Leave the bath taps open till they start running free of air.

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Ok, have left bath taps on but nothing from hot and cold runs fine from tank in loft.

Now, got the ballcock assy off for inspection, and thought I'd just put the feed pipe into the tank minus the ballcock, and turn the pump on. Pump did come on straight away and water flowed but nothing like the force it should be - see this pic


Then the pump switched off and the water continued at the same rate til I turned the valve off under the floor by the pump. There must be something wrong between that valve (below) and the cold water storage tank in the loft, because on the pump side of the valve the water gushes out yet in the tank in the loft it doesn't.


Would it be wise to remove the valve in the airing cupboard on the feed pipe to the loft?

Still say you have all the signs of a broken gate in one or more of the valves.

If you need to change them, fit full flow lever ball valves.

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Ok just googled that and there are female to female and male to male - is it a dumb question to ask which I need? The airing cupboard is gonna get a soaking isn't it!

You need to take the pressure off the pump first.

The storage tank you could siphon out, or drain from whatever is working.

The valves are copper to copper.

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Right, I'm off to the shops...

Next problem is I can't undo the nuts on the valves that are already there - can I heat them or something?

You could but they should undo with a bit of force.

Two big adjustable spanners normally.

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YAY! Water back on, gotta rush off to work, report later! Thanks

Hope you tested it well before you dash out.

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Ok, here we go. I rushed off to the local Travis Perkins who had 3 of the lever things you suggested Scruff, my plan being to replace the one I thought was faulty, identified by seemingly never ending spinning before it opened or closed. By a stroke of luck, TP also had one of the 'red steering wheel' valves in stock too, which I had a closer look at, and I discovered that they're supposed to turn heaps of times, rather than just about a 1/4 - 1/2 turn that two of ours were doing.

Got back, got the spanners out and set about replacing the one on the cold fill to the loft, only to discover that I am nowhere near strong enough to remove the nuts. I had a couple of huge adjustable spanners but only succeeded in twisting the whole pipe! I got as far as getting the gas bottle and flame thrower to the back door, then had another go with the spanners before casually trying to operate one of the valves. Seems messing around trying to remove them had somehow freed them up I'd left the hot taps in the bathroom on and as soon as I turned the valve I could hear water pouring out We thought we'd better replace the ballcock in the tank before trying the cold feed!

So I left my Mum in the loft while I went to work, to make sure the pump switch off and the tank didn't overflow, all seems to be working A OK.

Thank you very much Scruff, it must be frustrating trying to help people when they don't know what they're doing or how they end up fixing things!

You got it fixed, thats good enough.

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