Reduced flow in new bathroom basin tap All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[nickambrose]

We have recently had a new bathroom fitted. We had a new mixer tap fitted which initialy had a reduced flow from the two seperate taps that we had before. This has now reduced even further and both the hot and cold have reduced to a trickle. I assume the original reduction in flow was caused by the small diameter of the flexible connection pipes so could these be changed to larger dia pipes ? and why would the flow suddenly reduce even further. Could it be that we have since then had a new WHB and tap fitted in our en-suite room and caused an air lock ? The taps we are now using ar produced by Roca and called the Logica monoblock mixer. How can this problem be solved as the basin has become virtualy unusable.

[peter the plumber]

Under your taps can you make sure that the isolators are fully open?

10mm feeds are ok for taps, I know the ones you have and there ok.

The only thing I can think of is dirt in the pipe work that has jammed up the taps.

You should get the people back who installed your new bathroom and get them to fix it.

The taps are still under guarantee and the work should be free.

[bobplum]

get on to roca website and see if the taps are for high pressure systems and will it match your system
secondly could be dirt,enterd the system during the work
could be faulty taps?
can you take taps off and run water thru the piping and check the flow

[nickambrose]

I have checked the isolator valves and ensured that the flow is at maximum by turning them with the tap turned on until flow is at maximum. Unfortunately, I can't get the plumber back to check it as he has gone on holiday until the new year and I would like to fix it before Christmas.
I checked the Roca website and it doesn't say whether they are for high or low pressure systems.
I will try to remove the taps and see if they are functioning OK and check the flow through the supply pipes.

[marrtin]

I do not like to fit Monoblock mixers on low pressure systems for this very reason. I try not to use the flexible pipes and valves as they restrict the flow too much (I use copper). You don't say if this effects both hot and cold. Sometimes a check valve is fitted in the hot which can virtually stop the flow altogether, and become stiff over a period of time making things worse.

[nickambrose]

Yes, it effects both the hot and the cold flow. It also effected the bath tap when we had it fitted. Maybe it would be easier to pay to have the cold water tank raised in the loft. Do you think that raising the tank by about 3 feet would make much difference?