Home Improvement

Why Would a Tap Stop Working? Causes & Fixes

Imagine this scenario: you wake up in the morning, you realise you’re running late for work. You walk to the bathroom to wash your face but there’s no water coming out of the tap!

What has caused it to stop? You know you have just paid your utility bills and it’s unlikely that your water provider has cut you off. Aside from wasting your time, this situation could also be a disaster waiting to happen—leave it unaddressed and you could be facing worse problems. Checkout some awesome oak sideboard here. 

This is not some kind of a malfunction that causes red wine to flow from faucets. Instead, this article will discuss the potential reasons why there’s no water flowing out of your tap, along with some troubleshooting tips and the corresponding tap repair solutions.

What Should You Do If Your Tap Suddenly Stopped Working?

There are plenty of reasons why your tap may have stopped working. You may have the shutoff valves turned off, there is low water pressure, or the faucet is broken. There could also be an underlying problem in your pipes or directly at the water source.

If you’re like many others, your first instinct would be to check the rest of your faucets and showers to see if they have running water, ask your neighbours if they have the same problem, or contact your water provider to report the issue. You may also have the urge to already call a plumber and find yourself overthinking about expenses as your pipework may be totally damaged and already need pipe relining solutions.

But before that, you should at least check where the problem is.

To start, check your water supply and make sure that your shutoff valves are on all the way. If they are, turn them off for a while, disconnect the hose and point them into a bucket. Turn them on again and if you get a good flow of water, then the problem is in the faucet. If there’s no flow, on the other hand, the problem could be in the pipes or your water supply.

  • Low Water Pressure

You may have low pressure at your faucet because there is a leak, burst pipe, or blockage somewhere in your pipes, all of which keeps the water from getting to your faucet. If this is the case, you may need more than just a tap repair and hire a plumber to check for any problem in your plumbing system.

  • Faucet Malfunctions

You would know that your faucet itself is the problem when there’s enough water pressure but it doesn’t come out of the fixture and there’s one likely reason for that: mineral deposits. You can easily remove this by soaking your faucet overnight in white vinegar. In other parts of the faucet, like the notches, you should be able to chip the deposits off using a flathead screwdriver when you remove the valve.

In other cases, you may have to remove the tap and replace the washer. Make sure to cut off your water supply temporarily before fixing it. You may opt to hire a plumber to do this tap repair for you.

  • Deposit Buildup in the Water Heater

You should check as well if the lack of pressure problem is isolated in your hot water faucet. If so, then it could be the mineral deposits in your water heater that blocks the water. Leave it unaddressed and it may cause too much pressure, resulting in burst pipes. This highlights the importance of flushing your water heater at least once a year to remove the sediment building at the bottom of the tank.

Water can get blocked for plenty of reasons—but don’t panic! All you have to do is find the source of the problem or hire a plumber to do it for you. In many cases, the problem is well within the underground and you need a professional to diagnose the issue and address it.

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