Fixing a blocked water pipe caused by trapped air
It's very frustrating to open your taps and not get any water out of it. Now unless it's the draught season and the water authority board has decided to cut off water supply at specific times during the day, there must definitely be a problem with your water system. In most cases, if water is not coming out of your taps, it's because of an airlock. It happens when an air bubble gets trapped inside your water pipes and then creates a blockage, preventing water from flowing properly in your water system.
You can try some DIY tricks to fix the airlock in your house.
Solution 1
Step 1: Attach a hosepipe to the affected tap (tap where you're not getting any water) and attach the other end to another tap which is working fine (use a tap where there is direct feed from the mains water).
Step 2: Open both taps to allow the pressure from the working tap to force the air back out of the pipes. Leave to run for a few minutes.
Step 3: Turn off the air locked tap first and then the other one.
You may need to repeat this procedure a few times to get rid of the air lock.
Solution 2
If that doesn't solve the problem, then you can try to drain the water system down. You will need to turn off the water feed to your house. Locate the stopcock and turn it off. Then open all taps until all water has been drained down. After that, you need to open each tap only a little bit, let the water flow for a bit, then turn it a little bit more. Keep on opening each tap a little bit more until they are all fully open.
Solution 3
If you're still having problems with the airlock, then you can hire an air compressor to force the air bubble out. After plugging in the air pump, you need to put its hose to the affected tap and let air push the water back to your cold water tank. You will hear bubbles at the water tank to let you know that everything is being pushed back. After 5 minutes, you can disconnect the hose from the air compressor and you should see water flowing back from the tap.
Solution 4
As a last resort and if everything else above does not work, then you will need to call in a plumber. It can cost you on average £90 for a plumber to fix your air lock, so try the above methods before you call one.
37 Replies
No water upstairs when downstairs is on
We have a CL125 megaflow installed on the ground floor of a 3-storey house. If we use the shower on the third floor, the pressure is very good. However if someone uses the water on the ground or 2nd floor (whether it be flushing the toilets, washing machine, sink etc), the water flow stops on the third floor. Likewise water will reduce or stop on the 2nd and 3rd floor if someone is using water from the ground floor, and similarly, there will be good pressure on the 2nd floor if no one is using any on the ground floor. Our cold water throughout the house is drinking water (which presumably is coming straight from the mains) Is there anyone that can help?
The megaflow is probably losing the air gap so it might need a recharge. You will find instructions on the side telling you how this is done. Usually this should do the trick:
- Turn off the water to the megaflow system
- Open any hot water tap
- Turn the relief valve clockwise to open it
- Close the relief valve when the gurgling sound stops
You might need to do that a couple of times a year though.
High water pressure from the mains shared by other houses
techinically who is responsible if the water pressure is too great coming from the mains shared by other houses, my house is the end of terrace we have turned the mains off from outside and did what was suggested but we are getting such pressure the water continues to flow even though the tap is off and i dont mean dripping cos then id know it was the tap someone help , meanwhile i have a airlock in my hot water tap
Does that happen with all the taps in your house. Seems a bit strange that the water keeps flowing if you have turned off the main. If you leave it for 10 mins, do you still get water flowing out even with the mains closed? Just checking to see whether this is not caused by the tap draining the existing water from the pipes.
How do I get hot water from my tap again?
My bath mixer tap will only let out hot water if you get it into exactly the right position to the mm, any ideas why its suddenly started doing this?
The rubber tap washer might need replacing. It's usually easy to dismantle a tap to access the washer, so try to see if you can do that and buy another one from B&Q/Homebase and see if that helps.
I have fitted new hot and cold taps in the bathroom (i have 2) and cannot get any water flowing. I had to turn off the supply in the loft by the 2 pipes coming from the main tank marked hot and cold. This was ok until I turned them back on. I cannot get a supply to both bathrooms, the shower or toilet so by replacing 2 taps I have lost supply to most of the house.
airlock in pipes running from a shower pump
I have just fitted a new shower pump (everything was fine until the pump went, no problems to report) more or less the same pump as before. Now I have a continous air lock in the out let supply pipes to the shower/taps in my loft bathroom, so the pump is not detecting demand for water. There is more than enough supply pressure of 1 ltr/min going in. No matter how I configure the outlet pipes to minimise on 90 degree bends, I cant seem to get rid of the airlocks. The pump works fine as you can trick it by placing a magnet in front of the flow sensor switch to make it it think there is a demand for water. Any other tips?
Have you checked there's no loose fittings in the pump? Many times that's where the problem comes from.
Once you've done that, take off the shower head in your loft's bathroom, turn on the cold water and suck on the hose to get rid of any air lock.
See if that works.
How to clear an airlock in a cold water mains feed
Having drained the hot and cold water system and replaced the taps in the ground floor sink unit, turned on the stop cock, I have hot and cold water from all taps in the 3 storey house EXCEPT no cold water in the ground floor shower mixer valve. Any suggestions to cure this please?
Hot water feed to my shower makes a loud whistling noise to it
Hi when the hot water feed is on in shower it makes a whistling noise which we can heat thru the house.Sometimes the hot hot flow completely stops so then only cold water comes thru!!! We just recently changed the shower for a new one thinking it was the old one making this happen. Help!!
No cold water at all
We have a private water supply, the farmer 'ploughed' our water pipe!! He has replaced the pipe, water now enters the house, both hot & cold tanks have filled. However we are getting no cold water through any taps or cisterns, hot is fine through everything. Could this be an airlock? How can I solve this? we obviously only have a gravity fed system, and before anyone asks... YES I have checked EVERY stopcock/gate valve, I only turned one off, but I have checked them all
Sorted it (mostly) using a tip from elsewhere on here, blocked the mixer tap, had cold on then opened the hot forcing hot back through the cold pipes, after a minute or so the cold started running.
Just 2 taps and 2 toilets left to fix
overhead shower airblock
There's an intermittent problem with the overhead shower in the main bathroom. Sometimes there is no water until the shower in the ensuite bathroom has run for a few seconds, then it's fine. Sometimes it just works normally, but maybe four or five times a week we have to turn one on before using the other.
Thank you great help tap now not banging ;-) who needs a man wen you can do it yourself lol thanks again helped a lot cheers xxxx
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