Re: Kitchen Taps

[BigWallop]

My m8 just had new taps fitted to his kitchen sink during a new kitchen

installation in his flat. Everything

went well. But he's came across a problem. His hot water tank is in an

airing cupboard next to his kitchen.

The new taps, mixer variety, the spout goes in an arc, and the top of the

arc is approx 60mm higher than the

hot water tank. > > His cold water out the tap is great, but the hot water out the tap is

slow. I'm guessing the height of the

arc above the tank is the issue? Am I right? I seem to recall his

previous mixer was a lot lower.

Hi SantaUK,

It's not really a matter of the height of the hot water tank, but more a matter of the height of the cold water tank that feeds the hot tank. I've had pointed out to me many time in the group, that it is possible that the mixer tap is set to run at high pressure and that may be the most likely the cause. The only solution others have come up with, is to change the taps for a low pressure one.

Someone will probably confirm this for us.

[SantaUK]

Oh and another thing is that the bathroom is the opposite side of the airing cupboard and both bath and sink taps are perfect.

[BigWallop]

airing cupboard and both bath and sink

But the bath and basin taps are not normally set for use on high pressure. What happens to the sink tap, is that it isn't possible to tell which side of the mixer will be fitted to the cold mains drinking water, so both sides of the tap are set to take high pressure. If the hot water is not on or above, normally, 3 bar, then it runs very slowly.

If your pal has the manual or instruction booklet for the taps, then ask him / her to check and see if it is for a high pressure system.

[Christian McArdle]

Occasionally, taps can be converted by removing a flow restrictor on the inlet pipework. If there is one on the hot inlet, take it out! They often take the form of a plastic screw inserted into the pipe that seriously reduces the available bore.

The other possibility is that there is an airlock in the pipe to the tap. This frequently happens in gravity systems where there isn't the pressure and flow to blast air pockets out along the pipe. These can often be resolved by connecting the mains cold to the gravity hot for a short time to blast the air pocket back into the cylinder where it vents off. This is easily done at a mixer tap by sealing up the spout with some sort of rubber or squashy plastic pad held on with a tea towel and turning on both taps. Don't do it too long, or you'll water spouting out of the vent and overflowing the header tank.

Christian.

[Mike Ring]

"SantaUK" wrote in news:3f206f10$0$45184$ [e-mail]:

Not if your hovel is a bungerlow like what mine is

mike r

[kitchenman]

I have found the simplest way to clear an air lock it to take both hoses of the washing machine & connect 1,ONE hose to both outlets, 1 hot & 1 cold, then turn on the hot fully & slowly open the cold, if there is an air lock you will hear much grumbling from the cylinder, when the grumbling stops, then turn off the cold, then the hot, & try the hot tap over the sink. If it is a bit better but gets worse then repeat the above for a bit longer, could be your hot feed from the cylinder goes up for a while before it goes down to the kitchen, hence the air lock.

When I fitted kitchens I would always check the flow in front of the client BEFORE starting work, then if it was poor when I started they had no ground to complain if it was poor when I finished Otherwise they will always say it was OK before you started work

Good luck