Random Intermittent Trickle/Dripping in Bathroom help.

bery_451

Hi,

I notice sometimes in the bathroom that the sink tap trickles water for a sec or two then stops while the tap is in off position. It is like its haunted with a ghost turning on the tap slightly and off you know what I mean which sounds funny.

Same problem happens to the shower where it doesn't trickle due to its shower head design but constant dripping 24/7 in its off position.

Again same problem happens to the Douche Spray next to toilet where it doesn't trickle due to its spray head design but dripping randomly in its off position.

All these items are fitted new so it can't be coincidence that they are all faulty right?

Please advise.

[Deleted User]

bery_451 wrote: »

All these items are fitted new so it can't be coincidence that they are all faulty right?

Wrong.

Each could be due to worn parts, or simply a change in temperature as some trapped water gets released.

The constant drips need to be looked at, as that is more likely to be worn washers/valves, depending on the set up.

JohnB47

bery_451 wrote: »

Hi,

I notice sometimes in the bathroom that the sink tap trickles water for a sec or two then stops while the tap is in off position. It is like its haunted with a ghost turning on the tap slightly and off you know what I mean which sounds funny.

Same problem happens to the shower where it doesn't trickle due to its shower head design but constant dripping 24/7 in its off position.

Again same problem happens to the Douche Spray next to toilet where it doesn't trickle due to its spray head design but dripping randomly in its off position.

All these items are fitted new so it can't be coincidence that they are all faulty right?

Please advise.

Well, if they are new, I agree that they can't all be faulty although if the plumbing was done badly and the pipes weren't cleared of debris before turning them on, the disks/washers could all have bits trapped in them and that would cause dripping. Sounds a bit unlikely though.

How new are they? Cheap/expensive?

Other thoughts - it shouldn't really matter but do you have very high water pressure? If so, try turning your stopcock off a bit. It's often under the sink.

You'll need to run the cold water as you slowly turn the stopcock off, so as to see that you end up with a reasonable flow of water.
Stopcocks tend to not do much for the first bit of 'turning off' then suddenly react. They're not really meant to be a gradual turn off device.

If this works, you might need to adjust it further after you've had the next shower - you might have turned the pressure down too much.

Anyway, this is a curious one.

Edit: Do you need to get the fitter back - or was it you?

bery_451

JohnB47 wrote: »

Well, if they are new, I agree that they can't all be faulty although if the plumbing was done badly and the pipes weren't cleared of debris before turning them on, the disks/washers could all have bits trapped in them and that would cause dripping. Sounds a bit unlikely though.

How new are they? Cheap/expensive?

Other thoughts - it shouldn't really matter but do you have very high water pressure? If so, try turning your stopcock off a bit. It's often under the sink.

You'll need to run the cold water as you slowly turn the stopcock off, so as to see that you end up with a reasonable flow of water.
Stopcocks tend to not do much for the first bit of 'turning off' then suddenly react. They're not really meant to be a gradual turn off device.

If this works, you might need to adjust it further after you've had the next shower - you might have turned the pressure down too much.

Anyway, this is a curious one.

Edit: Do you need to get the fitter back - or was it you?

Hi yes we have another bathroom upstairs as well as a kitchen however we didnt experience the same problem in those rooms just the downstairs bathroom mentioned above. Even when the stopcock is turned all the way on full pressure we never experienced the problem in those rooms before or now. Only the downstairs bathroom. Why is that?

They are brand new and certainly not cheap from a well known shop.

Which cold tap in the house shall I run while turning off the stopcock? So I run the cold tap 1st on full blast before going to the stopcock and turning it off slowly and see at the tap i ran which pressure I like?

I have to adjust it further after shower if shower pressure is too low you mean?

Or can you please advise which stopcock pressure settings is the correct one to set?

bery_451

Deleted_User wrote: »

Wrong.

Each could be due to worn parts, or simply a change in temperature as some trapped water gets released.

The constant drips need to be looked at, as that is more likely to be worn washers/valves, depending on the set up.

What do you mean change in temperature?
Do you mean change in copper pipe temperature or change in water temperature or change in room temperature? And how does this release water?

JohnB47

bery_451 wrote: »

Hi yes we have another bathroom upstairs as well as a kitchen however we didnt experience the same problem in those rooms just the downstairs bathroom mentioned above. Even when the stopcock is turned all the way on full pressure we never experienced the problem in those rooms before or now. Only the downstairs bathroom. Why is that?

