Quick central heating question!

booter

I have a combi condensing boiler approx 8 years old (Ideal Isar white elephant piece of junk :mad:) I wish I could afford to replace it.....but I'm stuck for now. Anyway. I also have a stiff hot water tap in the bathroom, so it can be difficult to fully turn off the hot. If it's left slightly "open" I get a dribble of hot water, and the boiler displays the "d" showing that the water's running. But, I usually only notice this when the house has gone cold - if the hot water is running, the central heating isn't, and the radiators go cold. (Hope this makes sense!) Is this normal? (I have no idea how the system works!) TIA

Myser

Yes, it's normal. When the boiler detects hot water demand, the diverter valve stops the flow water through the central heating pipework.

What sort of tap is it? You should be able to replace the cartridge/washer.

booter

Thankyou Myser Makes sense when you put it like that!

The tap is a normal "turny" contract tap (is "turny" a technical term? If not, why not? ) but they're less than a year old and I suspect it's more to do with loss of strength in my hands than anything else When I get some spare cash, I think I'm gonna go for some quarter turn lever type ones. Until then, I'll have to make extra sure it's turned off, dry hands and turn again!!

Thanks again for the info, much appreciated

boliston

I have got a similar problem with my bath hot tap so as a workaround I use the shower to fill the bath (take the shower head off and let water from hose fill bath).

I was finding that the bath hot tap could not be turned on enough to trigger the combi to start heating water.

firefox1956

Get some WD40 or similar & squirt a bit down into the tap.
Work the tap on & off as hard as you can few times squirt some more WD40 do the same again.
Probably cure your problem
HTH

Myser

booter wrote: »

Thankyou Myser Makes sense when you put it like that!

The tap is a normal "turny" contract tap (is "turny" a technical term? If not, why not? ) but they're less than a year old and I suspect it's more to do with loss of strength in my hands than anything else When I get some spare cash, I think I'm gonna go for some quarter turn lever type ones. Until then, I'll have to make extra sure it's turned off, dry hands and turn again!!

Thanks again for the info, much appreciated

Often what happens on the cheaper contract taps is that the washer on the hot side wears faster and you need to turn it tighter to shut off the water completely. Is the cold water tap easier to turn off?

I much prefer the quarter-turn catridges! You may be able to retrofit quarter-turn cartridges to the existing taps.