Flooding Plumbing and Heating Questions

items

Spindle wrote: »

Thanks items, the pressure was very very poor, nothing compared to what its like normally.

Triton T80si problem (wont heat up water)

It could be possible the pressure is just to low, the shower might be stopping itself from heating the water for safety reasons (scalding). A t80si is a tank fed pumped electric shower, unless yours is incorrectly installed it should be supplied by the attic tank. You should have a look at the water level in the attic tank, if its full enough you could have a poor restricted supply going to the shower (happens a lot).

The pipe from the tank to the shower is normally a 1/2" plastic pipe (sometimes valved at tank). The pipe can run some distance horizontally, most cases the air becomes trapped in the attic pipe run, see if you can break the pipe work open at the furthest fitting away from the attic tank to release the air.

If the above still wont bring the shower on, you'll have to turn off both water and electric supply, open the casing, disconnect the shower and check for debris in the filter, before reconnecting the shower, have someone open the water supply for a few seconds (flush out pipe work) and then finish refitting the shower.

Be careful water and electricity don't mix well.

Before calling a shower repair person it's best to get the obvious stuff ruled out, that person will check the power and water supply first before going further with replacements etc, if you can rule them out yourself, might save you a few quid.

Spindle

Thanks again items, the only thing is we are in an apartment and there's no attic tank at all. Normally when someone is having a shower, if the mains from the cold kitchen tap is turned on or the washing machine fills the water changes in the shower (pressure drops and it gets hotter). I don't know if this would tell you if its mains or not, I really don't know much about these things. I guess I will just leave it alone for now and try it again once everything is back up and running properly.

items

Spindle wrote: »

Thanks again items, the only thing is we are in an apartment and there's no attic tank at all. Normally when someone is having a shower, if the mains from the cold kitchen tap is turned on or the washing machine fills the water changes in the shower (pressure drops and it gets hotter). I don't know if this would tell you if its mains or not, I really don't know much about these things. I guess I will just leave it alone for now and try it again once everything is back up and running properly.

You have a strange plumbing system in your apartment. If you have no attic tank, you should have a combined cylinder and tank (big tall insulated cylinder, cold water on top, hot water underneath). You cant pipe a shower off a combined cylinder. You should have a mains fed shower (T90) or similar. The shower should have it's own dedicated supply, separate from everything else.

You have a few problems that should be looked at. Your shower wont last long if its supply is being affected by other taps, also you shouldn't be using a T80 which is supplied by a pressurized mains supply.

I am not sure if you own the apartment or if its rented, best try and sort out your shower problem any way you can.

Heckler

Spindle wrote: »

We have the triton t80si as well and have the same problem as Heckler. Our water has been gone since the Friday before last but has been gradually coming back over the last few days. The mains pressure seemed decent this morning so we tried the shower. It works fine on the cold but it doesn't heat up at all. Heckler did you manage to get yours sorted? Any ideas? Pretty sure ours is mains fed.

No joy yet Spindle. Everything working as normal just no hot water in the shower.

Thanks for the reply Items. The power light is coming on and there has been no electricity outage. I checked the fuse board in case it happened while I was out but everything is fine. I'd be doubtful the shower went bellyup the same time as all the water problems happened in Cork. I'd say they are related. I live in an apartment and have no access to tanks etc. I'll get on to the landlord to get a plumber out I guess.

@ Spindle. I'll let you know if I get it sorted and what the problem might be. If you sort yours in the meantime you might let me know.

Thanks again and any more suggestions welcome !

sean_84

The water in my house came back last night. Initially only the cold tap in the kitchen was working, but this morning I tried holding my hand over the kitchen tap and turning on hot and cold taps. So now the hot taps are working everywhere. Thanks for that advice

There's still some problems with the cold taps in bathrooms. I'm renting in a 3 storey house. In the 2nd (top) floor, the cold taps are not working at all, and the toilet cisterns aren't filling. On the 1st floor the taps are working in spurts, as if air is coming with the water. We have electric pumped showers (they don't heat water, just increase pressure). I thought these would be able to remove an airlock from the pipes, but it only works for a few seconds, and then the pressure drops and the pump makes an unhealthy sounding noise...