They are brand new and certainly not cheap from a well known shop.

Which cold tap in the house shall I run while turning off the stopcock? So I run the cold tap 1st on full blast before going to the stopcock and turning it off slowly and see at the tap i ran which pressure I like?

I have to adjust it further after shower if shower pressure is too low you mean?

Or can you please advise which stopcock pressure settings is the correct one to set?

What I am suggesting works best if the cold tap being turned on is close by the stopcock, otherwise there's a lot of tooing and froing.

Anyway, what I would suggest is this. Go to the cold tap nearest to the stopcock. Turn that cold tap on, say halfway (you don't need it spashing all over the place). Now go to the stopcock and slowly turn it off until, hopefully, you can hear the cold water reducing in force. Go back to the cold tap and turn it on fully.

At this point, you need to access how much force is reasonable. If it's still blasting out, go back to the stopcock and turn it off a bit more.

I'm afraid I can't tell you what is a reasonable force. It's a balance between it being too low and your showers not running properly and being too high.

I'm only suggesting this as a possible cure for the dripping. I'm not a plumber and this may simply be a way to show that high pressure is not really the problem. It might only help with the diagnosis.

If you go through this process and the water flow is high enough for all practical purposes but not extremely forceful, then it seems logical that the seals in each of the taps is somehow faulty or partially blocked with dirt or the discs have become scratched (on those that have ceramic discs rather than washers).

If they have washers, rather than discs, are they of a type that you can dismantle and have a look at the washers? Disc types don't, in my experience, allow you to take apart the disc cartridges - only remove and replace.

coffeehound

Deleted_User wrote: »

or simply a change in temperature as some trapped water gets released

That was my first thought. Noticed it here: very cold mains water at this time of year — below 6 degrees at my gaff. Water sits in tap spout and slowly warms up towards room temperature. Volume/viscosity change is eventually just enough to cause a sudden trickle..

Shower heads seem to hold a lot of water and take forever to stop dripping. Ive sometimes left the handset on the floor of the bath/cubicle to avoid Chinese water torture at night

.

Jackmydad

Unfortunately turning the stopcock down doesn't reduce the pressure in a system. It reduces the flow which reduces the apparent "pressure" when a tap is opened, but when the tap is closed the pressure will be the same whether the stopcock is fully open or just cracked open.
The pressure is a constant in a "sealed" system like that.
If the pressure really is too high, you need a pressure reducing valve fitted after the stopcock.

JohnB47

Jackmydad wrote: »

Unfortunately turning the stopcock down doesn't reduce the pressure in a system. It reduces the flow which reduces the apparent "pressure" when a tap is opened, but when the tap is closed the pressure will be the same whether the stopcock is fully open or just cracked open.
The pressure is a constant in a "sealed" system like that.
If the pressure really is too high, you need a pressure reducing valve fitted after the stopcock.

Hmmm, I really should have paid more attention at school.

I've read up about this now and I believe you. If a stopcock is turned partially off, a reduction in pressure is only evident when a tap is turned on - when water is flowing. When the tap is turned off, the pressure through the stopcock and at the tap quickly moves up to mains pressure, as if the stopcock was turned fully on.

Sorry OP, my mistake.

bery_451

JohnB47 wrote: »

Hmmm, I really should have paid more attention at school.

I've read up about this now and I believe you. If a stopcock is turned partially off, a reduction in pressure is only evident when a tap is turned on - when water is flowing. When the tap is turned off, the pressure through the stopcock and at the tap quickly moves up to mains pressure, as if the stopcock was turned fully on.

Sorry OP, my mistake.

Ok shall I still follow your fix steps above or is there another way to fix the problem?

bery_451

coffeehound wrote: »

That was my first thought. Noticed it here: very cold mains water at this time of year — below 6 degrees at my gaff. Water sits in tap spout and slowly warms up towards room temperature. Volume/viscosity change is eventually just enough to cause a sudden trickle..

Shower heads seem to hold a lot of water and take forever to stop dripping. Ive sometimes left the handset on the floor of the bath/cubicle to avoid Chinese water torture at night

.

Ok however how do you explain that the problem isnt there in the other rooms such as kitchen and upstairs bathroom and the problem is only present in the downstairs bathroom if you say its the room temperature?

Also before we replaced the old downstairs bathroom with this new bathroom with new tap/shower etc. we never had this problem with our old bathroom.