No Water/Low Pressure Problems 26th December

Spindle

Is there anybody else in the Ballinlough/Douglas area that has any issues with water supply today. We had low pressure this morning and are now without water. All during the cold spell we had no issues but now the thaw has come we are having issues.

Just wondering if anyone knew if there were any brust mains?

Second year in a row that we can't have showers!

Owen

We'd no problems even in the coldest weather, and today we've a dribble from the mains. Apparently the City announced rationing on the radio to help them repair some mains in the Ballinlough/Douglas area, but as always, they assume that just using one form of media to communicate is enough.

I don't listen to the radio, or buy papers. Is it too much to ask that the City update their Website news section, or setup a Blog/Twitter/FB page?

Papa_Lazarou

Yeah they said on the radio earlier that there was two major bursts in the southside and that the water might be turned off/turned down while they are repaired.

Faith

I'm in Blackrock and we've had no water since this morning.

Spindle

Great it would have be nice of them to inform us with an update on there website, but I suppose there would be to much red tape to get the person in to update the website on a holiday!

I did ring the emergency number alright which gets diverted to the Fire station but all they can do is pass my information on to the council, they were as helpful as they could be, and took my query more seriously than when I contact the water department directly in the past (usual response is along the lines of what can we do about it). They said there was a busrt main on the Skehard road.

gbee

Mahon:

Water is seemingly back on, it was off this am.

[btw; we never lost water in the last week or so, but direct neighbours did].

Owen

Pressure's slowly returning now by the Silver Key, not up to much yet, but it's better than the dribble this morning. Still have 40 litres of water in a container if anyone's really stuck.

Spindle

Just listening to 96FM there and they said the council was going to be turning off or reducing supply in areas from 8pm tonight till 6am tomorrow. Well if they are going to be reducing the pressure then that dribble we have back now will be gone come 8pm.

rccaulfield

Just gone now in Blackpool, low pressure all day, its been fine all thru this cold spell!

Owen

And boom, pressure's gone again. I'll retract my offer of water again

parsi

Too late - I'm on the way...

aidan_walsh

https://twitter.com/lauramcgonigle/status/19058292999327744

“Contact from City Hall, multiple burst over the City. Water being restricted for at least the next two evenings. Supply off from 8pm-6am”

Owen

Cue the onslaught of airlocked pipes at home when the water's turned on. If you end up with airlocked pipes, this is what I do to sort it on my home system. It may/may not work for you, but hopefully will end up saving you calling the plumber.

When the water's back on, you'll have your cold tap in the Kitchen (Mains supply coming into the house) running fine, but your bathroom cold, bathroom hot, and kitchen hot will need purging of air, and your shower will probably be blocked too.

Hot system
If you have a mixer tap (Cold and warm coming out of the same spout) in the kitchen, life's simples for you. Cover the outlet of the tap with your palm, and keep it pressed hard to stop any water getting out. Turn the cold on full, and the hot on full. The water coming from the cold will have no other route to take except up through the hot system and into the hot tank. You're forcing the water through that system, and it should push the air out while it's at it. Do it for about 20 seconds, turn both taps off, then try the hot again and see if you have water flowing. If you don't, repeat until you do. This should also free up the warm water in your bathroom, so go check that while you're at it. The bathroom may gurgle for a minute, but water should eventually trickle through.

If you don't have a mixer tap, you'll need a short length of garden hose to run between your kitchen cold and hot system and some cable ties to hold them in place and prevent water squirting everywhere.

Shower
If it's a pumped shower, you're in luck. Provided the kitchen cold is sufficiently pressured with good flow, turning on the shower for about 10 seconds should suck the air through and then water. It'll make some horrible noises for those 10 seconds, but after that you should be in business. Make sure it's on the coldest setting with the pump on full.

If it's non-pumped, set it to the coldest, remove the shower head, turn it on full, and suck the water through with your mouth. It's not pretty, but it works.

Cold Bathroom Tap & Toilet
The only way to clear the air blockage here is again to force water through it. You can do it one of two ways, either using the hot bathroom tap and a hose running between the two, or preferrably using the shower. I normally take the shower head off, put the hose up against the cold tap spout and duct tape the hell out of them to hold them tight together. Then I open the cold tap up completly, and turn the shower on full at the coldest setting for about 5-10 seconds. You should hear the toilet start to fill, and the tank in the attic start to burble. If it doesn't work straight away, try again.

