No Heat in Downstairs Radiators/8 mnth old Combi Boiler

Lizbetty

Hello everyone!

We had a new combi boiler fitted by an Ideal approved fitter in July. Been great up until yesterday when the downstairs radiators were either stone cold or luke warm. Hot water is fine.

Ideal said it's not a boiler issue and it's not covered under warranty, probably sludge in the system.  The original fitter is coming back on Friday to flush it etc.

When he fitted the boiler he worried me as my husband had to lend him tools and he kept on about having a bad hangover. So now I'm wondering if he hasn't flushed the system properly or something like that. There is a brand new filter on it, most of the radiators are new, it just seems odd this has happened after 8 months.

If it's normal and we have to pay that's ok obviously, but I thought I'd check it's not something he should be putting right for free. 

All advice is very welcomed!

Thanks

Lucy 

Bendy_House

Mostly new rads? And a new boiler. There should be very little, or no, sludge in there, as part of any installation is a system clean to some degree.

Is your upstairs and downstairs 'zoned' at all - ie controlled with different wall 'stats? If not, if there's only one control 'stat, and all the rads come on at the same time, then I'd agree with Ideal it's unlikely to be a boiler issue.

For 'sludge' to cause this sort of blockage, tho', would require a fair amount in there.

This was an Idea-approved fitter? Cool - what warranty were you given?

What kind of filter is fitted, and when was it last checked? That will usually give you a very good indication of what's going on. Are you up for checking this yourself?

Ok, what I'd do is to read the installation instructions for your exact boiler, or check this with Ideal themselves - exactly what level of system cleaning/powerflush is required for THAT boiler in order to fulfil the warranty you were given?

rob7475

Are all the upstairs radiators OK? If so, try turning the TRV's off on the upstairs radiators to see if it forces the downstairs rads to heat up. You could even close all the TRV's and open one radiator at a time to see if each one heats up. If none heat up downstairs when upstairs are off, it sounds like you may be on two zones and it could be a fault with the zone valve

Ant555

Have you / would you know how to bleed the downstairs radiators?

I may be way off the mark but thats what I would do if the issue was in my house - quite simple and easy to do.

Lizbetty

Bendy_House said:

Mostly new rads? And a new boiler. There should be every little, or no, sludge in there, as part of any installation is a system clean to some degree.

Is your upstairs and downstairs 'zoned' at all - ie controlled with different wall 'stats? If not, if there's only one control 'stat, and all the rads come on at the same time, then I'd agree with Ideal it's unlikely to be a boiler issue.

For 'sludge' to cause this sort of blockage, tho', would require a fair amount in there.

This was an Idea-approved fitter? Cool - what warranty were you given?

What kind of filter is fitted, and when was it last checked? That will usually give you a very good indication of what's going on. Are you up for checking this yourself?

Ok, what I'd do is to read the installation instructions for your exact boiler, or check this with Ideal themselves - exactly what level of system cleaning/powerflush is required for THAT boiler in order to fulfil the warranty you were given?

Hello!
Yes it's just the one zone/thermostat for the whole house. 

We have a 12 year warranty on the boiler, I did make sure he was an approved fitter on their lists too. It has an Ideal filter fitted too, he said we shouldn't need to touch it and it would be checked during annual services so didn't give us any guidance. I did clean the previous filter so I could have a look although this one is quite different. 

Thanks for the advice, I'll certainly look at the instructions to see what should have been done. The boiler isn't making the same noises as it did before when the heating is on mind you, it was quite a whoosh but it barely changes and the radiator temperature on the screen rises and falls a lot, not sure if this means it could be something else like the pump? 

Lizbetty

rob7475 said:

Are all the upstairs radiators OK? If so, try turning the TRV's off on the upstairs radiators to see if it forces the downstairs rads to heat up. You could even close all the TRV's and open one radiator at a time to see if each one heats up. If none heat up downstairs when upstairs are off, it sounds like you may be on two zones and it could be a fault with the zone valve

Thanks I'll try that and report back. I tried turning them all to 3 on the trvs yesterday to see if it helped but I haven't switched the upstairs ones off. We have a kickboard heater in the kitchen that came on briefly after that, but then was on for 30 seconds, off for 10 minutes in a cycle and the room wasn't anywhere near the set temperature on the thermostat.  

Lizbetty

Ant555 said:

Have you / would you know how to bleed the downstairs radiators?

I may be way off the mark but thats what I would do if the issue was in my house - quite simple and easy to do.

Thanks,  that's the first thing we tried but they were all fine.

nofoollikeold

If the downstairs radiators are fed via pipes dropped from the floor above, the problem could be one or more air locks.  

NSG666

What is the perssure in the system? Should be c.1bar or in 'green' zone

FreeBear

nofoollikeold said: If the downstairs radiators are fed via pipes dropped from the floor above, the problem could be one or more air locks.  

Could be the circulation pump...

OP - Do you hear any noise from the radiators when the CH is on that might indicate the pump is running ?

Lizbetty

FreeBear said:

nofoollikeold said: If the downstairs radiators are fed via pipes dropped from the floor above, the problem could be one or more air locks.  

Could be the circulation pump...

OP - Do you hear any noise from the radiators when the CH is on that might indicate the pump is running ?

Nothing from the radiators at all, but the boiler usually makes a considerable noise when it's heating the radiators which isn't happening now, even though the upstairs radiators are hot.