Do I Have An Air Lock Problem? All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[Roclive]

I've had to turn off the cold water stopcock in order to replace the loo ball valve/cock upstairs, but now can't get cold water from the upstairs bathroom sink, although the cold bath tap and kitchen cold tap downstairs are ok.
Is this an airlock problem perhaps?
Many thanks

[denolanz]

Hi, i also have a similar problem to the above in that our main tank ran dry (local authority cut water and kids have showers!) and now that the water supply is back to normal and the main tank is full again, i have cold water off the mains supplied cold water tap downstairs, but no water in the upstairs cold water taps. I don't think the feed pipe from the tank to the upstairs taps is frozen at any point (mild weather for last two/three days and water in tank is not too cold), but i do suspect a blockage of some sort. Am inclined to try poking from the tank down the main feed pipe as far as I can go and see if anything moves. Beyond that, I don't know...

Many thanks for any suggestions...

[Barry Bunsen]

Hi
If the cold taps in question are fed from the tank in the loft, the problem is probably an airlock in the pipework feeding the taps. This can usually be cleared by back feeding water into the spout of the tap - maybe with a hose for a short period of time. If the tank has run dry it is possible some solid crud is blocking the pipe but an airlock is the commonest - and cheapest - problem to solve. Hope it works.