Also, I can hear running water in the attic all day, and also in the hot-press. There are three lever valves in the hot-press, and If I turn one of them, the water noise in the hot-press stops, and no cold taps work.

Any ideas? Thanks.

Solair

items wrote: »

Shower Question

T80 is fed from the attic tank, T90 in mains few. Strange that its flowing cold only at usual pressure but no hot water at all. Is the unit power light coming on? Have you had your electricity turned off, maybe the fuse for the shower is tripped at the fuse board? Its best to check all the obvious stuff first, it could be possible the heating element has blown.

If the water pressure is really low, it's possible that the rate of flow through the shower is too low so it's over heating.

i.e. you would get a few seconds of hot water, possibly very hot water at quite low pressure, then the shower would click and the heat would turn off and you'd have freezing cold water straight from the mains.

When you reset the shower it would do that all over again.

I'd say you might just have to wait for the mains to re-pressurise before your shower will work normally.

Solair

sean_84 wrote: »

The water in my house came back last night. Initially only the cold tap in the kitchen was working, but this morning I tried holding my hand over the kitchen tap and turning on hot and cold taps. So now the hot taps are working everywhere. Thanks for that advice

There's still some problems with the cold taps in bathrooms. I'm renting in a 3 storey building. In the 2nd (top) floor, the cold taps are not working at all, and the toilet cisterns aren't filling. On the 1st floor the taps are working in spurts, as if air is coming with the water. We have electric pumped showers (they don't heat water, just increase pressure). I thought these would be able to remove an airlock from the pipes, but it only works for a few seconds, and then the pressure drops and the pump makes an unhealthy sounding noise...

Also, I can hear running water in the attic all day, and also in the hot-press. There are three lever valves in the hot-press, and If I turn one of them, the water noise in the hot-press stops, and no cold taps work.

Any ideas? Thanks.

It's possible that you may have rising mains water feeding tanks in each apartment, or that the cold water is just connected directly to the mains ?

If this is the case, the water pressure in the city mains may not be high enough to push the water up to the higher apartments right now. As the system pressure builds over the next 24 hours or so the water will start flowing.

There are several small reservoirs in Cork located at different altitudes. These keep the pressure on the system in different parts of the city of corresponding altitudes i.e. your water is gravity fed, not pumped to your house. Right now those reservoirs are still being filled by the pumping station at Lee Road and until the levels return to normal, the system pressure will be quite low.

Also, remember as the water is restored, all the attic tanks immediately start filling as they're empty. This creates a huge demand on the system and mains pressure will be very low until they fill.

On the plus side, because in the Irish (and British) system there are all of these tanks, there's an excellent opportunity for air to escape out of the mains and it generally means that there's less risk of airlocked pipework on the street.

sean_84

Sorry, I wasn't clear, I live in a 3 storey house, not an apartment. The pressure seems ok in the kitchen tap, and there's also a mains fed electric shower on the top floor that is working fine. But maybe there's still just not enough pressure and the attic tank is filling very slowly?

Solair

sean_84 wrote: »

Sorry, I wasn't clear, I live in a 3 storey house, not an apartment. The pressure seems ok in the kitchen tap, and there's also a mains fed electric shower on the top floor that is working fine. But maybe there's still just not enough pressure and the attic tank is filling very slowly?

Yeah that seems quite likely.

The water pressure at the top of the house from the tank will be lowest. You could also have a few airlocks which will hopefully bubble out.

I'd suggest waiting until the tank's full and then opening taps on each floor and flushing the system through.

It usually seems to get things moving!

The mains pressure and flow rate is still *very* low in some areas, so you'll just have to be patient until the system reaches its normal pressure again.

items

Heckler wrote: »

No joy yet Spindle. Everything working as normal just no hot water in the shower.

Thanks for the reply Items. The power light is coming on and there has been no electricity outage. I checked the fuse board in case it happened while I was out but everything is fine. I'd be doubtful the shower went bellyup the same time as all the water problems happened in Cork. I'd say they are related. I live in an apartment and have no access to tanks etc. I'll get on to the landlord to get a plumber out I guess.

@ Spindle. I'll let you know if I get it sorted and what the problem might be. If you sort yours in the meantime you might let me know.

Thanks again and any more suggestions welcome !

