Confused with my Heating, can anyone help please?

razra

Hi I'm having some issues with my heating

Back in feb british gas came out to service my boiler (its a back boiler) they told me it was all sludged up and needed a power flush. I couldn't afford the £500 so I bought the sludge remover from wickes and put that through the system for four weeks, drained it all out then put inhibitor in. (all heating and HW working ok)

In the summer I noticed that when I had hot water on I also had heating on, so drained down the system again changed the zone valve and filled it all back up again with inhibitor in the system.

Put the heating on manual overide a two weeks ago as and when I needed heating, again all seemed ok

However when it got really cold last week I decided to put the heating on timer. Now I get hot water but no heating. If I turn the heating off from timer with a few attempts I can get the heating to fire up and it will run perfectly.

Phew if youve read through all that thanks:D

So I'm wondering if its the timer thats not sending the signal to the boiler to fire? or whether the zone valve is still faulty? Any ideas please?

I'm guessing pump is ok as when I can get the heating on it runs perfectly, I have also bled all the radiators and there doesnt seem to be air in the system.

darleydame

Why have British Gas????????? They must be the most expensive about.
System flush should only cost about £200/£250
Get onto Corgi website and get a registered gas person out - it will be much cheaper in the long run.

alanobrien

You already suspect the timer and/or zone valve/motor and they are the likely suspects. I would add the thermostat to that list. You may end up having to replace parts sequentually until the problem resolves itself.

razra

Thankyou alanobrien

Good to know I'm looking at the right things, think I will go for the timer first as the zone valve arm does appear to move (plus I don't want to have to change that again if I don't have too as it was a pain last time! LOL)

Many thanks and best wishes
Sarah

razra

darleydame wrote: »

Why have British Gas????????? They must be the most expensive about.
System flush should only cost about £200/£250
Get onto Corgi website and get a registered gas person out - it will be much cheaper in the long run.

But I did it myself and it only cost the price of the chemicals so not sure what you are getting at?

missile

I wonder why you had British Gas out to service? Have you considered signing up for their maintenance contract. I found them quite good and I am sure it worked out cheaper than paying call out, labour and parts.

razra

I am signed up for their mantenance contract which is the reason they serviced the boiler, but I've only got the very basic boiler cover hence the reason I'm trying to see if I can sort this out myself as the controls are not covered(which they told me when the zone valve needed changing so I did that myself)
Plus I want to be able to cancel the BG contract next month when my 12 months is up and go with someone better and hopefully cheaper so I'm loathe to try and upgrade my basic cover for the sake of 1 month if it means I'm stuck with BG for another year, when I can possibly change the timer / zone valve myself and fix the problem.

baldelectrician

it sounds like a control problem.

get a heating engineer that can fault find or an electrician that knows about heating control circuits and can test.

EliteHeat

alanobrien wrote: »

You may end up having to replace parts sequentually until the problem resolves itself.

That is the worst advice I have ever read. Resolving a problem such as this is not down to luck or chance, you should not keep throwing new parts at it until the system works.

Any competent heating engineer would be able to diagnose the exact cause of the problem in minutes.

razra

well I have just changed the timer control and early indications suggest it is now working, so I will monitor it over the next week or so with everything on timer and see how I get on

Although when I took the old timer off I did notice that there was no cable for heating off, and when I checked all the cables in the airing cupboard (which is where the juction box is) there was not a wire that end either, therefore it has not somehow come unconnected at the timer end so I'm guessing it doesn't need one

Anyhoo, fingers crossed its ok again

alanobrien

EliteHeat wrote: »

That is the worst advice I have ever read. Resolving a problem such as this is not down to luck or chance, you should not keep throwing new parts at it until the system works.
Any competent heating engineer would be able to diagnose the exact cause of the problem in minutes.

Never found a competent one yet and i have employed many over the years. Sequential testing and replacement is not luck or chance its a logical diagnosis and progression process that on occasion involves replacing more than one component to get a machine working. I say machine because this is a common process used across industry today. For instance I dont know of any heating engineer that can diagnose a mainboard to component level hence a mainboard and associate riser cards may be replaced when all that is wrong is a dry joint. The same is true of programmers and thermostats etc. Unfortunately we live in a de-skilled throw away society which is regretable.