Radiators not Heating Up

housebuyer143

tristanjourney said:

Hi everyone,

We purchased our new home this Thursday. I only managed to have a thorough look around today. I encountered an issue with radiators and I would appreciate any advice.

I have checked the boiler, which is a gas-fired Vaillant ecoTEC plus, and it appears to be running correctly. I also have a Honeywell thermostat on the ground floor, which I have adjusted to the desired temperature, but unfortunately, the radiators are not heating up. The hot water and cookers/hobs are working properly. Additionally, I noticed that our smart meter from British Gas has shown no gas charges since February, which seems unusual.

I have attached photos of the thermostat, boiler, and smart meter for reference. While I am not an expert, I suspect that there may be an issue with the connection between the thermostat and radiators. However, it is possible that I have overlooked something simple.

Thank you all for your assistance in advance!

Normally the time clock would be in that blank panel on the right if you had a manual one built into the boiler. It doesn't look like you do though. I had the boiler and it's an additional add on.

Have you pressed the I button to see if it says anything? The pressure looks fine. I agree with others that potentially the thermostat isn't working and as such the boiler isn't firing up.

jonnydeppiwish!

Is the heating on the boiler actually on?

goater78

The display on the boiler is just the tap symbol so you’re in hot water only mode. You need to get the radiator symbol to appear. 

housebuyer143

goater78 said:

The display on the boiler is just the tap symbol so you’re in hot water only mode. You need to get the radiator symbol to appear. 

Yes, that's the problem. The heating is not firing up, which is why the radiators don't come on.. The radiator symbol will appear when they are firing up..

Have you read the manual OP?

https://www.manuals.co.uk/vaillant/ecotec-plus-615/manual?p=9

ThisIsWeird

goater78 said:

The display on the boiler is just the tap symbol so you’re in hot water only mode. You need to get the radiator symbol to appear. 

Yes, that's missing.

Struggling to find how to turn the CH on and off - it would appear to be just by turning up the CH temp output control, but the OP's is already turned up, so confused by this.

HB143, try turning the CH knob - the bottom one - all the way anti-clockwise, and then all the way clockwise. Does a radiator symbol appear on the display?

If not, try pressing the 'reset' button - the top-left one of the 4.

tristanjourney

As you suspect, this is very unlikely - the lockshields should not be touched, and it's very unlikely they have been. The other end will either be a manual valve, or a TRV with numbers - which is it? And are these open?

One step at a time! When you turn that room stat upwards to above the room temp, does it make a 'click'? (Some do, some don't). Does the boiler do anything in response? Does the boiler display change at all?

I know nothing about that specific boiler and wall stat, so cannot tell if the CH is actually timed to be off - the seller may have done this to stop gas consumption. Must...read...instructions... :-)

The other end is TRV and they are all turned on.

When I adjust the thermostat, there was no click sound, and the boiler didn't change any display or doing anything obvious.

What is CH time off? Can you please elaborate? 

tristanjourney

goater78 said:

The display on the boiler is just the tap symbol so you’re in hot water only mode. You need to get the radiator symbol to appear. 

I thought about that. Followed the instructions, but didn't any section that shows how to make the radiator symbol appear.

Then I realised that maybe the symbol only appear when the radiators start to work, which apparently none of radiators work. I might be wrong though.

tristanjourney

ThisIsWeird said:

goater78 said:

The display on the boiler is just the tap symbol so you’re in hot water only mode. You need to get the radiator symbol to appear. 

Yes, that's missing.

Struggling to find how to turn the CH on and off - it would appear to be just by turning up the CH temp output control, but the OP's is already turned up, so confused by this.

HB143, try turning the CH knob - the bottom one - all the way anti-clockwise, and then all the way clockwise. Does a radiator symbol appear on the display?

If not, try pressing the 'reset' button - the top-left one of the 4.

I did try to turn off the radiator and turn it back on. The radiator symbol is still not there.

I did also click the reset button. Still the same in display.

The boiler display always just show that hot water symbol. The radiator and flame symbols don't show up. Something I couldn't figure out is if those symbols indicate they are currently being used or if the functions are turned on.

Could it because the service valves at the bottom of the boiler was turned off?

Anyone has similar boiler model can help? I feel it is some small things that I missed but couldn't figure it out

tristanjourney

I probably didn't press the Reset button long enough to really trigger the reset. Will try that later.

ThisIsWeird

tristanjourney said:

As you suspect, this is very unlikely - the lockshields should not be touched, and it's very unlikely they have been. The other end will either be a manual valve, or a TRV with numbers - which is it? And are these open?

One step at a time! When you turn that room stat upwards to above the room temp, does it make a 'click'? (Some do, some don't). Does the boiler do anything in response? Does the boiler display change at all?

I know nothing about that specific boiler and wall stat, so cannot tell if the CH is actually timed to be off - the seller may have done this to stop gas consumption. Must...read...instructions... :-)

The other end is TRV and they are all turned on.

When I adjust the thermostat, there was no click sound, and the boiler didn't change any display or doing anything obvious.

What is CH time off? Can you please elaborate? 

Cool - the TRVs are on. Almost certainly that part is all ok - the rads and pipework are fine and flowing (and even if they were all turned off, the boiler would still fire up when told to.)

By 'timed', I mean whether there is a 'programmer' fitted. The room stat, as you know, detects and sets the room temp - turn it up above the current room temp, and it'll 'call for heat'. Most systems also have a timer - a programmer - to give the times when it should come on, say 6am, off at 8am, back on at 5pm, etc. One can be fitted into the front panel of the boiler, or you can fit an external one - there's nothing like that near the boiler? (The best thing to ultimately fit is a Prog Stat which does both, but that's getting ahead of ourselves!)

So, is there a programmer near the boiler? If there is, then this would have to be 'on'.

Hmm, that rad symbol. Yes, perhaps it only comes on with 'demand' - there's a good chance of that, but the instructions aren't clear. What they do say is, to turn on the CH, you rotate the rad knob clockwise - you have done this. Q - does that knob 'feel' ok? The same as the one above? Or is it 'loose'?

Next, when you turn the DT90 up and down, does a flame symbol appear on the screen? If so, any click' as it appears and disapps? 

Is there a battery symbol showing?

Unless the boiler has its CH turned off in a way I don't know, then the next most likely cause is a faulty DT90. There is a way of by-passing this, but you'd need to be happy to do it. :-)