How to Deal With an Air Lock in Your Pipes

If you turn on your tap but no water comes out, there may be an airlock in your pipes. You can make a claim on your plumbing and drainage cover to deal with the issue, and an emergency plumber will be with you as quickly as possible so you can.

If you would prefer to do it yourself, you can with a little time and patience. Here’s how to remove an airlock from water pipes:

You will need:

A hosepipe

Attach the hosepipe to the broken tap. Then, fit the other end of the hosepipe to a nearby working tap. Turn the broken tap on, and then turn the working tap on. The mains water pressure should force the airlock out of the pipes.

You might have to leave the taps running for a few minutes. If this hasn’t worked, leave the taps alone for a few minutes and try again.

When the taps are working again, take the hose off the highest tap; if you remove the hose from the lowest tap first, then you may create a vacuum that creates another airlock. Then remove the hose from the lowest tap and drain all the water from it.

You can use this same technique if there is an air lock on multiple taps. To remove an airlock, connect a hose to any working tap; there may be a tap in the water cistern in the attic or even in your neighbor’s garden.

Draining the system to deal with a pipework air-lock

If you are unable to deal with the plumbing airlock using the hosepipe method, then you may have to drain your entire plumbing pipes system. This might sound like a big task, but it’s not particularly complicated.

• Turn off your house’s water supply at the stopcock or the main water valve.

• Then turn on all your taps, starting with the taps at the top story of your house and working down until you reach the lowest tap in your property.

• Flush your toilets a few times until they stop filling up. Eventually, there should be absolutely no water coming out of any of your taps, or perhaps just a small amount of water dripping from the lowest tap.

• Close your taps a little bit—not enough to completely close them, but enough to ensure that only a small amount of water will be able to get through them.

• Turn your water supply back on, and gradually turn all the taps in your house up to a half-open position and then to a full-open position. This should completely discharge any air in your plumbing.

Have you got vibrating pipes? Read our guide on how to deal with vibrating pipes for some advice.[/vc_column_text][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/i4BWnYZAMCg” align=”center”][vc_column_text]

Still no luck?

Contact us on 0345 3192 247 and we can help! Our technical teams will run through some simple troubleshooting tips with you to see if your problem can be resolved over the phone. If not, we’ll send a highly skilled and qualified plumber round to get you sorted as soon as possible.

There could be a number of reasons for your plumbing issues, so it’s better to trust the professionals. After all, you could end up making it worse, and you could be faced with a hefty bill to pay to repair the damage. We help, we repair, and we care.

We have a huge range of cover plans covering a range of home emergencies. Get in touch to find out more.