How to Fix an Air Lock

Turning your water tap on only to find that there’s no running water comes as a bit of shock. But before you pick up the Yellow Pages and start looking for telephone numbers for plumbers South London, if you’re a practical person who is not averse to trying out a few tricks of your own, here a few simple steps you can take to see if you can fix it yourself.

The most likely cause is that a bubble of air has formed and got blocked somewhere along the water-pipe.

Fixing an air lock with a hosepipe

When the air lock is one of a pair of taps, you can try using the working tap to unblock the non-working one. You can use this same method for taps that are far apart in the house, as long as the working tap is fed directly from the mains water supply.

Simply find some hosepipe that will fit over the tap openings, and place in position over the open ends of both taps. You may need to use some adjustable clips to make the fit airtight. Next, open both taps up. Allow the water to run for 2 or 3 minutes. The water pressure from the working tap should be enough to shift the air lock back out of the pipe. When you come to turn the taps off, be sure to turn off the tap that was blocked first.

You may have to perform this procedure several times to ensure the block is completely cleared. If it works, you will have saved yourself the task of trying to track down a company that provides local plumbing services in London.

Draining your water system down

If the air lock still hasn’t been cleared after several attempts, you can try to drain the water system down. This is not as bad as it may sound. It’s something that most plumbing services in London do when they’re looking for air locks.

If you’re going to try this yourself, (it’s not rocket-science), you must first shut the water supply down. In order to do this you will need to locate the stopcock and shut it down. Once you’ve done this you must then go around the premises opening all of the taps. Leave them open until they all they’ve all stopped running water, which indicates that you’ve successfully drained the system; then close them down again.

The next step is to reopen the mains stopcock, to allow the water system to refill.

The final step is to reopen each tap, one by one, allowing a little water to run slowly. Then revisit each tap and open fully. Hopefully, it will be job done!

Call in the best plumbers in South London – CW Services (Heating and Plumbing)

If neither of these two solutions works, then you’re going to have to call in a professional plumber. If the blockage is where you live or work in South London, you’ll naturally want one the best plumbers in South London; someone you can rely on; someone who will come and getting your water running again quickly, and with no fuss. That someone is us here at CW Services (Heating and Plumbing). Call us either via our landline –  020 7733 6812, or via our mobile – 07949 095 184