Post here if your boiler has failed or your pipes have frozen!

judas101

Havetnt had water since this morning in Dublin 3.

Heating is working so thats something.

Loads of puddles about now so hopefully things will continue to melt through the night.

Luluk

judas101 wrote: »

Havetnt had water since this morning in Dublin 3.

Heating is working so thats something.

Loads of puddles about now so hopefully things will continue to melt through the night.

I'm having the same problem, also in Fairview. Called Dublin City Council and was told that they finished fixing problems in the area at 5 pm so it must be a problem with the plumbing in my house. I'm hoping the water will return tomorrow as the mains pipe thaws. It's a pain, though, as there is a mountain of dishes still waiting to get cleaned from the Christmas dinner.

mumtoe&e

No water in Baltinglass, Wicklow.. anyone else in this area having problems? I heard the council were out this morning trying to fix a problem with the mains, but I dont know if this is a rumour or whats going on

JMSE

Lost mainswater this morn, at the warm end of the cold snap. Spent a half hour pulling downpipes off the walls and diverting the water into big receptacles, hung the ballcocks up in the toilets to save tank water, now I fill the toilet cistern with buckets of rainwater from outside. Bring on metering, am all over it you green taxpayer squeezing ba$tards...

downwiththatsor

It may be a little late but i prevented the dreaded frozen service pipe this year by means of a solenoid valve with an integrated timer / duration of opening device, basically you can adjust the frequency and duration of the valve opening ( i connected it to the mains feed to the dishwasher and left it drain into the kitchen sink).
It just needs a mains water connection to the valve next to a drain and a 220v mains supply to supply the timer attached to the solenoid valve.
I set it to 45 min intervals of 6 sec duration which prevented any freeze, i turned it off last night at 9pm as it was 6c here and what do you know i had no water this morning which was cured by a kettle of hot water on the stop cock.
The cold in the ground froze the water in the pipe overnight when there was no use of water.
It is better than running a tap at low flow continuously overnight or when you are not home as it blasts a full flow jet of water for a short period of time at set intervals which prevents a freeze at the stopcock.
I bought the valve and timer at work and if i find one easily purchasable online or in a bricks and mortar store in ireland i will post here.
Think they are called an EDV valve but someone else might know or offer a suitable alternative?

mike65

The thaw has arrived for me, 5 days without water. I'll have a shower today :pac:

flutegirl

mike65 wrote: »

The thaw has arrived for me, 5 days without water. I'll have a shower today :pac:

Same here, was to nice to be woken up to the sound of the toilet filling up. Music to my ears

ednwireland

lucky gits - mine still frozen - though it did only feeze on christmas day 6.1 degrees up here so hopefully might get through by this evening or tomorrow

homolumo

mike65 wrote: »

The thaw has arrived for me, 5 days without water. I'll have a shower today :pac:

Came back for me too sometime during the night thankfully. It was starting to get at me to be honest, not easy with 2 kids; luckily we were off out the last 2 days. It is very easy to take somethings for granted.

ciaran67

homolumo wrote: »

Came back for me too sometime during the night thankfully. It was starting to get at me to be honest, not easy with 2 kids; luckily we were off out the last 2 days. It is very easy to take somethings for granted.

I think everyone should get a couple of days of no water. Really makes you realise how spoilt we are in the west. In this old house it takes a few litres a flush of the toilet. Im going to sort that out as soon as we get our water back.

YFlyer

Our cold water came back yesterday here in Cois Ghruda, Castletroy, Limerick. However, the hot water only comes out in small splurts and then stops after a half a minute.

The radiators are working fine, and the small amount of water from the hot tap is heated.

Any suggestions on how to fill up the hot water tank?

Would I close the drain valve near the bottom of the tank? I think that the drain valve is slightly open (I'm not at the house now).

Normally, is the drain valve kept fully closed?

Thanks

Ray

homolumo

YFlyer wrote: »

Our cold water came back yesterday here in Cois Ghruda, Castletroy, Limerick. However, the hot water only comes out in small splurts and then stops after a half a minute.

The radiators are working fine, and the small amount of water from the hot tap is heated.

Any suggestions on how to fill up the hot water tank?

Would I close the drain valve near the bottom of the tank? I think that the drain valve is slightly open (I'm not at the house now).

Normally, is the drain valve kept fully closed?

Thanks

Ray

Ray I don't have a solution but from what you say it sounds like you may have an airlock. Having said I think that usually an airlock would mean no water at all not spurts.

YFlyer

homolumo wrote: »

Ray I don't have a solution but from what you say it sounds like you may have an airlock. Having said I think that usually an airlock would mean no water at all not spurts.

Hi there thanks for the reply. Yes I noticed when I turned on the hot taps the watrer splurted out for a number of seconds and then stopped.

The cold water works perfect, upstairs and downstairs.

Any suggestions in moving the airlock? I did release some from the pressuse valve that is about 2/3 of the way up on the hotwater tank. Only small amount of air came out

ciaran67

YFlyer wrote: »

Any suggestions in moving the airlock? I did release some from the pressuse valve that is about 2/3 of the way up on the hotwater tank. Only small amount of air came out

Put 4 boiled brussel sprouts in and leave for 1 hour.


