Boiler/Heating help please

sancho

Am at work at the moment, but am unsure where the 2 bleed valves are. What do they look like? Where will they be placed? between the hot water tank and the cold water tank?

sancho

Just given it a go.

Every single radiator's lockvalve was wide open, so have put them back but presume that's not right

Every radiator heated up to pretty hot quite quickly, the heat was all over to no sign of sludge or air

One of the radiators had the TRV where the lockvalve should be, so one side had the TRV and the other had the screw knob to turn it on or off (that can't be right)

Have put everything back how it was and will run it for a while as normal to see what happens

sancho

That's what I thought was odd, I bled every radiator and no air came out they all had clear water though.

And already the room stat is 'clicking off' at about 16 rather than 12 yesterday. So something must have happened

sancho

Thanks, even if It's not fixed it at least I know a bit more.

It's still quite cold!

keystone

sancho wrote: »

Every single radiator's lockvalve was wide open,

That says your system is just not balanced. Get it sorted first banishing any idea about sludge for the moment. Methinks a balancing act may well cure it.

Cheers

Canucklehead

Hi,

A lot of systems work perfectly well with all the lockshields fully open.

It's the systems that have poorly sized pipework either through poor installation or have been extended beyond the original design size, that need a lot of balancing.

In the OP the system is not circulating, the boiler fires and shuts down
within a few minutes. Hence the long drawn out Q&A about the F&E tank, pump and my conclusion that the cold feed could be blocked (fully or partly)
The pump seems to be the high point on the system and will not pump if there is air in it.

OP

Fit a hose to the drain off and empty a lot of water and see if the F&E fills.

GSR


Just for fun try dropping the pump speed to No 1

What is the boiler stat set to?

keystone

Sorry - didn't read the whole thread.:o

Cheers

sancho

Canucklehead wrote: »

Hi,

A lot of systems work perfectly well with all the lockshields fully open.

It's the systems that have poorly sized pipework either through poor installation or have been extended beyond the original design size, that need a lot of balancing.

In the OP the system is not circulating, the boiler fires and shuts down
within a few minutes. Hence the long drawn out Q&A about the F&E tank, pump and my conclusion that the cold feed could be blocked (fully or partly)
The pump seems to be the high point on the system and will not pump if there is air in it.

OP

Fit a hose to the drain off and empty a lot of water and see if the F&E fills.

GSR


Just for fun try dropping the pump speed to No 1

What is the boiler stat set to?

Thanks, will try that this afternoon.

The boiler stat is set to about half way, the hot water that come out of the taps is really hot, was thinking about turning it down a touch.

keystone

andrew-b wrote: »

Got my doubt on the feed being blocked causing this . Air should have been flushed out by my suggested method if that were the case?

What if it isn't air but the usual suspect (normally when the system pumps over) - magnetite where the cold feed joins the main pipework. If theres an airsep there as well that can also easily get clogged up.

Cheers

sancho

andrew-b wrote: »

Turn the boiler stat up rather than down..set the boiler stat to maximum. The blue box strapped on the side of the hot water cylinder (cylinder stat) controls the hot water temperature. The boiler stat controls the temperature of the water circulating around the radiators and within the primary coil of the hot water cylinder. As soon as the hot cylinder is upto the temperature set on the cylinder stat the zone valve for the hot water should shut off the flow of water to the cylinder primary coil. So turning the boiler stat down will slow down the rate at which the hot cylinder heats up and also all the rads. So definitely turn it up. Pump to 1 might help as water will then circulate slower and be heated for longer within the boiler.

I wrongly assumed before that because you said "rads are getting hot quickly" that things were sorted so jumped the gun a bit!

Got my doubt on the feed being blocked causing this . Air should have been flushed out by my suggested method if that were the case? Having followed my suggestion yesterday, what happens now when you turn the system off and open the central screw on the pump...does water come out or not? You didn't mention if you found the bleed vents i mentioned ...if you did were they auto or manual one's and did any air come out?

I must confess I couldn't find the bleed vents you mentioned....

The stat on the side of the hot water tank appears to have no bearing on the temperature of the hot water, tried it on minimum and maximum (and 60) for a few days at a time when we moved in. The water was ridiculously hot - I mean you couldn't even touch it as it was coming out of the tap. The only way to make the water bearable was to turn down the one on the boiler.

I rang a plumber to come round to at least have a look at the valve motor thing. When I said what was happening he said it could be the pump or the zone valve. Obviously as you clever chaps have also diagnosed. The pump seems to be working as tested after following canuckle head's advice.

tbh it seems like it could be a combination of a few faulty stats, not balanced radiators, perhaps some blockages. All of which I could probably look at sorting but I think I would rather get a man in the know to do it all. What do you think?