Its more than likely supply pressure related problems, if the shower fed from the mains water supply, I guess there is not a lot you can do until the supply returns to normal.

items

sean_84 wrote: »

The water in my house came back last night. Initially only the cold tap in the kitchen was working, but this morning I tried holding my hand over the kitchen tap and turning on hot and cold taps. So now the hot taps are working everywhere. Thanks for that advice

There's still some problems with the cold taps in bathrooms. I'm renting in a 3 storey house. In the 2nd (top) floor, the cold taps are not working at all, and the toilet cisterns aren't filling. On the 1st floor the taps are working in spurts, as if air is coming with the water. We have electric pumped showers (they don't heat water, just increase pressure). I thought these would be able to remove an airlock from the pipes, but it only works for a few seconds, and then the pressure drops and the pump makes an unhealthy sounding noise...

Also, I can hear running water in the attic all day, and also in the hot-press. There are three lever valves in the hot-press, and If I turn one of them, the water noise in the hot-press stops, and no cold taps work.

Any ideas? Thanks.

Possible cold water air lock

Well Sean, congrats on getting your hot water supply back. Your tanks may have emptied after the water went off, when you empty the tank you draw air into the pipe work. This could be your problem. Go back a few pages where you found out how to remove hot water air locks, look at the last two remedy's. You can use these for cold water. You have to open up the pipe work (further away from the tank) to release the air. I've wrote up how to do it on the hot pipe, just change the wording from hot to cold and it works the same (you'll have to find the cold pipe work from the tank).

Your shower is acting up because its not getting the appropriate cold water supply, the supply has to be continuous. Removing the possible air lock could fix this.

The sound in the hot press could be the sound of a mains water pipe supplying the attic tank, when you turn it off, the tank stops filling.

Find out which lever valve is your cold supply, it should go from ceiling to floor with not many connections, turn that valve off, disconnect it on the bottom, open the valve into a bucket until you have a good flow of water, connect it back onto the pipe work (cold air lock remedy in a nutshell).

items

sean_84 wrote: »

Sorry, I wasn't clear, I live in a 3 storey house, not an apartment. The pressure seems ok in the kitchen tap, and there's also a mains fed electric shower on the top floor that is working fine. But maybe there's still just not enough pressure and the attic tank is filling very slowly?

Good mains pressure, attic tank filling slow, possible blockage (ballcock)

If you have good mains pressure but your attic tank is filling slow, you might have some debris blocking the orifice (plastic piece red, white or black) inside the attic tank ballcock. Turn off your mains supply, take the ballcock apart (large brass nut on ballcock inside tank) turn the nut anti clockwise to separate the ballcock and reveal the internals. Take your time, their is some small pieces inside that might fall out (red fiber washer). Check the orifice for blockages, reassemble ballcock, tighten with float arm facing down and make sure its tight.

sean_84

Thanks items, you're very helpful.

I'll try remove a possible air-lock in the cold water system tomorrow. The hose method seems less likely to end in disaster, so I'll try to get a hose and try that first

I'm a bit confused about which lever valve I should turn off in the hot-press to remove a cold-water airlock.

One valve is on a warm pipe going behind the tank somewhere (maybe it's from the gas boiler?).
The second valve is on a pipe that comes out of the wall and into the bottom of the tank. It's slightly cold and I guess it's providing cold water into the cylinder from the attic tank.
The third pipe is colder, so I guess there's running water inside it. When I turn it off, I can hear much less water running in the hotpress, but still some in the attic. This pipe comes out of the wall, has a valve, then near the ground it goes horizontal and there's about 10 plastic pipes coming off it. This makes me think it's coming from the tank, to cold water taps around the house?

There's also a screw type valve on another warm pipe that goes behind the tank somewhere at the bottom, maybe it's from the boiler/radiators as well??

I don't see any pipe that I think might be supplying the attic tank, maybe it doesn't go through the hot press?

I'll have a look in the attic tomorrow as well to see if there's any valves up there.

Thanks again for the help.

items

sean_84 wrote: »

Thanks items, you're very helpful.

I'll try remove a possible air-lock in the cold water system tomorrow. The hose method seems less likely to end in disaster, so I'll try to get a hose and try that first

I'm a bit confused about which lever valve I should turn off in the hot-press to remove a cold-water airlock.

