Vaillant Ecotec - Radiators too hot to touch

pimento

Happy Christmas everyone!

My Vaillant Ecotec boiler is five years old and serviced every year. We have a British Gas Homecare cover but before I call them on Christmas Day, I wonder if anyone here can put my mind at rest.

I noticed this morning that my radiators are too hot to touch. They all have the individual thermostats and even the ones not set to max are too hot to touch.

Our thermostat is set to 18 degrees and in this warm weather, it must be close to that today so the rads really shouldn't be that hot. I've never noticed them being too hot to touch before.

At the boiler, the pressure guage seems really high too. Almost on the red.

I panicked and turned the heating off and after the pump had finished whirring (about 5 mins, which is normal) the temp is falling and the pressure guage is also falling.

Do I need to call British Gas today? We're going to my mums for dinner and I'd hate my house to explode while we're out. The timer is set to put the heating on again at 4.30pm.

Help!

I can take pictures if required.

Browntoa

I am assuming its the pressure vesel may need re charging

I would call BG and let them look

pimento

Is it an urgent "must call them Christmas Day" problem?

kaya

our boiler has a seperate dial on the front for water and heating, this adjusts the temperature to which the boiler heats the water or radiator's, could a child have turned it up to max~? (if you have one) , if your pressure gets into the red the pressure safety release valve's job is to open and let the extra pressure out so nothing should "blow up" providing your boiler has been serviced and looked after, the room thermostat's job is to turn the boiler on and off when it reaches its pre-set temperature , it does not control the water temperature flowing round the system in any way at all

espresso

pimento wrote: »

Is it an urgent "must call them Christmas Day" problem?

Your biggest problem is that you don't understand how your central heating system works! The thermostatic radiator valves do not regulate the temperatures of the radiator - they simply turn off that radiator when the room reaches a pre-set temperature to save energy.

You can control how hot your radiators get by adjusting the central heating flow temperature on the boiler control panel - turn it down a bit!

You can only decide if it is an urgent "must call them Christmas Day" problem when you understand how to use your system - read the manual and stop panicking.

pimento

No children to play with the controls. The dials and settings haven't been touched since the day it was installed. I've only had to fill it with more water (from the hose with the valve on under the boiler) once or twice. It might have been going close to the red for a while and I haven't noticed. But I'm sure that the rads are not usually that hot so I think this is a recent problem.

I did wonder, if I turned the main thermostat on the wall right down to 10 or something, whether the radiators would still come on. I might try that tomorrow. Will that indicate that the boiler thermostat might not be working properly?

The earliest British Gas can come is January 3rd. I'm at home between now and then so can keep an eye on it.

pimento

espresso wrote: »

Your biggest problem is that you don't understand how your central heating system works! The thermostatic radiator valves do not regulate the temperatures of the radiator - they simply turn off that radiator when the room reaches a pre-set temperature to save energy.

You can control how hot your radiators get by adjusting the central heating flow temperature on the boiler control panel - turn it down a bit!

You can only decide if it is an urgent "must call them Christmas Day" problem when you understand how to use your system - read the manual and stop panicking.

OK, I'm not a plumber. I know that the individual valves on each radiator are different to the guage on the wall that I can turn up and down. The main thermostat on the wall in the hall is set to 18 degrees. The knobs on the boiler are the same as they always were, I haven't touched them.

Yesterday, the settings were exactly the same and I could touch the rads, they were nice and warm, but today, they are so hot they will blister my skin.

The pressure guage on the boiler usually goes up about halfway, today it's touching the red.

pimento

Here are some pics of my controls taken after the boiler had cooled down and I'd turned the heating off.






and one of the main thermostat on the wall in the hall.

pimento

Sorry they're so BIG!

espresso

pimento wrote: »

OK, I'm not a plumber. I know that the individual valves on each radiator are different to the guage on the wall that I can turn up and down. The main thermostat on the wall in the hall is set to 18 degrees. The knobs on the boiler are the same as they always were, I haven't touched them.

Yesterday, the settings were exactly the same and I could touch the rads, they were nice and warm, but today, they are so hot they will blister my skin.

The pressure guage on the boiler usually goes up about halfway, today it's touching the red.

Yes you do have a problem but you can reduce the central heating flow temp on the boiler control panel, so that the radiators do not get quite so hot until you can get someone out to diagnose the problem in the new year. If that doesn't work then you would appear to have temperature regulation problem as well as the pressure vessel.

Just seen your huge pics - turn the bottom knob on the left anti-clockwise to reduce the boilers flow temp which should lower the temp of your radiators.

pimento

Thanks Espresso. The user manual doesn't tell me very much.

If turning the knob down to turn the rads temp down still leaves the pressure touching the red, will this be OK to live with until January 3rd?
Our heating only goes on twice a day, 45 mins in the morning and 90 mins in the afternoon.