Heating / Hot Water Question

nickpe

Evening All,

Can i just check something and hope some plumbers / heating engineers can please explain this -

I have a Baxi Solo 3 PFL 50 boiler - its not a combi.

Whenever i put my hot water on at the same time as my heating, the radiators are always much colder - is this normal ??
As soon as i turn the water off - the radiators seem to get much hotter.

Please can someone explain why ??

Mr_Ted

Possibly a tired mid position/3 port control valve?

jayyar66

Assuming that this has happened recently then yes, it could be a dodgy 3 port valve. Assuming you have a 3 port valve and not 2 2-port valves. If it has always been like this then a more likely explanation would be this: In the heating pipework that goes to heat up the hot water cyclinder there SHOULD be, normally adjacent to the cylinder, a red handled gate valve. This is there to restrict the flow of water from the boiler/circulator to prevent the radiator circuit from being starved of flow when both the heating & hot water are on.
If you have a valve that matches this description then try to close the valve and then open it 1 turn. If there isn't a valve, then either time the heating/hot water so they don't coincide, or have a valve fitted. Shouldn't be too expensive.

southcoastrgi

why SHOULD there be a valve, if the heating & cylinder pipework is installed & sized correctly there is no need for a valve on the cylinder return & if there is a valve it should look like the one below & not a red handled gate valve.

jayyar66

Fair comment S.C.rgi re: the valve, you're of course correct. But I stand by the fact that there should be a balancing valve for the reasons I've given