No Water after washing machine has been on All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[Jayne]

If the washine machine has been on then no water comes through the hot tap until the tank has begun to fill again (this is also by a drip into the tank) sometimes the washing machine also has to stop mid cycle as there seems to be no water going into it because the tank is empty. Any ideas as it is taking forever to finish a wash?

[nitro23456]

how do you know its only by a drip into the tank?

If this actually is the case it is likely that one of the valves isnt fully open on the cold feed pipe that goes into the bottom of your cylinder from the cold water tank above in the loft. This may be a 'red tap' gate valve that has seized or an inline service valve that looks like a flat headed screw.

Have you had the hot water off recently for any reason which may have not been turned back on properly?

Are you sure your washing machine has both hot and cold feeds? Most modern ones only have a cold mains that the machine actually heats to temperature.

You say you turn on your hot taps and get no water? do you mean no hot water (ie it is cold)? or no water at all?

[Jayne]

hi the problem is when the hot water tank has been emptied the tank fills back up with a drip, even when the heating is on full blast .i have oppend all the valves arround the hot and cold tanks still no joy.
(this is not a combi boiler system and is quite old)
the washing machine has hot and cold feeds thanks again.

[nitro23456]

if it were a combi boiler you wouldnt have a hot water cylinder.

At no point should the cylinder actually be empty. As hot water is used out of the top of the tank it should be immediately replaced with cold water from the cold water tank in the loft into the bottom of the cylinder. It is this replacement that 'pushs' the hot water out the top of the cylinder.

The heating wont physically effect how quickly the cylinder fills back up with water, but how quickly the water in the cylinder is heated if you have an indirect sylinder as the the central heating system hot water passes through the cylinder coil.

If the water actually physically stops coming out of the taps (as opposed to just turning cold) I wonder if you have an air lock somewhere. I would suggest a trip up to the loft is in order to see if your cold tank is filling properly in the first instance

If it is you can rule out the possibility that your water is stopping because the tank isnt supplying your cylinder with water because the tank isnt filling quickly enough to supply water to the cylinder at the demanded rate and thus focus more on the possibility that the problem lies between the loft tank and the bottom of the cylinder or between the top of the cylinder and the taps.

Also it is worth noting that just because the valves appear open they may actually be seized. In particular gate valves are notorious for this (the big red tap in your airing cupboard) - they still turn but arent actually doing anything.

[muttley]

more than likely,youve got a partially blocked ballvalve in your header tank