In the same boat regarding water, it sucks.

bmarley

Oliverdog wrote: »

It's quite unsettling to think of the gap between living normally and living like a pack of savages - I'd say about 10 degrees celsius ! :eek:

Too right and will certainly make a lot of us think about the things we have taken for granted.

Aldebaran

After a week of having no water, it finally returned this morning. Delighted! Here's hoping it lasts.

YFlyer

ciaran67 wrote: »

Put 4 boiled brussel sprouts in and leave for 1 hour.


In the same boat regarding water, it sucks.

Looks like there will be a gas problem then

drkpower

Anyone else having water outage in clontarf?

Water has been on all through the cold snap; the thaw arrives and now we have no water.....? Anyone on the same boat?

Or is it possible that the problem is my own pipes? Seems strange if my water has been fine all along?

homolumo

YFlyer wrote: »

Hi there thanks for the reply. Yes I noticed when I turned on the hot taps the watrer splurted out for a number of seconds and then stopped.

The cold water works perfect, upstairs and downstairs.

Any suggestions in moving the airlock? I did release some from the pressuse valve that is about 2/3 of the way up on the hotwater tank. Only small amount of air came out

It happened to me last year and I had to call a plumber. Luckily he was able to clear it but I am not sure how, I think he sucked on the bath hose to draw the air out but I could be way off the mark there.

downwiththatsor

One way to clear a hot water airlock is to use your kitchen tap if it is a combined hot / cold as most are.
With the hot tap full open put your palm over the spout to seal the tap i.e. not let any water out, and open the cold water tap to pressurise the hot water line, leave like this for 10-20 seconds then remove your pal and close the cold tap, repeat a few times. It might or might not work, it did for me today removing an airlock from my parents hot water system:D

Bruthal

downwiththatsor wrote: »

One way to clear a hot water airlock is to use your kitchen tap if it is a combined hot / cold as most are.
With the hot tap full open put your palm over the spout to seal the tap i.e. not let any water out, and open the cold water tap to pressurise the hot water line, leave like this for 10-20 seconds then remove your pal and close the cold tap, repeat a few times. It might or might not work, it did for me today removing an airlock from my parents hot water system:D

Yes it will work i used that a lot of times. I actually refilled my attic tank this way last week when mains to attic tank stopcock froze,

If its 2 seperate taps in kitchen then a piece of hose can be made up to go onto both for the same effect. Turn on the hot first, and then cold. Turn off cold first then hot when finished.

Now the mains into house is frozen the last few days.

soccerc

Awoken this morning at 5.30am to the sound of gurgling and spluttering water entering the attic tank.

After a whole 7 days without it was a relief to step into the shower later.

Hopefully no more trips into local town to visit the standpipe this winter.

Bruthal

I am still waiting for mains in to thaw. I have just now connected my outside water tap to nexd doors who still have water, using a hose. That will fill attic tank and give me mains water at kitchen sink for now,

Could be done connecting cold from one hose to cold of another at kitchen sinks also. At least can fill attic tank back up that way.

grey99

downwiththatsor wrote: »

One way to clear a hot water airlock is to use your kitchen tap if it is a combined hot / cold as most are.
With the hot tap full open put your palm over the spout to seal the tap i.e. not let any water out, and open the cold water tap to pressurise the hot water line, leave like this for 10-20 seconds then remove your pal and close the cold tap, repeat a few times. It might or might not work, it did for me today removing an airlock from my parents hot water system:D

We think we have an airlock in our house (none of the taps are working, except the kitchen cold tap) I tried doing this but nothing happened. Do you think I should try it a few times for it to work? The water went everywhere when I covered the tap. I don't think it was going back up the tap.

Any help anyone?

Bruthal

grey99 wrote: »

We think we have an airlock in our house (none of the taps are working, except the kitchen cold tap) I tried doing this but nothing happened. Do you think I should try it a few times for it to work? The water went everywhere when I covered the tap. I don't think it was going back up the tap.

Any help anyone?

You need a good seal on it and turn on hot first then cold, both after you have the tap sealed.

But before you do any of that, go look into the attic tank and see is it full or near empty. If full its probably air locks alright. If its empty then there may be a problem with the stopcock valve.

I done the blocking the kitchen mixer taps myself the other day, i got a coke bottle cap and taped it tightly over end of tap and filled attic tank using this method, because the main water feed to attic tank stopcock was frozen.

If your attic tank is empty then just blocking the kitchen tap method will force water into the tank, but it will take a while to fill it, and wont clear air locks because the tank is empty.

At this stage i would not think the attic pipes are frozen, but the first thing to do is check the water level in that tank now and report back.

Bruthal

MikeySligo wrote: »

Are we still talking about plumbing?

Yea its all plumbing

Bruthal

Originally Posted by para45
Due to all preventative measures taken Thank God no problems ... ball and cock was frozen.... as it was being used and the ball and cock was doing its job

lomb wrote: »

I think its a ball cock not a ball and cock;)

I wish my ball and cock would do its job, the water works are completely out of order:D

Galway

how long is it taking to thaw from a frozen pipe out in the road??

morgana

Our underground pipes were frozen and thaw happened about 3 hours ago

BostonB

I would have thought all pipes would have thawed by now...