Water flow problem from tank

wildrover444

hi. living in limerick.had no water for a couple of days during to the cold weather. it came back sunday night. water is running fine in kitchen tap and pressure seems fine. but ever since it came back when i check all the taps that are fed by the tank they run for bout ten seconds on full blast and then slows down to a drip. checked tank and its full. no ice round it.water is coming from ballcock when i push down on it.the tank had been practically empty when water came back and filled up ok. if anyone could shed some light on this it would be appreciated.

Xcellor

Weird..... Usually airlocks stop water coming out period... You could try overfilling your tank (to increase the pressure). If there are any weird airlocks due to the layout of your pipes this may clear it... Just hold the ball cock down until your water has reached the overflow.

ART6

Or use the conventional dodge to get rid of any airlocks or blockages -- connect the cold tap in the kitchen to the hot tap. Open the latter and crack open the cold tap, then go into the attic and put your thumb over the vent pipe over the tank. That will use mains pressure to push any air or muck back into the tank. If you have a mixer tap in the kitchen then stick a plastic bottle over the end and continue as above.

wildrover444

that sounds like a good idea.i have a mixer tap. trying to find something to put over tap cos when i use a bottle it just spurts back in my face .cold water pressure too strong. don't really have anything to wrap round tap. will keep looking though.just tried pushing the ballcock down in tank and let the water increase. don't think that worked although maybe it needs a bit of time.cheers.

stephenmarr

get a friend to go into the attic and you just hold onto the tap open the hot first then open the mains. should work cleared my friends place like this.

mfceiling

Jumping in on this one lads....

Hot taps upstairs are airlocked...they run for a couple of seconds then trickle to nothing.

Tried connecting them with the short piece of pipe....this makes it work ok for about 10-12 seconds then it's back to a trickle.

Went into attic and above my water tank i have another smaller tank (overflow?)

On my water tank i have a feed at the bottom for electric shower and one for hot water cylinder.

At the top of the tank (above ballcock) is a hole connected to a pipe (obviously overflow)

Just wondering what the "vent" pipe is that is mentioned...i've tried holding my thumb over the overflow hole but same result.

Is it time to get a plumber in?

wildrover444

yeah i tried blocking the tap and turning it on but it didnt clear the pipes unfortunately . increasing the water in the tank by pressing down on ballcock didnt work either. although when i feel the pipes coming out of the tank the feel ice cold,maybe there slightly frozen,probably not though. i will have to come up with another plan,cheers.

stephenmarr

did your tank empty when your mains froze (as you had no feed to the water tank)
if it did empty it could have drawn debris into the pipework

try the tap trick again but this time open a hot tap somewhere else in the house ie toilet etc let it run for a while. do this for all hot taps in the house it could clear blockages.