"Dan Winchester" wrote in message
...
Hi,

Two of the three hot water taps in my house splutter then die then come
back
into like again in a continuous cycle within a few tens of seconds of
running them.

I have tried blasting cold water through the hot tap using a hose, and
this
relieved the problem for a few minutes, but then it returned.

The header tank has enough water in it to feed the cylinder throughout.

Could air be getting into the pipes somehow?

A bit about the system:

I have a hot water cyclinder on the first floor with a header tank
directly
above it - the two are combined as a single unit.

There is loads of scale in the header tank, but the pipe that connects the
two appears clear.

A 15mm pipe from the cyclinder runs to the ground floor where it supplies
three taps and a washing machine.

The kitchen sink tap is supplied via a narrower guage pipe (15mm), and
works ok, although the flow is quite puny.

The bathroom sink tap is a 15mm tap and has the problem - this tap is
supplied via a rise in pipework of 2 - 3 feet.

The bath tap is a 22mm tap and also has the problem - this tap is supplied
via a rise in pipework of about 1 1/2 feet.

I haven't checked whether the washing machine point has the problem or
not.

When the affected taps are opened part way, this does eliminent the
problem
but the flow is unsatisfactory.

I have had the problem since moving in.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Cheers
Dan




I had the same kind of problem a while ago. I also live in a hard water
area. I got to the root of the problem when I had to replace the hot water
cylinder because of a leak . On removing the old cylinder I was amazed at
the amount of scale that had built up over a few years. It was not just
deposited on the interior surfaces of the cylinder, there was loose sludge
filling nearly half of it ! At a high rate of flow the sludge was disturbed
sufficiently to cause the spluttering and glugging.

Richard.