my cistern is taking ages to fill back up with water. can only flush it once a day. its an old outside loo

dorothy drop, February 2009

It's ok saying it's an old outside toilet but

IS IT A HIGH LEVEL OLD IRON TYPE? Read on

Many old outside loo's had the old cast iron type high level lead water feed pipe and lead flush pipe. Because they were situated high up the only thoughts of maintenance was to lag them with sacking to prevent freezing. These suffer lime build up around the inlet valve clean it out and this should solve it.
If it as been working ok I can't see its water pressure.
Or could as Drew said partially frozen but if so you will end up with a leak lead is notorious for spliting when frozen.

Bob, February 2009

Several possibilities here:
Frozen pipes or at least restricted with ice? Try pipe insulation if it's cold. If it's not cold then obviously it's something else.
A leak somewhere in the supply pipe? Trace the pipe back to a supply pipe you know gives a good feed, and fix any leaks.
Try turning the tap further open in the cistern? Tap may not be fully open, thus restricting the flow.
Some other object in the pipe. Hard to investigae but same principles as above - follow pipe back to last known good supply and check from there.
If the pipe goes over ground anywhere, check in case it has been buckled/restricted in some way?
Check for a supply valve outside the cistern (either another tap or a small fitting that has a screw adjustment on it) make sure that is fully open. If it's a screw fitting make sure the screw head lines up parallel to the pipe.

Just some ideas.

Drew, February 2009