One valve is on a warm pipe going behind the tank somewhere (maybe it's from the gas boiler?).
The second valve is on a pipe that comes out of the wall and into the bottom of the tank. It's slightly cold and I guess it's providing cold water into the cylinder from the attic tank.
The third pipe is colder, so I guess there's running water inside it. When I turn it off, I can hear much less water running in the hotpress, but still some in the attic. This pipe comes out of the wall, has a valve, then near the ground it goes horizontal and there's about 10 plastic pipes coming off it. This makes me think it's coming from the tank, to cold water taps around the house?

There's also a screw type valve on another warm pipe that goes behind the tank somewhere at the bottom, maybe it's from the boiler/radiators as well??

I don't see any pipe that I think might be supplying the attic tank, maybe it doesn't go through the hot press?

I'll have a look in the attic tomorrow as well to see if there's any valves up there.

Thanks again for the help.

No bother, have a go with the hose and try to send the mains supply back up the cold water storage (taps and toilets).

1st valve sounds like some heating valve, maybe the option to turn off your rads during summer, or a balancing valve for the coil in the cylinder.

2nd valve sounds like cold feed to your hot water cylinder, pipe work after the valve connects into the cylinder (lowest point).

3rd pipe you mention with the valve could be the one, it might be leading to a manifold which supply's all your cold taps and toilets, then again it could be a heating manifold serving rads (normally two manifolds in this case).

4th valve you mention could be the actual balancing valve if you rule out the mention above, it should be on a pipe connecting to the cylinder (coil) at the bottom, this should only be opened just slightly.

Not sure what the sound is, its either heating sounds or mains water, filling toilets etc doesn't normally make that much of a sound.

It would be good to find out what all your valves are doing, you should already know, spent some time to find out tomorrow, after you find out, mark the wall or put a tag on the pipe. This is the best advice I can give from here.

Best of luck with everything.

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Spindle

Heckler - just wondering have you had any luck with your shower? We seemed to have decent enough pressure again this evening, tried it and no joy at all. Running cold fine but just won't heat.

Heckler

Hey Spindle,

Sent you a private message earlier bout it but sent it to the wrong person ! Pressure here (Douglas Road) is ok, not great, in kitchen and bathroom taps. Seems to have dropped in the shower a bit if anything. Still no sign of any hot water whatsoever

Let me know if anything changes for you and I'll do the same.

Regards,

heckler

kdfw

Vivara wrote: »

We have had water back for a day now, yet our electric shower won't produce water, just makes a loud electrical noise as if we're damaging something.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

I had the same problem with my 2 electric showers (Mira Elite 2) when the water came back on after the floods. I got them working again in a couple of minutes as follows....

(1) Unscrew the shower head from the hose part
(2) Set the shower to cold setting and flow setting to high
(3) Switch the shower on
(4) Suck as hard as possible on the hose (about 3 deep breaths was enough)
(5) Water started to come through the hose slowly and was back to normal flow after about 1 minute.

Hope this helps

Thanks
K

nizarol

Heckler wrote: »

Hey Spindle,

Sent you a private message earlier bout it but sent it to the wrong person ! Pressure here (Douglas Road) is ok, not great, in kitchen and bathroom taps. Seems to have dropped in the shower a bit if anything. Still no sign of any hot water whatsoever

Let me know if anything changes for you and I'll do the same.

Regards,

heckler

Afternoon,
Living on the Old Blackrock road, all mains fed (bungalow) have T80Si as well. Mains flow really low, would take a full day to fill the bath with cold water. Have hot water from the combi-boiler, would take a week to fill the bath. Have cold water from shower, mains light on etc but LOW PRESSURE indicator in the red. Just spoke with water dept and they said I need to wait for the water pressure in the supply to come back up. There "should" be improvements in supply over the next few days and all "should" be ok at weekend. Can only wait and hope it does return fully or I will be forced to forget their heroics of the last week and start giving out to them (as normal )

Heckler

nizarol wrote: »

Afternoon,
Living on the Old Blackrock road, all mains fed (bungalow) have T80Si as well. Mains flow really low, would take a full day to fill the bath with cold water. Have hot water from the combi-boiler, would take a week to fill the bath. Have cold water from shower, mains light on etc but LOW PRESSURE indicator in the red. Just spoke with water dept and they said I need to wait for the water pressure in the supply to come back up. There "should" be improvements in supply over the next few days and all "should" be ok at weekend. Can only wait and hope it does return fully or I will be forced to forget their heroics of the last week and start giving out to them (as normal )

Good to know. Thanks. Keep us up to date with any changes.

