airlock- electric shower

doubtfir3

I have an electric shower in my main bathroom which is fed from the cold water tank in the attic.

This morning, I went to turn it on and all I got was a whine from the pump starting and no water.

I know this is quite likely an air lock, but have read other threads for solutions and wasn't sure ho to deal with it in my case.

The time-line...

Central heating was on with water in cylinder heated last night.
Went to fill the bath but as the bath was about half full the flow slowed to a trickle so I shut it off guessing that the cylinder was empty and had to refill.

Turned on HW tank in bath about 10-15 mins later and still a trickle of water coming out so just left it and had a "half full" bath.

I got up this morning to have a shower and there was no water, so am guessing that its an airlock.

I ended up having a quick shower in the ensuite. Its a power shower and had full flow.

Can anyone advise how I should get rid of the airlock?

I have seen advice that I should connect the hot to the cold tap but this is not possible anywhere in the house as all taps have hot/cold feeding to one mixer tap.

I read that I could do this at the washing machine but it has a cold feed only, but I do have a hot/cold feed beside it for a sink to be plumbed in.

Could I do this here? Is it safe with the pump on the power shower?

Also, have read that if I take the cover off the electric shower there is a bleed valve for air? Is this a solution? (Triton T90).

Any thoughts as to what I could do long-term or if the fact that the hot water seems to slow to a trickle as the tank empties is a problem? (I would have thought here that the "hot" water should simply go cold as the heated water in the tank is replaced with cold?

Should I be calling the plumbers in?

Thanks

Joey the lips

I dont think its an air lock! If its a tank fed shower like a triton t90 mira elite 2 when the water is back the shower would work again. These usually have there own feed. Can you take the shower off the wall and make sure water is coming through?

doubtfir3

Joey the lips wrote: »

I dont think its an air lock! If its a tank fed shower like a triton t90 mira elite 2 when the water is back the shower would work again. These usually have there own feed. Can you take the shower off the wall and make sure water is coming through?

I'll try to take it off this evening and see how I get on... had a sinking feeling that I'm going to have to get a plumber in!

Tks

ART6

One thing that happens occasionally in showers is that the inner rubber sleeve in the shower head pipe perishes and collapses, so shutting off the water outlet. You can check that by taking off the pipe and running the shower. If that's the problem then you need a new pipe from any DIY shop. If you have an air lock then removing the back pressure caused by the shower head can sometimes create sufficient flow to clear it. If you try that, turn the temperature control to cold as far as it will go first to increase the potential flow to maximum. Like Joey says, airlocks are not that common.

doubtfir3

Just an update on this..

I took the pipe off and then cover off and still no water flow, so have done some more research and it seems that the solenoid is faulty.

I gave it a few taps on top to try to free it up inside in case its jammed, but still no joy so have ordered a new solenoid which will hopefully resolve the problem.

Thanks all for your help!

skingtile

sounds like your feed to your cylinder is blocked and your shower though shouldnt be is comming of the same feed,was your mains supply off in the recent past or did you have any work done. doubt if solenoid problem

ART6

doubtfir3 wrote: »

I have an electric shower in my main bathroom which is fed from the cold water tank in the attic.

This morning, I went to turn it on and all I got was a whine from the pump starting and no water.

I know this is quite likely an air lock, but have read other threads for solutions and wasn't sure ho to deal with it in my case.

The time-line...

Central heating was on with water in cylinder heated last night.
Went to fill the bath but as the bath was about half full the flow slowed to a trickle so I shut it off guessing that the cylinder was empty and had to refill.

Turned on HW tank in bath about 10-15 mins later and still a trickle of water coming out so just left it and had a "half full" bath.

I got up this morning to have a shower and there was no water, so am guessing that its an airlock.

I ended up having a quick shower in the ensuite. Its a power shower and had full flow.

Can anyone advise how I should get rid of the airlock?

I have seen advice that I should connect the hot to the cold tap but this is not possible anywhere in the house as all taps have hot/cold feeding to one mixer tap.

I read that I could do this at the washing machine but it has a cold feed only, but I do have a hot/cold feed beside it for a sink to be plumbed in.

Could I do this here? Is it safe with the pump on the power shower?

Also, have read that if I take the cover off the electric shower there is a bleed valve for air? Is this a solution? (Triton T90).

Any thoughts as to what I could do long-term or if the fact that the hot water seems to slow to a trickle as the tank empties is a problem? (I would have thought here that the "hot" water should simply go cold as the heated water in the tank is replaced with cold?

Should I be calling the plumbers in?

Thanks

You could try a length of garden hose and fit a tap connector (the rubber ones with a Jubilee clip to secure them) on each end, then connect it to the kitchen tap and the bath tap. Open the hot tap on the bath but leave it's cold tap closed. Then open the kitchen cold tap but leave it's hot tap closed. Assuming the kitchen tap has mains pressure on the cold side (it should have) that will force water back through the system into the roof tank and should clear any debris. If that's the problem then you will need to clean out the roof tank to get rid of whatever is causing the blockage.

doubtfir3

skingtile wrote: »

sounds like your feed to your cylinder is blocked and your shower though shouldnt be is comming of the same feed,was your mains supply off in the recent past or did you have any work done. doubt if solenoid problem

ART6 wrote: »

Assuming the kitchen tap has mains pressure on the cold side (it should have) that will force water back through the system into the roof tank and should clear any debris. If that's the problem then you will need to clean out the roof tank to get rid of whatever is causing the blockage.

Ended up having a bath this morning - full flow on both the hot and cold taps.

The electric shower is over the bath and was in attic last night to put up some boxes so had a quick look at pip for shower.

Seems to be fed separately from the bath feed - shower is fed from above through attic, bath hot and cold fed from under floorboards, guessing across to hot press across hall.

There's a double layer of fibreglass insulation in the attic so left it last night but will check this evening if I can trace source of feed for electric shower.

Took cover off and there's no isolation valve on water feed pipe behind shower so hoping there's one in attic so I can check flow and pip for blockages.

If not I guess I'll have to turn off water and drain cold water tank before disconnecting?

skingtile

as your shower is over the bath bear in mind that your shower connection could actually be under the bath and then brought up the wall to the shower and not in the attic atal

doubtfir3

skingtile wrote: »

as your shower is over the bath bear in mind that your shower connection could actually be under the bath and then brought up the wall to the shower and not in the attic atal

I checked this last night when I took the cover off. The pipe feeds upwards and there is a single water pipe in the attic which drops down into the stud work at that point on the wall.

Going to have a look this evening and hopefully try to establish if its the shower or water feed.

Tks