Draining central heating and installing new motorised valve??

dantheman2010

I am possibly going to attempt to fit a new Honeywell 3 port valve.

Just wondered if it goes a little something like this;

Turn off boiler
Tie up ballcock from header tank
Ensure all rad valves are open
Attach hose with jubilee clip to down stairs rad
Open the outlet of downstairs rad
Open bleed valves on upstairs rads
Open bleed valves on downstairs rads
When water stops then close bleed valves
Undo the nuts on the 3 ports of the vavle, unwire the power cable
Put in the new valve, do up the 3 nuts, wire in the power cable
Untie ballcock
Put inhibitor in header tank
Turn on boiler
Bleed downstairs rads til water comes out
Bleed upstairs rads til water comes out
Job done

Am I missing something? My plumber says he would take a couple of hours to do it so I am assuming about £50-100 labour.

Just wondered if its something I can do myself.

Thanks guys.

keystone

Get your plumber to do it. It will take him a couple of hours - it will take you all day and you'll still end up with airlocks which you will have trouble shifting. Add up how much your time is worth for a days effort and compare it with his price for 2 hours work. You will very quickly find that its a false economy to NOT give him the job. Whilst you are at it let him supply the valve too because then he is totally responsible for the whole job and you'll end up paying his markup anyway for increased labour or he'll make a loss on the job.

BTW I'm still not convinced that the valbe is totally knackered from your other thread because you don't appear to have tried to operate it manually without the head in place yet.

Finally you are proposing to do quite unecessary work by draining the whole system.

Cheers

BaldPlumber

I'm looking forward to this thread expanding to the same epic proportions as the preceding one

OP, I only got as far on the other thread to see your horrified response to connecting two wires for a synchron motor replacement. The wiring for a 'Y' plan system is a very different matter and whilst in theory is a like-for-like swap, in reality, when it goes wrong will require proper skills and preferably a multimeter to put right. This might cost more than the original labour for the job.

garethgas

dantheman2010 wrote: »

I am possibly going to attempt to fit a new Honeywell 3 port valve.

Just wondered if it goes a little something like this;

Turn off boiler
Tie up ballcock from header tank
Ensure all rad valves are open
Attach hose with jubilee clip to down stairs rad
Open the outlet of downstairs rad
Open bleed valves on upstairs rads
Open bleed valves on downstairs rads
When water stops then close bleed valves
Undo the nuts on the 3 ports of the vavle, unwire the power cable
Put in the new valve, do up the 3 nuts, wire in the power cable
Untie ballcock
Put inhibitor in header tank
Turn on boiler
Bleed downstairs rads til water comes out
Bleed upstairs rads til water comes out
Job done

Am I missing something? My plumber says he would take a couple of hours to do it so I am assuming about £50-100 labour.

Just wondered if its something I can do myself.

Thanks guys.

I doubt it. It took you the best part of 3 days just to wiggle a lever!
To be honest, I think Keystone has pretty much summed it up.
Your procedure for changing the valve doesn't allow for unforseen problems which might well rear their ugly head(s)
The connecting of two wires the same colour phased you in your other thread...I shudder to think how you'd cope with the 5 different colours in the new valve.
Time to bite the bullet and get a professional in.
Good luck

ziggyman99

And a professional probably wouldn't do it like that, I know I wouldn't.

Johnhowell

Does the valve need changing or just the solenoid unit on top? If the solenoid has failed then the system does not need draining down.

keystone

Johnhowell wrote: »

Does the valve need changing or just the solenoid unit on top? If the solenoid has failed then the system does not need draining down.

Suggest you read both threads. Even if the valve has failed (which after six days now we still cannot establish) - the system doesn't need draining down to change it.

Cheers

mikey72

But you have to be really, really, fast.

keystone

mikey72 wrote: »

But you have to be really, really, fast.

:rotfl::rotfl:OK I left the word "completely" out.

Cheers