UKC

In a friend's house they've got 4 hot water taps throughout the house, all fed from the combi boiler. 3 of the 4 taps work fine, i.e. turn the tap and there's a decent flow of water, which is hot within a few seconds. 1 of the taps gurgles/comes out erratically. Still hot within a few seconds, but full of air. It's not the closest/further from the boiler.
They've tried running it for ages, no change. The isolating valve under the tap is fully open. The boiler fires up on the hot water demand every time, regardless of which tap is used, so no problem with the boiler.
What could cause just one of the taps to gurgle like that? Splutters is possibly a better word... Said I'd try to find out for them. Ideas welcome!

In reply to NottsRich:

You might get an answer on a plumbing questions website - I'm sure there are some.

In reply to NottsRich:

Has it always done that?
Has the system been drained in the recent past?
Did the problem start after that?
Does the feed pipe for this particular tap go up from the boiler, travel across the house and then down to the tap?
Possibly an air lock.

Various ways of tackling it, but depends exactly on the cause & situation.

In reply to NottsRich:

A down & dirty fix can be to fit a hose from the cold tap to the offending hot one, turn off the boiler stop tap so you dont back feed it & open the other 3 hot taps, turn on the cold & run till all the air is out of the other 3 hot taps.

In reply to interdit:

Seems to have been doing it for a long time, don't know about it being drained. Unsure about pipe routing but can have a look. Air lock seems the most likely cause.

In reply to Richard Wilson:

Thanks, I'll suggest this. Presumably by turning off the domestic HW stop tap at the boiler then the boiler won't sense the taps being turned on and then fire up - right?

In reply to Rog Wilko:


Are you mad?!?!

If you want real answers you post here, not only will you get answers there'll be many different options, you can't do better.

In reply to NottsRich:


Correct, and you won't back feed through the boiler.

Thanks all, very useful. I'll pass the info on.

In reply to NottsRich:


Have you tried it yet?

Did it work?

In reply to NottsRich:

Washer /air