My oil boiler is heating the water but not the radiators. Can anyone help?

poohbear59

My oil boiler is heating the water, in fact it sounds almost as though it is boiling but not the radiators. I have had a look at the pump: it is making the usual noise but pipes on both sides are not warm. I have checked the header tank and it is full of water and tried bleeding a couple of radiators near the boiler downstairs and they only had a tiny bit of air in them.

Can anyone advise anything else I should try? I have heard of people bashing the pump with a hammer but I am not going to do it unless I knew what I was doing.

ormus

you should have one of these somewhere. try moving the lever at the side. they sometimes stick.
if its duff, you will need a new one.

poohbear59

Just to add that the pump is quite noisy, noisier than it used to be.

ormus I haven't seen anything like that but my sons are home so I will get them to have a look. It isn't obvious. Would it be inside boiler casing?

karl-123

fernox f3 for a week

drain then add f1

£15 all in e-bay

or £ 40 screwfix

its sludged up in the heat exchanger

and its boiling " locally "

replace or clean your mid position divertor valve and
change the motor £ 10

poohbear59

I do remember in the Spring we had a leak and drained the system replacing the fernox then had another leak. Don't remember buying it a second time so the exchanger could be blocked.

Sorry but I don't know what a mid position divertor valve is..

ormus I have followed the pipework from boiler to pump and we don't have one of those things.

poohbear59

I have spent nearly 20 mins trying to work out how to add photo on here. Can anyone point me to correct area on here please?

travellerboy

ORMUS has hit the nail on the head, your 2-way or 3-way value has probably failed. The increase in pump noise is an obvious give away, the pump is what is called 'dead headed'.

ormus

what make and model boiler is it?
i always assume an oil boiler is an old type conventional boiler.

poohbear59

It is a Boulter Classic 70 90. I can't get a heating engineer out here. So anything I can do myself I will try.

travellerboy

poohbear59 wrote: »

I can't get a heating engineer out here..................

.....why, they even come to Mars for a quick buck.

poohbear59

travellerboy wrote: »

.....why, they even come to Mars for a quick buck.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: We are further out than Mars...