Free Personal Plumbing Info.

deca_321

Hi, my toilet is not flushing correctly, l push the sliver button on the top of the base and nothing is happening, its like the flush has jammed.

Now l take off the top base, look inside and l lift up the white tube and the toilet will flush correctly, its like this part of the flush tube thing has fallen down. And when llift it up it will flush.

can anyone help with this?? cheers

FRUGAL_4

Hi, could you please tell me whether bath overflows are designed to prevent flooding due to overfilling of the bath with both taps running? I have seen something on the internet about them just being designed to deal with someone getting into a bath with a high water level.

Thanks

SP1

Hi Frugal

If you mean by "Both taps" running at full bore. Then NO...

The bath overflow was primarily designed for water displacement and in the event that somebody left the taps running while that person was distracted for a short time, I would estimate from experience that it would only give approximately 5 minuets before it couldn't cope and would eventually over the top of the bath. This would also depend on the design of the bath and the installation overflow itself, as I have come across many over the years that are badly fitted; greatly reducing this time.

Regards

SP1

Hi Deca 321

This could be of help from your description?

Regards

harryhound

Having read the main site article based on this thread, I thought I would document my experience this week; as I have found some extra tips.

My taps are a kitchen mixer, a fitted bathroom with a "shower" mixer over the bath and a basin with a hot and a cold tap.

These taps are chrome (as good as when I installed them 35 years ago) with [FONT=&quot]clear plastic tap tops.

In the bathroom they are "non rising": non rising appears to be one of the few common "improvements" on the Victorian original.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tap_%28valve%29
Like some models of corkscrew, there is a screw within a screw, so the washer can pushed down or pulled up from the valve seat, without the tap top rising out of the tap on its spindle. However the clear acrylic plastic tap tops of 70's taps are not man enough for the life of the tap and loose their grip on the knurled top of the brass spindle. After 35 years it is impossible to find replacements. Also the two screw threads, continuously exposed to wetness inside the tap, wear and corrode thus becoming stiffer to turn.

My Bungalow's plumbing set up is simple: Water passes into the property through a valve and a water meter, enters a hole next to the chimney stack. In this hole there is a "stop c0ck!" that is completely jammed by corrosion. The mains pressure branches off to supply the three cold tap-tops in the bungalow.
Up the side of the chimney-breast goes a pipe to feed the ball valves of two tanks in the loft. The small tank is the expansion tank for the central heating and the big plastic one is the 24 hour reserve that used to be mandatory in case of failure of the water supply (in pre-combi boiler installations;)). This tank in the loft feeds just a hot water cylinder and then the three hot water tap-tops. The supply at the bottom of the hot tank has a valve, here again it is jammed open by 35 years of lime scale.

Realising that any plumbing job faces the problem of a snag and thus does not get finished in one day, I planned to revive the cold taps on the morning of day one and the hot taps on the morning of day two; thus always having water available in the home. It was a good thing I did:

I collected three sets of cheap "contract" tap reviver kits from Screwfix, which now has branches on your local industrial estate.
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http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=389611
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These tap reviver kits cost 6 & 7 GBP. Both sizes are in fact the same mechanism but the bath version has a larger adapter and "jumper" to hold the washer, for the 3/4" taps usually fitted to baths. So the Screwfix reviver kits taken together can be fitted to taps requiring three sizes of washer and they come with an exploded diagram and written explanation of how to use them.

I was able to turn off the water supply at the meter, using my socket set's extension bars and one of the "spark plug" sockets; and later turn off the hot supply by tying the ball c0ck in the loft, in its closed position. From previous experience replacing washers, I knew the kitchen taps-tops simply pulled off their spindles, while removing the bathroom tap-tops required their chrome covers to be levered off, followed by unscrewing the brass screw holding the tap-top onto its spindle. The tap-tops, where I had resorted to Araldite to glue them back on their spindles, were cracked off using a big "G" clamp to crush the plastic knob.
Another snags was the hot side of the bathroom mixer: this required heating and cooling with the paint stripper and a lot of levering and grunting with a pair of Stilsons to remove the mechanism, without cracking the plastic bath.

HOWEVER the bath mixer tap proved to be "neither flesh nor fowl": The 1/2" reviver, with its large (BS1010) adaptor fitted but its jumper and washer was still too small to fit the valve seat. While the 3/4" reviver had a jumper and washer that was too big to fit down the threaded hole into the wet insides of the tap.
I found a local plumbers' merchant who, with difficulty, managed to find a pair of mechanisms to fit the bathroom mixer. This just left the problem of finding a pair of tap tops to fit the mechanism! The other alternative was to rip out the fitted bath:rolleyes:

I was rescued by "The EEZEE Universal Tap Top". This was the bright idea of
[/FONT]http://[SIZE=-1]www.pedlerweb.com/05-Downloads/Documents/JBP-CV.doc
[/SIZE][FONT=&quot]back in the 1990's. It consists of a pair of silvered plastic knobs but each has a set of 5 nylon (?) inserts; each insert designed to fit a different design of spindle.
The EEZEE's are now made in the London area by Hillcrest Design, (Tel: 01992713005) who have taken over over from Bergin Products.
Distributors include Mark Vitow (Tel: 02082057885), where the woman on the switchboard was most helpful in tracking down a local supplier.
Made of plastic, I don't know how long it will last before the inserts fail or the silvering starts to go green. So I think I might invest in a spare set:rolleyes:.

