On Sun, 05 Dec 2004 19:14:01 GMT, (Fred) wrote:



Having drowned my disappointment in a couple of pints the other day, I
can now think more clearly ;-) Measured the flow rate and immediately
realised the problem: I get round about 6l/min

Measured where though? Was it the same tap with no changes in the
kitchen that you describe below?

To call what I do when I measure measure is a bit much. I estimate
with a bucket, or rather with the capacity of the sink as measured by
the bucket.

It's quite consistent througout the house now at about 6l/min as
opposed to about 15l/min beforehand. Various forms of tap (bath,
shower, sink) have already differed beforehand, but the ballpark
figures remain the same.

OK, so to be completely clear.....

You measured at the kitchen tap before the work and got 15lpm (ish).

You have measured at the same tap and now it's down to 6lpm.

Did the plumber change anything between where the pipe comes up
through the floor (or wherever it comes in) and the kitchen tap?

If he didn't, then it does rather suggest either some kind of blockage
or even an issue out at the stoptap in the street; unless he has added
in an internal stop tap somewhere on the path to the kitchen sink and
it isn't turned fully on.

Getting 6lpm everywhere now is not surprising, given that all is now
mains derived.



But was this from the roof tank for the bath before? The hot
certainly would have been, but was the cold tank fed as well? This
sort of range sounds typical for a tank over one floor through 22mm
pipe.

Now *that* is a good point. Naive as I am I never assumed that all
cold comes from mains rather than tank.

Oh no. It might but it might not.

But I have one more point to
make: we knew beforehand that flowrate would be a problem. We
therefore did a very basic test by opening all cold water taps in the
house. We saw an effect but still got decent enough flow rate on all
of them. Right now, we cannot even open two cold water taps anymore
without one of them going, uh, silent.

At 6lpm, it isn't going to be any good.

Equally, the plumber should have made sure that the water coming from
the main was good enough an dshould certainly have known the
difference between what was mains and what was not.

This is very easy to do. All you have to do is hold your hand over
the tap. If it's hard to do, then it's mains pressure. Too late for
that now though.


It could be some crud that has been dislodged during the plumbing.

That means to me: check main stop cock on the street, check the attic
and the way the tank was handled during the conversion. But after
that: opening all the floorboards and check on all the piping.

Pretty much, but you would have to start disconnecting pipes to get
very far.

One thing that you could try is to open the kitchen tap full. This is
so that any dislodged crud will tend to flush out of there rather than
through the boiler. Then turn the street stop tap all the way off
and all the way on a couple of times. I was able to clear a
problem that was once where there had been a build up of sediment
around the stop tap.




Would this be reason enough to withhold payment for the job btw?


I would. Basically, as far as you're concerned, there was a flow of
15lpm+ before and now it's down to 6lpm. that isn't good enough.

It may be that something has dislodged from the pipe from the street
and caused a part blockage. If that's because the pipework is old etc.
then it's not directly the plumber's fault, although one could argue
that he should have flushed it through before installing.

Your other option is to contact the water supplier if it proves to be
a problem at the stop tap. They have to provide you with at least
9lpm at the kitchen tap, but if the issue is on your property, you
would have to pay.






Fred


--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl