New bathroom suite - now taps barely a trickle All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[stevep]

Hi, Need some advide Please,

Recently had new bathroom suite installed. With the old suite the water from the taps in both bath and sink was fine. took about 5 mins to fill bath.

Now, with new suite the water flow is painfully slow. takes 30 mins to fill bath. New suite has mixer tap whereas old had separate hot and cold and as the taps are in new position there was some minor change to pipework.

So, question is, why the change in water flow from taps and what can i do to increase it?

Thanks,

Steve

[johnb]

hi steve is basin affected as well. have you fitted inline valves to supply.what minor pipe alterations have you made exactly all the best john

[stevep]

Hi John,

Yes basin is affected. Bath is more stressful as it takes too long to fill whereas basin still fills quickly even with less flow.

I believe inline valves were fitted. Plumber used copper piping to extend supply pipes to new bath taps that are now in a different position (ie on old bath they were at the end, on new bath they are in centre). Copper was used as plumber doesn't like plastic joints. The extended pipework is only about a metre or so. I would imagine the issue is with the tap fittings but as I'm not a plumber (as you've probably gathered by now) I can't be certain.

The plumber suggested that the new suite was designed for "continental" bathrooms which apparently have lower water flow!! He also suggested only solution was to fit a pump which worked on pressure switch and would automatically activate when the bath taps were turned on.

We have a downstairs cloakroom that is fed by same supply and water flow is still fine there. Only have problem in new bathroom upstairs.

Thanks for responding and any assistance/advice you can offer.

cheers,

Steve

[paul g]

Could have an' air lock' in pipes.Connect a length of hosepipie to the cold tap on sink downstairs to your upstairs basin hot and cold taps and turn on the cold tap on your downstairs sink.

[johnb]

hi steve is the cold on the main or from tank in roof all the best john

[stevep]

John,

Cold in both upstairs and downstairs bathrooms is from tank in loft.

Cheers

[Alan W]

Hi all,

I might have a similar problem. I replaced the upstairs bath and sink with new ones in the same position and now it takes the bath at least twice as long to fill. Both the old and new bath had mixer taps. I disconnected the old bath at the isolation valves and connected the new one with the same copper tubing, so there is no extra pipework. The system is fed from a tank in the loft.

I don't want to trail a hosepipe through the house as I would never hear the end of it from the missus! So I am interested to know if there are any other possible causes before trying to blow out an air lock.

Thanks
Alan

[DONFRAMAC]

Modern mixer taps are quite different from old ones. Modern regulations require the hot and cold flows to be kept separate right up to the tip of the spout. Effectively they are siamesed pipes, disguised as one.
So, they are 2 small-bore pipes, and are clearly a flow restriction.
One way to improve flow is to raise the header-tank to give more head of pressure, and another is to minimize the length of 15 mm supply pipes ;--- uprate to 22 mm, right up to the mixers, before stepping-down in size. (ps-- drinking water should come off the rising-main.)