Gents About a month ago I replaced a leaking garden tap for my sister, straight swap - old off new on. Since then she is getting a loud drumming from the cold water system when any cold feed appliance calls for water - washing machine, dishwasher, toilet, tap, etc. The noise stops if the hot tap is turned on. I've done tap replacements loads of times but never had this issue before. Any ideas how to fix this? Her husband has dementia so I'm trying to help out where I can and she's not particularly flush financially. If I need to pay for a plumber to sort it then so be it but any assistance for a DIY fix would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Doug
Is the cold water direct mains or loft fed? If you have mains pressure, it’s common to have the stopcock partially open to reduce flow and prevent water hammer. It’s possible you turned the stopcock from partially open before your work to full on after it, and that’s the problem.
Yep, as above we need to know the type of system she has. Have you isolated the garden tap by the isolation valve to rule that out?
Thank you for your responses, much appreciated. Apologies for the delay, new member, thought I'd set up email alerts for responses...obviously not as I didn't get any emails! Cold water is direct mains supply, combi boiler supplying domestic CH and hot water. Property is an ex council ground floor maisonette, strange set-up as she has two stop cocks and two water meters, one stop cock+meter in the kitchen and another stop cock+meter in an out-building classed as a "washroom"/utility room on the plans. Garden tap supply is off the washroom system and I used the stop cock on that system to isolate the mains supply, that stop cock is a quarter turn on/off variety. I'm guessing somehow I've let air into the system as it's now affecting the whole property.
It won't be air in the system due to it being on high mains pressure. Because a combi is a sealed system it needs to relieve itself of shock waves when a tap is turned off. The dripping garden tap was in itself acting as a system relief from shock waves now it's no longer dripping the system will be looking for another way to easily get rid of the shock wave sometimes it can just move to another tap with a worn gland that never dripped before. When the noise is on have a quick look around all the other hot taps to see if any are dripping if they are this will be where the noise is coming from and will need a new insert. On and on it could go until none of the taps no longer drip because they are now have tight glands and are able to take up the shock wave without dripping. You can fit a device close to the combi called a shock arrester, however these have mixed results. Hope you can make sense of this which can a modern plumbing nightmare!
It can still happen. I’ve found it more than once. There’s also no mention of how good the pressure is.
Many thanks for the detailed response. The dripping hot tap scenario is present as when the noise starts the kitchen tap starts leaking. I'll work on changing that insert and then look at the only other hot tap in the property - bathroom basin. Cheers.
The kitchen hot tap is the most used tap and nearly always the one that drips (lets hope you just need the one cartridge to fix the problem). A couple of occasions I have even had to change the shower cartridge which started to drip (it can also effect fill-valves in WCs). It's surprising what can become of things these days when you get a call from the customer "I've got one dripping tap, can you come and change the washer"?
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