slow hot water tap

[keith]

Please can someone tell me what to try first: The hot tap that fills the bath is suddenly taking ages to fill the bath. Water coming out about half what it did before.

Is this likely to be a washer to change or an airlock or something else - what should I do first?

info:

-10 year old house, modern hotwater/central heating

-Other hot taps in house are OK (although I can't be sure as we don't turn these on as much as the bath!)

-Wife reported a load gurgling when she turned the hot tap on

-Bath taps are mixer types

-I haven't learnt to do a tap washer yet...

Thanks

[Owain]

My guess is the hot tap washer is stuck on its seating. What usually happens is that the O-ring seals in the spiral mechanism fail due to scale abrasion, letting water into the spiral. This causes the taps to become difficult to turn on or off, increases wear in the spiral, and may cause either leakage at the spindle at the top, or the tap will not open at all.

If you go to

and search for "tap reviver" you will get what you need - replacement innards. You can usually re-use the old handles if you want them to match.

You need to turn off the hot water (or mains cold, if you have a combi) first. Take knob off tap. Remove tap innards with big spanner, holding tap body steady with other big spanner, replace new tap innards, bask in wifely admiration.

The following are instructions for changing the washer, but show the inside of a tap clearly.

you want to get a plumber in, it should not take him more than 20 minutes (provided he has a tap reviver kit on the van) and that includes him drinking his coffee.

Owain

[keith]

Thanks, will take a look and see if it's OK for me to do. I'll look under the bath for a valve to turn off the supply to the hot tap. If I can't find it should there be one near the hot water cylinder?