Well reviving the bath taps cost double the price of sink and basin added together, but has proved a whole lot cheaper than dismantling the bathroom:eek: and Mrs Hound is delighted to have easy to turn off taps that look and feel as good as new.

Harry.

PS I gave each of the valve seats a bit of a scrape with a Blue coloured "Draper" reseating tool:- you screw it into the body of the tap and rotate the orange knob on the top, to make a set of cutters, at the other end of a spindle, scrape clean the brass valve seat.
I also put a smear of petroleum jelly on the threads of the new mechanisms in the hope that it will discourage corrosion and scale from forming. (Could be a bit dodgy if you end up drinking it!).
I took the opportunity to clean a deposit of rust sludge and a collection of fossilised spiders out of the big tank in the roof and finally "bottom filled" the hot water system to avoid air locks, a particular problem in a bungalow's hot water system. ("Bottom filling" involved a short length of old 1/2" garden hose with a rubber screw-tight tap connector on each end. This was connected from the cold tap in the basin to the hot one, so that mains pressure water could be could blown backwards, firstly out of the other 2 hot taps and, when these were turned off, then backwards into the tank in the loft. Only then did I fill the rest of the tank using the ball valve.)

PPS The real trigger for doing the job this week has been the failure of the immersion heater and the chance to do both jobs with only one draining of the system.

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joolski_2

Hi there,

I need to get a new central heating boiler, the old one is knackered and I have already spent lots having it repaired numerous times over the years.
I have been told that a replacement boiler, now by law, has to be a Condensing Cobmi Boiler by, which are very expensive. I have had a quote from British Gas of £5,300 to replace my boiler. I have also had feedback of them being very expensive for repairs and being very unreliable.

Does anyone know if you can fit an electric boiler on to an existing gas central heating system. I have heard they are much cheaper to buy, install and don't break down very often. There are also smaller and not so noisy.

I cannot see the difference between gas and electric boilers, surely after all they just act as a large kettle, all they do is to heat up water?

Maybe someone could shed some light on this, the only downside I can think of with an electric powered heating system is that maybe the electricity bill could be high?

Any feedback would be welcome,

Cheers joolski. :eek:

harryhound

If you put gas through a condensing boiler, you should get 85% plus into the house as heat. If you put the same gas through a gas turbine and turn it into electricity then turn the electricity back into heat you will put about 33% of the original gas into the house as heat.
Which? has just done a report on gas boilers.
If you use the electricity in the early hours of the morning, it will be about 1/3rd cheaper. It will be produced by a nuclear power station, possibly in France. You will be creating a crock of waste for your children's, children's, ....................... children to keep out of the hands of terrorists for tens of thousands of years.

The choice is yours.

Harry.

PS In 2003 my late mother's 1970's 60% efficient Potterton boiler died, after a lifetime of neglect; because at some stage the drain c0ck had dripped on one of the two burners and caused it to rust.
This was pre condensing boilers legislation: Local recommended heating engineer wanted 2.5K to replace it with a 75% efficient modern version.
(Re-line chimney etc.)
I double checked with British Gas: "What you need is a combi, over here on the outside wall (With ugly pipes spanning the length of the kitchen) a bargain at 4.25K".
Fortunately I found a "little man" (Corgi registered), ace at brazing, he took the burners away and rebuilt the hole and serviced the system for the first time in 20 years: 400GBP.
(The house was demolished 2 years later).

JoJoB

Hi Ian,

I replaced my hot water tank 6 months ago but appear to have no hot water again. 2 days ago it would only heat up to lukewarm temperature (and took about 3 hours to do this), now it won't heat up at all. I assume the immersion heater is busted but it seems to have lasted such a short time! How much is a fair quote for replacing the immersion heater? (if this is the problem). Thanks for any advice.

deaglecat

Hi, I have just had new bathroom taps fitted - from B&Q and not identified as needing high pressure. They are gravity fed from from a cold water tank in the loft (as is normal in many UK houses).

I get a flow rate of 0.8 gallons per minute which is less than half of that in the other taps in the house.

The old taps were starting to deliver much lower pressure which is part of the reason we replaced them.

It sounds like I may have a problem with pressure. So I have two questions
1. How to diagnose whether it is the pipework or taps
2. If pipework - can I descale the pipes - hot and cold (we do live in a hard water area).

Thanks in advance

Deag

chryslerchick

Hi Ian
Im about to knock through two adjoining outhouses to convert to 1 bedroom.
there is 2 radiators on the particial wall that i need to remove before i can knock wall through & i will obviously need to put these back in the room when conversion complete,is it possible for a diy job in relocating radiators or is it best to leave to proffessionals???

Also we have an adjoining toilet to the outhse that we also wish to take out & knock through to make the room bigger,how do we cover the hole thats left from the actaul loo?or is it a pro job?

thanks cc