Mystery always on towel rails

Jeepers_Creepers

oniongirl said:

Update: I should not have twiddled the knobs on the towel rail. One of the valves is now leaking. And still no news from my heating fella except for a "later in the week" message on Monday. 

Could it be that the valve I twiddled wasn't to control the heat? Which way should I turn it if I have accidentally loosened something? Or is it more likely that no one ever touched the valve and it's just broken.

Things have now escalated. The heating appears to want to stay on all the time, too. I shouldn't have jiggled its valve to compare with the HW.

What is it with valves? Seems you just have to look at them the wrong way.

I should have warned you. ALWAYS, without exception, wear sunglasses when twiddling rad valves.

You can almost certainly sort this drip yourself, using an adjustable spanner. Or, just turn both ends off fully, and release the TR pressure by opening the bleed screw until nothing comes out. The drip will stop. (Close the B-S afterwards...)

But, if you want to actually stop the drip - you do, don't you? - just post a close-up pic of the miscreant valve and we'll guide you through it. It'll take, ooh, 30 seconds to fix...

Jeepers_Creepers

fezster said:

Not the case on honeywell 2 port valves. The manual lever wont go far enough to operate the microswitch. Though there may be different variants.

However, I agree with you that the microswitch is probably stuck, causing the boiler to fire even with the programmer off.

You are sooo right! I remember now when trying this yonks ago - I had to firmly pull the lever across quite hard so's it swung 'beyond' the end, and I'd hear that click before it settled again!

oniongirl

Follow up. My plumber friend ended up calling his Vaillant specialist mate for me as I woke up this morning to a fault on the boiler that turned out to be a faulty PCB. 

Whilst matey was there, he sorted the HW valve for me. He said the electrically controlled valve had failed because the actual valve underneath was stuck (or something). He freed it on the proviso it will probably fail again at some point, but I'll probably want to leave that for as long as possible once I see the bill for the PCB 

Jeepers_Creepers

Thanks for the update.

PCB? Gulp

I wonder if they'll do it as a fixed-price repair - if it would otherwise come to more than the £200-odd for these?

oniongirl

Yup, just over £300 for part and labour. Next time I will go via the Vaillant website (now that I know) and book a fixed price repair... although only would've saved about £30, so I don't feel too scammed.

Thanks for all your help, JC. I'm sure I'll be back 

oniongirl

Aaaaand now I think the valve is stuck closed instead of open  What a month for my bank account. I definitely preferred it stuck open.

Apodemus

oniongirl said:

Aaaaand now I think the valve is stuck closed instead of open  ... I definitely preferred it stuck open.

I know what you mean!  I have two zone valves needing replaced, but that can wait for summer when I am planning to drain down and flush the system.  Fortunately in my system the "fail" is open, so the only downside is full heating and hot water, which is no hardship. 

Jeepers_Creepers

oniongirl said:

Aaaaand now I think the valve is stuck closed instead of open  What a month for my bank account. I definitely preferred it stuck open.

Lol! (oops, sorry...)

The good news is you have an immersion heater. The 'bad' is that it's not wired.

If the valve is stuck closed, then I presume your boiler isn't running (except for CH) and that your valve's lever is tight against 'auto' and stiff to move (suggesting the valve is closed)?

You might be able to 'sort' this using a piece of wood, ooh, roughly a foot long and 2" square, tho' actually pretty much any size will do. Ok, make sure your system is 'calling' for DHW and then thump the valve using the block. Does it make a noise other than 'boing'? No? Hit it again. And again.

Ok, stop hitting it...

If that hasn't made the valve move, then you can still heat your hot cylinder provided you can move the lever to 'manual' and lock it there. Once in this position, your hot cylinder will be heated whenever your CH is also on - which I guess it will be a lot.

You'll need to close the valve again manually when the cylinder is hot - ie release the lever, and it should return to closed under spring pressure.

southcoastrgi

Is this in a cold area ?

Jeepers_Creepers

I think it's in the UK, so yeah.