central heating problem help

kkennedy

Looking for some help on what I should do next, a few weeks ago we had a plumber attach two raiditors to the wall these had been off for months as we are having a lot of work done in the house, so the plumber attached the raiditors and also did a chemical flush as the raiditor in the rest of house were bearly heating and he told me this would help,
the plumber was great did everything left and when heating came on that night three of the raiditor were freezing he told me to turn them all off and put them all on one by one once each one had heat up, this works but once the heating goes off the same thing happens and two of the raiditor are always full of air and i have to bleed them, once bleed, the heat up , he told me to turn the pump down to number two on switch this makes not difference same thing happens he has says he is away on holiday for a week and to phone when he gets back but he says he hasn;t a clue why this is happening,

so you think he is telling the truth or not wanting to come back and see the job,
the heating is worse since he touched it and im £490 poorer.

roger196

First try bleeding the rads several times. If the problem still occurs, the air must be getting in from somewhere. If you have a feed and expansion tank ( the small tank in the loft)( assuming you do not have a sealed system), there should be about four inches of water in it when cold. Is there?

keystone

kkennedy wrote: »

but he says he hasn;t a clue why this is happening,

It sound as as though this sentence ought to read but he says he hasn't a clue. [STRIKE]why this is happening[/STRIKE],

so you think he is telling the truth or not wanting to come back and see the job,
the heating is worse since he touched it and im £490 poorer.

You paid money, did he give you a guarantee of any description? was there an invoice? was there a contract (even verbal)? He has an obligation. I don't buy the holiday bit. Kids are at school making holidays difficult, this time of year is when people are spending money now they've seen how much they haven't spent on Xmas. I'll bet he's working elsewhere this week and can't be arsed to come over in the evening and fix it for you which frankly, if the answers to my questioins are yes, he has an obligation to do. Don't let him off the hook.

Cheers

kkennedy

roger196 wrote: »

First try bleeding the rads several times. If the problem still occurs, the air must be getting in from somewhere. If you have a feed and expansion tank ( the small tank in the loft)( assuming you do not have a sealed system), there should be about four inches of water in it when cold. Is there?

there is about that in the tank, have to bleed the raiditors twice a day once when they come on in korning and then again when heating comes on at night.

kkennedy

keystone wrote: »

It sound as as though this sentence ought to read but he says he hasn't a clue. [STRIKE]why this is happening[/STRIKE],

You paid money, did he give you a guarantee of any description? was there an invoice? was there a contract (even verbal)? He has an obligation. I don't buy the holiday bit. Kids are at school making holidays difficult, this time of year is when people are spending money now they've seen how much they haven't spent on Xmas. I'll bet he's working elsewhere this week and can't be arsed to come over in the evening and fix it for you which frankly, if the answers to my questioins are yes, he has an obligation to do. Don't let him off the hook.

Cheers

have no invoice, i paid him cash and he never left invoice thought the holiday bit was far fetched as he was off for two week at xmas and new year

Tommy09

Bleed the radiators when the heating/hot water is turned off.

If you do it when the pump is on, then you could be introducing air into the system.

Hot water has greater pressure than cold, so when it cools you are leaving air gaps in the system

keystone

and did his spurs jangle as he went down the path then? If you had paperwork then the route would be to send him a registered letter telling him how displeased you are that he left you with a non-working system that was working before he touched it and that you expect him to sort it out within 10 days of next Monday's date. If nothing then get a proper man in to sort it out, pay up and look big and invoice him for the remedial work. If he ignores you then small claims which is easy to do, like as not he'll either not turn up in which case you'll get judgement by default, he gets a CCJ and you can send the bailiffs in on the courts sayso. Claim statutory interest too. Alternatively he'll pay up before the hearing to avoid it.

As you have no paperwork, however, I suspect you have to chuck some more money at it by getting a proper man in and then settle his bill too.

Cheers

mr_nev

@Keystone
Maybe worth giving the pumber benefit of the doubt, before you start threatening court action!!

I'd hate to do a job for you if something went wrong & then I legitimately went on holiday!! There's no need to be a pr1ck about it, we all make mistakes & contrairy to popular opinion not all Plumbers are dishonest heartless rip off merchants. Some of us are honest hard working & may earn a lot less thank you think we do. Its not that unbelievable that he's gone on holiday.

@kkennedy
If he's not around maybe he could recommed another plumber to check it for you? You do need a plumber really but there are a few things you can check otherwise - the system must me drawing in air from somewhere so try some of the following:

1) Leaks:
Check for any obvious damp patches around radiators & everywhere he may have worked (physically check the pipes coming from the bottom of the radiators by hand, occasionally water can run down pipes not be obvious to see by eye)

2) Pumping Over:
Check if water is pumping out of Open Vent into the F+E tank, while the system is running. Try it in both Heating & Hot Water mode. ( The F+E tank is the small one, usually in the loft, Open Vent is the pipe which hangs above it) If it is pumping over try turning pump down to speed 1.

4) Drawing in air from the Open Vent:
With the system running put a measuring jug full of water under the the Open Vent (described in point 2) see if water gets drawn into the pipe. Check in both Heating & Hot Water modes.

keystone

mr_nev wrote: »

@Keystone
Maybe worth giving the pumber benefit of the doubt, before you start threatening court action!!

Well if you read my post I did say that he should be given the opportunity to fix it via the OP writing to him. Obviously you didn't.

I'd hate to do a job for you if something went wrong & then I legitimately went on holiday!!

The bloke told the OP he hasn't got a clue and then !!!!!!s off without arranging someone else to look at it? If I was in that position I wouldn't go on holiday until I had nipped round to look at it and at least give the client some modicum of feeling of confidence in me.

There's no need to be a pr1ck about it,

Pot meet kettle. Do read in context in future before you start name calling please.

we all make mistakes & contrairy to popular opinion not all Plumbers are dishonest heartless rip off merchants. Its not that unbelievable that he's gone on holiday.

Of course we all make mistakes - I'm the first to admit that but he's not facing them. He's run away and I still don't buy the holiday story.

The OP either needs to get the installer to address it himself or make an arrangement with others and he should put a stake in the ground as recommended. Otherwise he runs the risk of the original guy coming back and saying "well it was actually fine when I left it and on the grounds that the last person who touched it takes responsibility the current state is clearly nothing to do with me. I'm off - bye bye." Where would that leave the OP?

So do try and read what is actually being written in future old chap. I know I'm supposed to be nice to newbies but name calling without justification isn't very endearing.

Cheers

ariba10

What it needs as has been stated is Balancing.

http://www.lovekin.net/radiator-balancing.html

ListysDad

Just a note for your delectation and not strictly in line with the OP but I can't stand to see misinformation posted even if it is well meaning.

In an open vented system the pressure does not appreciable increase when it's hot. That's a pressurised (closed) system.

The reason you do not bleed when the pump is running is that what air is in the system breaks up into micro bubbles. The pump's the main culprit but cavitation due to the higher temps adds to it too. What then happens is that the air then becomes 'suspended' in the water so will not bleed out. The system needs to be cold to get most air out as only then do the micro bubbles join together to form a decent air pocket sufficiently big to bleed off.

It is also impossible to get all air out of a system in one go so be prepared to do it regularly to keep and open vented system effective. Air does normally collect in one particular rad first.

If you want never to have to bleed again try fitting a 'Tadpole'. It's a vortex generator guaranteed to remove ALL your air and so reduce running costs too. BTW I'm not affiliated just fitted a few and seen how bluudy effective they are. Have fun.

BTW Keystone is right on the money (for once )