Spindle

We have lift off!! Water back now full pressure - just tried the shower and it heated up fine this time! I'm delighted, its been a long (and smelly) two weeks!

Heckler

Spindle wrote: »

We have lift off!! Water back now full pressure - just tried the shower and it heated up fine this time! I'm delighted, its been a long (and smelly) two weeks!

Good stuff. Just checked mine a half hour ago and all is well again thank god.

Owen

Thanks to the advice here, I've got my shower working, and my hot water running again, but I'm without cold water in the bathroom - and the same supply feeds the toilet. There's water there, but just a dribble. Is that being caused by something I can rectify? For the record, the water coming into the house is at decent pressure now in the cold tap in the kitchen.

nizarol

Heckler wrote: »

Good stuff. Just checked mine a half hour ago and all is well again thank god.

was on nights last night when I saw this post. Checked water at 08:00 when I got homw and woo hoo!!:D full pressure, shower too!!. Left it off until I got up a while ago and ran full into the bath, manky brown at first but running clear(er) now. Left loads in silt in the bottom of the bath. Will run it full tilt later before using shower.

Thanks for the advice here, great help.

Heckler

Thanks to all the plumbers (Items and others) and whathaveyou who helped out with their expertise and thanks to all those with problems who posted. Just so I knew I wasn't alone ! I know a lot of people in other parts of the country had it so much worse. I was getting pissed having no hot shower water for a week and a half whereas some of these other people will probably never move back into their houses again in the worst affected areas. I know its all relative but for me anyway it could have been so much worse.

items

PaintDoctor wrote: »

Thanks to the advice here, I've got my shower working, and my hot water running again, but I'm without cold water in the bathroom - and the same supply feeds the toilet. There's water there, but just a dribble. Is that being caused by something I can rectify? For the record, the water coming into the house is at decent pressure now in the cold tap in the kitchen.

Sorry about the delay, I had no internet for a while.

Are you getting a dribble at just one point, or your whole bathroom has a poor supply?

If its a dribble at a toilet or tap it could be a slight blockage, some debris might have come down from the tank, to clear out debris you are going to have to take apart some taps, or filling mechanism (toilet). Not sure if you are able for this?

Owen

items wrote: »

Are you getting a dribble at just one point, or your whole bathroom has a poor supply?

I'm listening to it now from the other room, toilet's been flushed, and it's as if 1/10th of the water is getting through. It's not just affecting the toilet though, it's both the toilet, and the bathroom cold tap - I assume they're fed from the same cistern.

All the rest of the water in the house is fine now. Definitely wouldn't be up for taking taps apart though

items

PaintDoctor wrote: »

I'm listening to it now from the other room, toilet's been flushed, and it's as if 1/10th of the water is getting through. It's not just affecting the toilet though, it's both the toilet, and the bathroom cold tap - I assume they're fed from the same cistern.

All the rest of the water in the house is fine now. Definitely wouldn't be up for taking taps apart though

I could be possible the bathroom you are talking about is being supplied separately from the attic tank. One of the posters here got cold taps running again buy using a hose connected to a mains supply to drive the air back up into the attic tank, out of the pipe work. If you have a hose lying around, give it a go, from kitchen sink tap to bathroom tap, might need two people, I'm sure you could manage it.

Owen

Thanks items, was able to take the shower head off, duct tape the shower hose to the cold tap to stop any water coming out, and turned on the shower to pump through warm water. The toilet and cold tap are perfect now, you're a gent!

items

PaintDoctor wrote: »

Thanks items, was able to take the shower head off, duct tape the shower hose to the cold tap to stop any water coming out, and turned on the shower to pump through warm water. The toilet and cold tap are perfect now, you're a gent!

Well done, you used some initiative, good idea with the shower hose.