Free Personal Plumbing Info.

Doglover88

my parents house had gas central heating fitted 25 years ago,with a back boiler fitted behind the gas fire in living room. I'm, wondering how long it'l lbe before everything needs replacing? (all pipes etc)
The back boiler is going to be replaced after xmas, which means we can get rid of copper cylinder in airing cupboard, and the 2 water tanks in loft, just wondering if its worth replacingall the pipes at the same time as all the rooms will be being stripped and replastered etc.
And would you use copper pipes again or the plastic ones?

many thanks in advance

buggu

Hi

my water tank overflow pipe is dripping. I have managed to get the ball !!!! arm out (it was rusted and lossely held) through the opening at the top but was wondering is there any way of opening or removing the water tank so i can get easy access to it inorder to replace it. Its a small old black water tank which seems to be sealed and its position means i dont have easy acces to the opening at the top.

SP1

Do you have a digital camera and access to photo bucket to upload your images, this would certainly give us a better picture.

Regards

babydino

I just moved to my house and one of the radiators is driving me mad.

When the central heating turns on, I can hear dripping noise coming from 1 of the radiators. The noise is intermittent. I can't see any leaking and I have already bleed the radiator. The noise is annoying enough to wake me in the morning.

Help! I am close to smashing the radiator. :mad:

plumb1_2

babydino wrote:

I just moved to my house and one of the radiators is driving me mad.

When the central heating turns on, I can hear dripping noise coming from 1 of the radiators. The noise is intermittent. I can't see any leaking and I have already bleed the radiator. The noise is annoying enough to wake me in the morning.

Help! I am close to smashing the radiator. :mad:

If there is nothing leaking, then it will be the rad/pipes expanding with the heat,you could try opening the valves fully.

Mortgage_&_debt_free

I have been told that I can't have any more radiators as my system (Baxi Bermuda back boiler) is at capacity.

It's currently running 9 rads - one decent modern double finned job in the lounge, all the rest the old type single panel ones (two of them being the double ones with one panel behind another).

The kitchen (single panel), bathroon (double panel) & one bedroom (single panel) are particularly difficult and never really get comfortably warm and even though the rads themselves get hot, the room doesn't.

Although I realise I can't have any more rads, does this mean I also can't replace these old type rads within modern double-finned ones? If I can replace them will this make a significant difference to the amount the room will heat up?

If it makes any difference the system is microbore with thin pipes.

Any advice gratefully received.

SP1

Mortgage_&_debt_free wrote:

I have been told that I can't have any more radiators as my system (Baxi Bermuda back boiler) is at capacity.

Although I realise I can't have any more rads, does this mean I also can't replace these old type rads within modern double-finned ones? If I can replace them will this make a significant difference to the amount the room will heat up?

Hi

You will certainly get slightly more heat out put per surface area, so they is no reason why you can't just change your radiator for one's of a size that are as close as possible. The chances are you old rad's are imperial. The hard part is when you come to fit the new ones to your exciting pipework; getting everything to line up correctly...

It also would be advisable too save a little bit more and have the boiler and or system completely updated. For a start you will get a more energy efficient boiler that will in the long run will save money...

Don't forget that all boilers need to be serviced on a yearly basis...

Regards

tPIC

Hi All,

I have a 70 litre Heatrae Sadia Megaflow unvented electric immersion (I only know that because I read the label!) hot water tank in my loft. The annoying situation that I and my family find ourselves in is this:

We were noticing that the temperature and volume of hot water that we got each morning and evening were both decreasing..

The timer switch goes on at the pre-set time to heat the water for about 1hour. After this time, I can hear and see hot water dripping from the overflow/pressure relief pipe. After approx 30 mins, there is no longer any quantity of hot water left.

Has anybody any clues what could be happening here? I am always reluctant to get in a plumber without first trying to half understand the problem myself. Could it be that the cylinder is full of limescale deposits and hence is not able to expand when heated without triggering the pressure relief valve? The tank is appox 9 years old I believe and we are in a hard water area.

Any help appreciated.

tPIC.

SP1

tPIC wrote:

Hi All,

The timer switch goes on at the pre-set time to heat the water for about 1 hour. After this time, I can hear and see hot water dripping from the overflow/pressure relief pipe. After approx 30 Min's, there is no longer any quantity of hot water left.

Any help appreciated.

Hi...

Under normal circumstances water should not be dripping from the pressure relief valve, therefore this would be of concern to me. Water expands as it is heated by 1/25 of it's bulk IE: 25 litre will expand by 1 litre, I'm not going to get too technical here. This expansion has to be accommodated by the system.

Three things could be linked here...

1, Water consumption has increased by more than the capacity on the system.
2, One of the Immersion heater has failed or failing.
3, And more likely as the water is heated, it is simply just being discharged by the pressure relief vale and wasted.

Regards

tPIC

Thanks SP1 - Are there any practical steps for me to take to try and work out which of the 3 is the culprit?

There is only 1 immersion heater on the tank, and if that were failing I can understand why that would lead to the lower water temperatures, but not the discharging water?