanks again.
 
This may work if your bath is fed directly from the mains which I don't think it is.
Try and connect a hose from your kitchen sink tap(mains) to your troublesome hot tap. Turn on your hot, then your cold, run for approx. 20secs. and see if this clears the supposed blockage or air lock. This may take two people to hold each end onto each tap and expect to get wet!!
Hope this works, but i'd be sceptical. You may have to call in a plumber yet. You may have to raise the level of your cold water storage cistern in the attic which will help increase your water pressures at your bathroom taps etc.
Mains pressure at kitchen sink approx. 30-60psi
Gravity pressure from tank, hot and cold, bungalow, tank fitted on ceiling joists approx. 3-4psi
Big diference!!
 
oopsbuddy said:
Thanks everyone. So can I attach a short hose from the bathroom cold tap (where the pressure is good) to the adjacent bathroom hot tap, and turn them both on, as well as a nearby 'other' hot tap? Sorry if I also appear to be thick, just checking. Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Yes, that should do it. Ideal order to turn on taps is: nearby hoy tap, adjacent cold tap, and lastly problem hot tap.
Leo
 
TwoWheels said:
Perhaps I am being a bit thick here, can the "Hose & Taps" process be explained a bit clearer?
Click to expand...

The issue here is there is some air in the hot pipe somewhere between the hot tap and the cylinder. By forcing water from the cold tap into the problem hot tap, the air gets forced out through the other open tap.
Leo
 
that happened in our house and as said you need to pump water into the tap to release air block. How we did this ! (ye may laugh!~)

We got a hose and attached one end to the shower head and stuck the other into the tap and bobs your uncle the pressure from the shower did the trick! we also made a mess! but thats to be expected!
 
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