Is an £800+ power flush the only option?

2

Comments

  • Alex1983
    Alex1983 Posts: 958 Forumite
    Water is lazy and will go the easiest route which is why it just worked upstairs and first, when you shut upstairs off it had nowhere to go but downstairs. My fear will be with all open again it will just take the easy route and heat upstairs, if it does I think you’ll be looking at pump or restriction/ blockage. If it works fine then it could of been an airlock.
  • Wookey
    Wookey Posts: 812 Forumite
    Is there a valve/stat/timer that controls upstairs and downstairs rads separately or are they either all on or all off? If it's a case of all on or all off then read up on balancing rads, if they are on separate timers/switches etc then you need to find the one that is controlling the downstairs and work out what it is or isn't doing. As all the rads do heat it is unlikely to need a system clean and it never does any harm to add some inhibitor now and again, more so if rads have been taken off for decorating.
    Norn Iron Club member No 353
  • Cottage_Economy
    Cottage_Economy Posts: 1,227 Forumite
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    edited 21 September 2017 at 9:26AM
    Alex1983 wrote: »
    Water is lazy and will go the easiest route which is why it just worked upstairs and first, when you shut upstairs off it had nowhere to go but downstairs. My fear will be with all open again it will just take the easy route and heat upstairs, if it does I think you’ll be looking at pump or restriction/ blockage. If it works fine then it could of been an airlock.

    Ok. Will open all the radiators this afternoon, see what we get and report back tonight.
    Wookey wrote: »
    Is there a valve/stat/timer that controls upstairs and downstairs rads separately or are they either all on or all off? If it's a case of all on or all off then read up on balancing rads, if they are on separate timers/switches etc then you need to find the one that is controlling the downstairs and work out what it is or isn't doing. As all the rads do heat it is unlikely to need a system clean and it never does any harm to add some inhibitor now and again, more so if rads have been taken off for decorating.

    They are either all on or all off, however, they each have thermostatic controls. I'll open all of them up this afternoon ready for the heating to come on at 6pm and see what happens.

    I'm sure we can balance them if that is needed.

    We haven't taken the radiators off for decorating. I prefer to squish a tiny roller down behind them.
  • littlerock
    littlerock Posts: 1,774 Forumite
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    I used to have a system like this - does yours have relay valves for Ch and hot water circuits - have you checked them? can fail or get stuck
  • Apodemus
    Apodemus Posts: 3,384 Forumite
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    You mention that you manually opened a valve? Our system has manual valves on the feed and return from the two separate zones and these need to be balanced, otherwise most of the water goes to the shorter leg (3 rads) and very little to the longer leg (5 rads) - this shows itself as a single cold rad. You may need to open all the thermostatic rad valves and then adjust the zone valves to get heat across to all of the rads.
  • Cottage_Economy
    Cottage_Economy Posts: 1,227 Forumite
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    edited 22 September 2017 at 7:11AM
    Well, another update.

    Adjusted the thermostatic valves open on all of the radiators and they all came on in the evening, upstairs and downstairs, so I'm cautiously optimistic that everything is ok at the moment.

    I just need to make sure I can switch to just hot water and the CH turns off. I can't switch between manual and auto anymore on the heating zone valve, it is on manual and permanently slack, so I might need that looked at so I don't end up with the heating only able to come on with the hot water.

    I don't believe the heating engineer didn't know what was wrong so that's the last time he comes here to do any work.
  • J_B
    J_B Posts: 6,433 Forumite
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    Cottage_Economy wrote: »
    I don't believe the heating engineer didn't know what was wrong so that's the last time he comes here to do any work.

    I'm sure you didn't mean to put a 'double negative' in there did you?
    :);):)

    <<I don't believe the heating engineer knew what was wrong>>
    or
    <<I believe the heating engineer didn't know what was wrong>>

    :)
  • Apodemus
    Apodemus Posts: 3,384 Forumite
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    J_B wrote: »
    I'm sure you didn't mean to put a 'double negative' in there did you?
    :);):)

    <<I don't believe the heating engineer knew what was wrong>>
    or
    <<I believe the heating engineer didn't know what was wrong>>

    :)

    Eh? I think the suggestion was that the heating engineer knew exactly what was wrong, but saw the chance to charge for a power flush! :)
  • Cottage_Economy
    Cottage_Economy Posts: 1,227 Forumite
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    Apodemus wrote: »
    Eh? I think the suggestion was that the heating engineer knew exactly what was wrong, but saw the chance to charge for a power flush! :)

    Yes, that is exactly what I meant!

    Finger's crossed, touch wood, etc., the heating is working ok now.

    So, the answer to the title of my post "Is an £800+power flush the only option?" is ...no, it flipping well isn't. A little bit of research on the internet, discussions and suggestions from you great people, and some logical testing has saved us a lot of money.

    Thanks to everyone who responded to my posts. It was much appreciated.
  • FreeBear
    FreeBear Posts: 14,599 Forumite
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    The 'Save £12k in 2017' #129
    Personal target £4,000.
    £3728/£4,000 (93%)
    The £800 saved can go to your £12K pot, and it means you have reached your personal target ahead of schedule :T
    Her courage will change the world.

    Treasure the moments that you have. Savour them for as long as you can for they will never come back again.
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