Strange Plumbing!

Hobsons_Choice

We have a problem with our plumbing...I think. The (electric) shower only dribbled - until I flushed the toilet, then the shower worked fine (I know, I know). The toilet makes a "banging" noise at the end of the flush and the hot water tap in the bathroom also keeps cutting out and won't deliver. Husband reckons it's the tap, but that wouldn't affect the shower, surely?
Do you think it's a problem with the boiler, which is a combi but was fitted about ten years ago? It's serviced every October.
Would appreciate some advice before we decide to call a plumber or heating engineer in.
Hot/cold water taps in the kitchen are working fine, so could it be an airlock somewhere?

Hobsons_Choice

Any ideas anyone? We shall have to get someone in next week and don't want to be advised to have a new boiler if it's just a plumbing problem (or anything else that can be repaired rather than replaced). We're in our 70s and money's tight:(.

macman

Your electric shower has nothing to do with your boiler, it heats it's own water and is supplied from the rising main,as is the WC.
It's a plumbing issue, not a boiler issue, if the downstairs hot taps work OK.

Hobsons_Choice

Many thanks - thought it might be the pump?

macman

No, the pump is concerned with moving hot water around the CH system, it would not affect the shower or the toilet, which as I already stated are supplied off the rising main.
You may have more than one issue, but nothing points to the boiler as a cause from what you have said.

googler

If the hot water taps elsewhere work fine, it's probably a faulty washer in the one that's cutting out.

What do you mean by 'the end of the flush'? Is it banging when the flow of water into the bowl stops, or at the end of the cistern refilling?

Your shower should be working from a cold mains supply, so will be unaffected by your combi boiler. Your WC could be fed by mains or from a cold water tank. How old is the shower? What make/model?

pleasedelete

My toilet bangs. It's a water pressure problem. It used to annoy me- now I live with it. We have an odd pressure system that makes plumbers scratch their heads!

Mankysteve

Air lock somewhere would my guess, but you need a plumber in who can give a proper diagnoses.
.

Hobsons_Choice

The toilet 'bangs' when the cistern has finished filling - we've had this problem for some time and have also learned to live with it, but with everything else.......
The shower is a Mira Essentials and is 10/ll years old. Just find it strange that the shower will work after the toilet is flushed. The hot water tap downstairs is fine (also the cold) but upstairs it's reduced to a trickle. The tap is also a bit loose and not fitting onto the basin too well (realise that that has to be addressed). Hope this helps.

macman

Not much more anyone can tell you, you need to get a plumber in to investigate the cause, which as mankysteve advised is probably some kind of airlock.

keystone

Yes I think you have a problem thats pretty well near undiagnosable remotely. Fill valve "banging" on the toilet implies water hammer. Very unlikely to be an airlock of any description IMO as your whole system is at mains pressure with a combi boiler.

Cheers