no hot water to the taps!!! All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[cameronloggenberg]

Hi,

If someone could please help that would be great. In our home we have a gas boiler for the radiators and have an imersion heater for the hot water for the taps. I recently changed the bath in our on suite and had to turn the mains water off because the house builders didnt put any isolation valves anywhere near the bath.

I then ran the hot taps in the house to drain off the hot water left in the tank. changed the bath and everything seemed hunky dorry.

Turned everything back on and cold water ran freely but hot water is not hot. the switch is on. the pipes around the immersion heateer are red hot but still not hot water out of the taps.

i turned the shut off valves on and off near the immersion heater but still no luck. i did accidentally knock a white box which was connected to one of the pipes before changing the bath as i tried to stop the hot water coming out of the taps so i didn't have to drain it completely.

anyway, my wife and kids are no suffering cause we have no hot water to bath or shower with.

any help would be appreciated.

cameron

[nitro23456]

Is your hot water heated from the boiler as well as an electric immersion? or is it electric immersion only? or is it boiler only? I presume not a combi?

It sounds like you have turned off the mains and drained the cylinder and header tank. When you turn it back on the water does need time to heat up again..... if it is heated by the boiler only, the boiler would need to run for an hour or so to give a decent supply. likewise a n elctric element would need time to.

I wonder whether in the mean time, when you fiddled near the cylinder you turned a red gate valve off and sheared it closed (happens all the time) so it wont reopen properly, thus not allowing water back into the cylinder via the bottom to heat up? - in this case you woudnt have ANY water out of the hot tap (not just COLD water out of the hot).

So if you dont have any water at all out of the hot, make sure everything is filled up properly including the loft header tank as no water=no water.

If you are getting cold out of the hot, the white box you knocked sounds like a 3port valve.... do you have one of these boxes in the airing cupboard or two? If one, you could try flicking the switch on it to the middle position (which diverts the boiler to both CH and HW and give it an hour)....... it should switch by itself automatically by an actuator according tho where heat is required, so if this solves the problem you will need to replace the actuator long term.... at least this will get you going for the time being.

If you are still stuck post back with some more info after trying the above.

I always find the summer is the best time for this sort of workl!!!

[Dave From Leeds]

Could be as simple as an airlock in your hot water system. If you have separate hot and cold taps on your kitchen sink, connect a hose across the two taps then turn on the hot tap followed by the cold. This should push any air back out of the hot water system up to the cold water storage tank. If your sink has a mixer tap, cover the outlet of it with your thumb and turn on the hot tap followed by the cold.

[cameronloggenberg]

hi,

it is the immersion heater that does the hot water taps and a gas boiler for the central heating. they are completely seperate and not linked. there is water coming out of the hot taps but it is luke warm. the tank has had a whole weekend to warm up and still not hot enough. any ideas?

how easy is it to replace the actuator?

[cameronloggenberg]

if i just simply knocked the actuator could it be fixed by taking it off and securing it back onto the pipe?

[nitro23456]

If your hot water cylinder is nothing to do with your CH system you will not have an actuator or three port valve. Have you got one or not?

How many pipes do you have coming directly out of the cylinder? If you have one entering the bottom (from the loft tank) and one at the top (water outlet) AND two on one side (CH primaries), your CH does actually indirectly heat your hot water. (see projects section)

If it is purely an electric immersion then the problem must lie with that. If you had it on when the tank was drained, the element may have burned out. Check the element and element thermostat (should be at 60 degrees) and wiring for scorches. (turn electricity off).

If you have the indirect system described above, both of the side pipes should both be hot (the top of the two side pipes slightly hotter).

If the bottom of the two is cold you have some how airlocked the coil.
If the they are both cold and any cylinder thermostat is turned up (if you have one) it is indeed likely to be the three port valve/actuator..... see previous post.

I presume your heating is OK?