immersion heater hot water problem

sat56

Had a loft conversion done last year and to make way for the stairs they had to move the immersion heater and cold water tank up to the loft.

Before the move i had no problem with hot water pressure but have been living for a year with the problem and now its time to sort out.

The problem is in the morning i have to get the hot water flowing freely. If i turn on the bath tap it flows at maybe a third of what it should, if i turn on the bathroom sink tap it trickles then stops flowing. If i turn on the kitchen tap that flows at maybe half of what it shud.

Now if i leave the kitchen tap on for a few minutes after a minute or two i get a gurgling noise then the tap sort off coughs and water then starts flowing at full pressure from all taps.

Two other pieces of information, during the conversion whilst moving the immersion heater i heard a few choice words and the heater came bouncing down my concrete steps. Not gud for the heater i think.
The other bit of info is that there so called plumber asked me if i had had a problem with pressure before as he found a piece of wood blocking a pipe. I assume the wood came when they dropped my ceilings to give me more headroom in the loft. bits of wood, plaster and dust was flying everwhere at the time.

The only thing ive tried is draining the system but that made no difference so any suggestion appreiciated. thanks

Aquatronixjenny

Sounds like an airlock to me, probably due to poor pipe work routing. Can you possibly get a picture of the location of the tank showing the configuration of the pipework?

ormus

most likely an airlock, or possibly debris in the CW tank blocking the outlet pipe.

sat56

thanks for the replies, how do i check for an airlock. I cant get photos as its all in confirned space.

ormus

if you have two taps its easy using the hose pipe/tube trick, as above.
only really works if you have an open vent system.

if you have powerful lungs, you can blow up the tap/pipe with a pipe/tube, too.

birkee

My last post disappeared into the ether. WAS rather longer.

Cold water feeder tank, and H/W tank both in the loft,, means no water pressure to feed the H/W tank.
You need at least 6 feet height of cold above the H/W tank to create reasonable pressure. Or, a pump in the outlet of your H/W tank

birkee

p.s. Your kitchen tap runs out of water, when the level of the cold water tank drops down to the level where it can't supply any more from the C/W tank to the H/W tank and air gets into the system instead.

birkee

Forget an air lock.
Hot water pressure depends on how high the cold water header tank that feeds the hot water tank, is above it.
Difficult to understand in text I'm sure.

As I understand it, you hot water tank (You say immersion heater) has been moved to the loft.
The cold water supply to feed it, is also up there.
Why should the cold water tank feed the hot water tank if the are level?

Before, you had a cold water tank 6 feet(?) above the hot water tank, and the cold water tank had the weight pressure of 20 gallons(?) of water feeding the hot tank and forcing the H/W out. Now, it only has the weight of say 2 gallons(?) of cold water above the feed to the hot water tank becaue they are only inches different.

Summed up. The higher the cold water header tank is, above the H/W tank, the higher the H/W pressure will be.
Two tanks that are level, will have no water flow between them at all, except that covered by water pressure. Once the water pressure equalises in both, all flow will cease.

You need a pump on the outlet of your H/W tank.

birkee

How about that! My first post reappeared after the two following ones.!!

keystone

birkee wrote: »

You need at least 6 feet height of cold above the H/W tank to create reasonable pressure.

Mmm - how does a Fortic tank work then?

Or, a pump in the outlet of your H/W tank

and when you pump out the HW cylinder faster than the CWST can replace the water taken out?

Cheers

keystone

OP - I'm with Post #2 on this one. If you can't photograph the layout and the pipework could you provide a dimensioned sketch? Only needs to be rough.

Cheers