Brand new pump and Activator, £750 spent, still no downstairs heating!

keystone

FWIW I'll bet that there is a magnetite blockage where the cold feed from the feed and expansion tank joins the primary circuit. This will be in the same location as the vent to the F&E tank and the pump. If there is an air separator be sure that that will probably be blocked up as well. I reckon there's probably reverse circulation going on too for the upstairs circuit.

Neither a power flush nor a chemical flush will shift it. Both are a total waste of time, energy and money if I'm right. The affected pipework needs to be cut out and replaced and in an hour or so you'll have a nice toastie house.

The alternative is that you have two zone valves on your heating system and the one that controls the downstairs is [STRIKE]knackered[/STRIKE] in need of attention.

Cheers

Canucklehead

Hi.

Not sure how anyone can arrive at the need for a powerflush (or any kind of flush) blind over the internet!

OP, is it possible you could post photos via, photomuppet or one of those sites, and maybe someone could advise with a little more accuracy.

You could have microbore downstairs with smallbore (15mm) upstairs, a valve left somewhere out of sight closed down and blocking,a crushed pipe after other work has been done in the house, pump fitted the wrong way round ......all kids of possibilities.

What led you to calling someone out? Has this problem been building up slowly? Or did it suddenly stop heating downstairs?



GSR.

davinalou

Hi
Thanks everyone for your help - no change I'm afraid - still nice and toasty upstairs and freezing downstairs.

I should perhaps have asked for the receipts for the radiator, pump etc, I may still do that.

I think the only thing I can do is to get someone else out to give me a second opinion... I shall avoid British Gas and try to go by reccommendation. Thanks so much everyone for your help. It sounds as though it could be any one of a number of things and only someone who knows what they're doing will be able to help; this isn't something I can fix myself.

Cheers.

Davinaloux

Aquatronixjenny

Good luck,

I used to be of the opinion that power flushing was a waste of money but had one job where they had exactly the same symptoms as you. I replaced pump, actuator, sorted out the air separator, drained the system down, flushed out the radiators using a garden hose etc. They had hot rads upstairs and cold downstairs. The only time we got any warmth to the downstairs was after putting a chemical cleaner in and leaving it to circulate... but as soon as we drained and refilled we were back to square one again. I was baffled and couldn't see how a power flush would make any difference but the guy got someone in to do one (I didn't have the kit then but asked if I could watch) and within 6 hours and lots of sludge later their system was toasty warm.

I felt like a bit of an idiot because I had been working on the system for days! I was draining the water and it was clear so I didn't see how it could need a flush, but when the machine began working the water was brown/black.

Best to get a second opinion from someone who can actually look at the system.