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Hi, Had a problem when we were away last week. 

 Whenever we turned the cold water off at the kitchen sink for quite a while afterwards It sounded as if it was drawing air into the pipe. this was borne out by the fact that there would be a sudden gush of air before the water flowed when turned on again.

 Then later in the week whenever we turned the hot tap on in the shower water also ran out of the cold tap at the kitchen sink. That tap was in fact turned off.... Can anyone tell me what has happened and how do I rectify the problem.    Many thanks in anticipation.

I agree with Michael , sounds like the cold tap in the kitchen is faulty , most likely the rubber seal inside the tap is u/s , also check the underneath of the tap to make sure it isn't leaking as the body may have split due to freezing .

atb

Wizard

Thanks.  No leak underneath. - dry as a bone. 

Before opening any taps the pump has to be switched on.   We did notice that the both the hot tap and the cold tap at the kitchen sink were very hard to turn.

If the rubber as perished how do I go about replacing it  hopefully I don't need a new set of taps.

Now what is the best way to tackle this. In other words how do I get the Tap unit free from the  sink unit.   I can see where the water pipes go up through the underneath cupboard but because of piece of 4" wide timber that runs across the back of the cupboard at the top. (Thus protecting the connections of the pipes to the underneath workings of the taps.)     Sorry if I sound useless but being female and not being a plumber I would appreciate  some idea of how to go about it.

hard to turn means swollen rubber washers i think.need to know which make of taps you have ie.WHALE ect whale tops

Can you post some pictures of your taps .

atb

Wizard

like this one REICH???

look like half inch inserts,if you can remove the centre bit red or blue plastic and look inside there should be a screw that can be removed to release the tap top.after this the insert should just screw out.(centre bit)hold top solid when unscrewing insert so as not to damage the rest of the fitting.our bathroom ones were hard to turn and after replacing with these its fine.you may get away with just replacing the washers at the bottom.see

INSERT AS PER NOTE/BLACK WASHER AT THE BOTTOM AS IN HOUSE TAP.