This is my advice only. If you break your house, you get to keep both halves, I ain't responsible, neither is Boards.ie.

aidan_walsh

aidan_walsh wrote: »

https://twitter.com/lauramcgonigle/status/19058292999327744

Areas of high pessure loss will have the water switched off, the rest of the city will have service as usual.

http://lauramcgonigle.ie/2010/12/water-restrictions-cork-city/

ABajaninCork

We had no water yesterday, but it came back on this morning. Great!! So did the rest of the washing-up, done the washing and started dinner.

Now, we have no water at all, but reckon there might be enough in the tank to do the washing-up after dinner. There's no water at all Northside.

I've read the replies and checked 96fm, but no mention of the Northside. Clearly, the water restrictions don't apply as we've already lost the supply. Does anyone have any further info?

TIA:)

pow wow

No water at all yesterday or today (Glasheen). Very grateful for awesome friends and 50L barrels today! :cool:

bladebrew

i just ran the tap to get a glass of water and it came out fecking brown, with loads of bits floating it, i let it flow for a while and it went back to normal, and its still working at normal pressure,
in blackrock area by the way,

discostu1

Hi I live in the Kenley/Bishopstown area. Last year due to the big freeze had no water for about 5 days. Anyway this year as we are due to have an elderly relative staying had a complete new set of pipes installed from the stop Cock to the house, and had them heavily insulated. I also put on a stop cock cosy as an additional layer of insulation. To cut a long story very short all was good until the night of the 22/23/12 which was particularly cold. Checked supply at midnight all good woke up following day no water. Rang the builder and murdered him, he came out dug up the stop cock and showed me that the pipe coming IN to the stopcock i.e the Corpo line was had no water in it. He assumes that it is frozen further back. Rang Corpo got them to talk to the builder ( I am non technical) I then spoke to the Corpo and asked what are you doing about it. Basically nothing we have major faults etc and in fairness I didnt expect a bunch of work men appearing at my door that day. But when I pursued the matter saying that the stopcock was like an ESB meter everything beyond the stopcock was my problem but everything on their side was their issue and just as I would expect ESB or bord gais to fix their side surely the Corpo should fixe their in the New Year. The guy said well sort of in theory but if we fixed you we would have to fix the 1000s of other customers like you around the city. I still have no water and with the supply being turned off tonight I dont know what to do. I did "suggest" that MAYBE I would need to talk to their legal dept and was told yes but going the legal route could take years and be expensive.
So 2 questions.
Any ideay how long the thaw may take to get us frozen people back and
can I force the Corpo to insulate their side of the stopcock. My neighbour is also without supply so maybe a couple of us could put pressure. I am assuming this means opening the road. Any advise appreciated

Faith

Still no water here. Anyone else in blackrock with thesame problem?

Owen

Same here Faith.

leahyl

Have had no water here in the mayfield/silversprings area all morning but just tried it there now and it's beginning to sputter out again - pressure is all over the place. Hope it comes back soon - I want a shower!!

Steba

5 day drought has ended for my house anyway!
The sound of running water is glorious!

ABajaninCork

Think it might be coming through in Ballyvolane.

We can hear water coming through the tank, and the tap's sputtering, so might be another hour or so before we get running water - Hopefully!

wispyman

Water has gone in Midleton now

Primebeef

Gone at Knockgriffin cottages since 24th
Any website to check whats going on with Midleton ?

Faith

Still no sign of water here. I really need a shower ffs.

Primebeef

Primebeef wrote: »

Gone at Knockgriffin cottages since 24th
Any website to check whats going on with Midleton ?

Water back at my place \o/

Owen

No water here in Blackrock either, worse than yesterday. I'm off to the Mother's house for a shower.

On the upshot, I got a letter from a little African boy in Malawi this morning. He says he's adopted me for 2 pebbles a month, he'll get photos of me, regular updates, and he'll provide my village with clean drinking water.

ABajaninCork

Found an update on the City Council website, together with a map showing the water restrictions which will be in place tonight and tomorrow (29th) from 1900-1000hrs.

http://www.corkcity.ie/news/mainbody,36083,en.html

http://www.corkcity.ie/news/AREAS_WITHOUT_WATER_FROM_28-12-2010.pdf

Although the map isn't too clear, looks as though most of the Northside will be under restriction, as well as the area around Tower St, and one other place I can't make out despite blowing up the map to 200%. Might be Ballinlough, but don't quote me!;)

Owen

Yup, that's Ballinlough.

Faith

It's the boreenmanna road region. Our water came back this afternoon, thankfully.