Combination Cylinder Hot water from kitchen mixer poor flow.

[armyash]

Hi guys,

Went to have a look at a job at the end of today. 3rd floor flat with ac combination cylinder in the airing cupboard. One of the other guys went there last week sometime and changed the Immersion and the tenant has since said that the flow rate on the hot from the Kitchen mix tap is not very good. With the WHB and bath hot taps running the kitchen hot is non existent. The Bath and WHB running are fine either together or individually.

The cylinder fills as it should - maybe a bit slow.

The guy who changed the Immersion turned the stopcock off to the cylinder and said he had trouble re-opening it but then he said he did manage to. I have a feeling that he didn't and it's only half open as I could not use it to turn the water off to the cylinder tonight. If this partially closed stopcock is causing a restriction and slowing the water filling the cylinder could this cause a problem to only one of the hot taps (kitchen obviously). Surely if this stopcock was the problem it would affect all the HW outlets.

I phoned my boss before I left and as it was the end of the day it wouldn't have been wise to get myself in to a position where there could be a disaster and told him what was happening and he said we'll have to go back and investigate.

I had another play around to see what I could find. I did come very close to snatching the stopcock and replacing it but after speaking to my boss he doesn't think that is the problem.

As the other HW outlets seem ok (no iso's anywhere either btw!!) I said i think it could possibly be the tap itself that is faulty.

Hope that is all clear and if you have any suggestions to what I could check next time that would be handy. Please ask for info if you think I have missed something.

Thanks.

 

[Killy Bing]

Hmm, shove the wet hoover on the kitchen tap?

Could have just disturbed scale?

does the tap have a filter on the outlet?

 

[armyash]

Thanks, Yeah i did try that with the hoover. I think there was a filter. The cold runs fine out the same mixer. Was thinking the tap valve on the hot side could be faulty. It's a strange one.

 

[BLOD]

If it's kitchen mixer designed for high pressure systems being fed from a combi cylinder it could have had very poor flow from the hot side anyway

 

[IDCHAPPY]

Very similar thing happened to me with them cylinders, they are a pile of shyte. It must be airlocked or restricted in some way

 

[Reg Man]

Blocked tap inlet in the kitchen, if all the other draw offs are satisfactory.

 

[armyash]

If it's kitchen mixer designed for high pressure systems being fed from a combi cylinder it could have had very poor flow from the hot side anyway

That was the first thing I thought before I went to the job after my workmate told me about it, but as it's a rented property I doubt i'll know for certain as tenants don't tend to tell the whole story.

Other than that, counting out a restriction in the very short piece of pipework from the bathroom to the kitchen hot I would say blocked tap inlet as Reg Man said.

And if it's not that it could possibly be a incorrectly installed cylinder etc. This problem may have been there for years.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[stevetheplumber]

if the tank on top of the cylinder is full and you've got problems its not the inlet valve causing the problems if the tank is emptying when you draw of it the inlet thats the problem
ive had loads of these where a little bit of crud in the ballvalve seat makes the difference between working and not