Bigger core pipes for central heating system??

calleyw

About 9 and half years ago I had installed a combi boiler, Radiators up stairs as there none. And replaced the rads down stairs.

I can never seem to get down stairs warm. Upstairs gets nice and warm on the new plastic pipe work.

Even having the system balanced seems to make no difference and it never seems to get warm. The kitchen is always freezing.

I was talking to someone who lives a couple of doors away and they said that I needed to replace the 15m pipe work down stairs with bigger pipes and that will solve the problem.

All very well and good. But I have concrete floors that are covered in tiles, And that is the kitchen, hall way and living room. So they will need to come up for the concrete floors to be dug up and new pipes laid.

Is it worth it? As I have no idea how much longer I am going to be here for. And I could end up spending money and it makes no difference.

Any opinions any one?

Yours

Calley

wallbash

Is it worth it? As I have no idea how much longer I am going to be here for. And I could end up spending money and it makes no difference.

And thats your answer.
But I am surprised about advice given.
My first house had a micro bore system and was warm, so size is not everything.

Have you had the whole system checked by a plumber?

calleyw

wallbash wrote: »

And thats your answer.
But I am surprised about advice given.
My first house had a micro bore system and was warm, so size is not everything.

Have you had the whole system checked by a plumber?

The person who suggested it has serviced and balance my central heating before and is course gas safe registered and lives two doors away.

Yours

Calley

Ebbs73

Hi cally

It would make any difference at all to the system , 15mm pipes are fine .
Just because someone is qualified doesn't mean they are any good , experience is everything .

Before you spend anything , run round and turn all the rads off , turn your heating on and turn each rad on ( ones that struggle ) separately untill they are nice and hot and you are happy with it .
If all the rads get hot it proves there isn't a blockage anywhere and in this case I would look at the pump in the boiler , 9 years old could start to struggle .

I hope that makes sense .

Christopher

calleyw

Ebbs73 wrote: »

Hi cally

It would make any difference at all to the system , 15mm pipes are fine .
Just because someone is qualified doesn't mean they are any good , experience is everything .

Before you spend anything , run round and turn all the rads off , turn your heating on and turn each rad on ( ones that struggle ) separately untill they are nice and hot and you are happy with it .
If all the rads get hot it proves there isn't a blockage anywhere and in this case I would look at the pump in the boiler , 9 years old could start to struggle .

I hope that makes sense .

Christopher

As I said before he lives just a few doors away so does know the set up.

As I said all the rads up stairs get nice and toasty its only when it goes back in to the 15m pipes it seems to struggle.

there are 3 rads down stairs and all of them fail to get really hot and never really have done since the the combi was installed 9 and half years ago.

Yours

Calley

Ebbs73

Knowing the set up and knowing how to fix it is different , with the advice he has given you I don't hold out hope , sorry .

Try what I suggested and see if they heat up .
And if it didn't work when it was fitted 9 years ago why wasn't it sorted ?
In that case it could just need a good flush as the sludge will drain and settle on the ground floor under the screeds .
Could just put some chemical in it and it may clear it out but there's a few cheap things to try before the full flush .
Removing each rad and cleaning them out with a garden hose works wonders , cheap , dirty , cold and wet but good fun .

Christopher

wallbash

The person who suggested it has serviced and balance my central heating before and is course gas safe registered and lives two doors away.

and

l of them fail to get really hot and never really have done since the the combi was installed 9 and half years ago.

To be clear, this guy has serviced your boiler, but the result was NEVER satisfactory? Why?
And why follow his advice now?

calleyw

Ebbs73 wrote: »

Knowing the set up and knowing how to fix it is different , with the advice he has given you I don't hold out hope , sorry .

Try what I suggested and see if they heat up .
And if it didn't work when it was fitted 9 years ago why wasn't it sorted ?
In that case it could just need a good flush as the sludge will drain and settle on the ground floor under the screeds .
Could just put some chemical in it and it may clear it out but there's a few cheap things to try before the full flush .
Removing each rad and cleaning them out with a garden hose works wonders , cheap , dirty , cold and wet but good fun .

Christopher

The system was flushed and inhibitor was put in when installed.

We put it down to that was the way it was and there was not much that could be done to the pre-installed part of the system.

Also when we moved in it was spring and we had not been through a winter and had the new system put in during the summer. So had no idea how good the system was before it changed to a combi.

I don't have the money to be doing anything at the moment.

Yours

Calley

rob7475

How old is the original part of the system? It could be that it's a one pipe system.

I'm no plumber but will explain it best I can. One pipe systems have both ends of the radiator feeding from the same central pipe. This means that the further along the pipe you go, the cooler the radiators get.

A twor pipe system has a pipe for the feed hot water to the radiator and another pipe to return cooler water to the boiler for reheating.

I had the same problem when we had a new boiler and some new rads installed a few years back. Some of the radiators weren't getting very warm. I had a look under the floor and realised part of the system was one pipe. I changed the pipework and that fixed the problem.

all our house is done in 15mm and that feeds 10 radiators with no issues.

martinsurrey

Ebbs73 wrote: »

It would make any difference at all to the system , 15mm pipes are fine .
Just because someone is qualified doesn't mean they are any good , experience is everything .

Christopher

15mm pipes are fine for a few rads on runs off 22mm pipes.
but after putting the plastic inserts in you're down to a 6mm hole.

a combi boiler, which typically pumps water at about 1.5m per second just cant get enough hot water through that 6mm hole to feed 3-4 rads.

I've had to fix a system like this, and it was my fault, replaced 22mm copper with 15mm pushfit plastic, upstairs got hot, downstairs luke warm at the tops, replased back to copper and all good.

calleyw

rob7475 wrote: »

How old is the original part of the system? It could be that it's a one pipe system.

No idea. It use to have a back boiler behind the fake chimney in the living room. The house was built in 1978.

The combi is sited in a cupboard in the hall way. And goes straight up stairs in to the little front bedroom and then it feeds a rad in the bathroom, back bedroom and the front bedroom. No idea in what order. But in the big front bedroom in the cupboard where the hot water tank use to be is the feed pipe that goes down from the attics in to the fake chimney breast in the living room.

There are further 3 rads one in the living room, kitchen and hall way. Again no idea of what order they are fed in.

Yours

Calley