Fixing Air Locks
Friday, June 27th, 2014
Air locks are a common enough problem in relation to water piping (they also occur in radiators). Often when you attempt to turn on a tap and no water comes out it is due to there being an air lock located somewhere within your piping. As the name implies, an air lock is essentially a pocket of air which has become trapped in your piping and obstructs the flow of water.
Fortunately, in the majority of cases, the problem can be fixed without the need for bringing in a professional plumber. All you need to fix the majority of water pipe air locks is an ordinary hose and some free time to carry out the works.
How to Fix Air Locks:
If the tap which is affected by an air lock is located indoors you should place towels, newspapers or some form of absorbent cloth down in the general area where you will be working before you start as spillages are likely.
- Firstly, you should attach one end of your hose to the tap which is not working. The other end of the hose should be attached to a tap which is in proper working order.
- Both the broken tap and the working tap should be turned on. The water pressure generated from the working tap should, in theory, remove the air lock from your piping. This may take a few minutes. If this does not work then you should seek the help of a professional plumber.
- Assuming the previous step has worked, you should then proceed in removing the hose from whichever tap is the highest in terms of positioning first. This prevents a vacuum from being created and contributing to more air locks.
- Only then should the hose be removed from the lower of the two taps and emptied of water which has collected within.
Draining your Plumbing System:
If your efforts to remove an air lock from your pipes by means of the hose method have proven to be unsuccessful, you may need to have your plumbing system drained in full. While this does sound like a difficult and messy task, it is nowhere near as complicated as it sounds.
You should be able to do it yourself if you follow these steps:
- Switch off your building’s main water valve (this is sometimes called a ‘stopcock’)
- Beginning at the top of the building and working your way down, turn off all of your taps.
- Flush your toilets until they are empty and have stopped refilling.
- Once there is no water coming from your taps, have them only partially open – so that only a small amount of water would come out of them if the water were running.
- Switch your water supply back on at the main water valve.
- Slowly open all of your taps to the half way point and leave them running.
- Finally, you can then slowly open your taps to a fully open position.
If done correctly, this method should completely remove all air locks from your water pipes.
If you are having trouble carrying out either of the remedies outlined in this article or you have followed these instructions closely and are still experiencing problems, you should contact DeWAR Plumbers (on our phone number 01 514 3300 or send us an email) for assistance and/or advice.
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