Boiler/hot water problem - advice please

justontime

I have just had someone else go up and check the loft. There is only one water tank in the loft.

BobProperty

I just got a GoogleWhack for "J Baguley". Any other labels? Are you in the north west or west Yorkshire?
The header tank for the CH will not be very large, only about 18" x 12" x 12" and should be insulated; so if it is tucked away behind the main water tank in the loft it's easy to miss.

justontime

No, there are no other labels on the cylinder. I am not in the places you mentioned I am in the East Midlands. There is definitely only one tank in the loft, you had me doubting myself so I got someone else to check. It is only an ordinary house so the loft is not massive and it doesn't take long to check everywhere.

BobProperty

justontime wrote: »

No, there are no other labels on the cylinder. I am not in the places you mentioned I am in the East Midlands.

You'd have been impressed with my Holmes' type skills if I'd been right though.

justontime wrote: »

There is definitely only one tank in the loft, you had me doubting myself so I got someone else to check. It is only an ordinary house so the loft is not massive and it doesn't take long to check everywhere.

OK. I take it that it is a reasonable size, say about 30"-42" x 18"-24" x 18"-24"?
I also take it that you have vented the points and tried moving the valve as suggested by Canucklehead and that this hasn't made any difference?
If you use the immersion heater does that still work and heat the water?
Is there anything special about the water in your area, like very hard?

justontime

The tank is fairly big, 20 gallons but I have not measured it. I have done all the things that Canucklehead suggested, but it made no difference. The Immersion heater is not heating the water either (see my initial post). When I run the hot tap the pressure is good but the water is tepid, I can hear the cylinder filling up after I run the hot water tap. The water in this area is hard but not as hard as in some other areas, I don't think there is anything unusual about the water here.

Canucklehead

Hi

Did you open the gate valve fully?How many turns to full open?

You have a system boiler . Expansion is built in.I remember you mentioned the means of filling behind the cylinder.

Corgi Guy.

justontime

Yes, I opened the gate valve fully, it will not open any further, that was about three full turns or possibly 4 turns. I am not sure what you mean by expansion being built in, but yes there is a flexible pipe behind the cylinder that has a little lever valve that lets us top the pressure up when necessary.

plumb1_2

Baguley is the maker of the cylinder.

If you have only tank in the loft, it could be a duel tank( it has a serperate compartments inside) to seperate the 2 systems.It will have 2 tank lids.

If there is no duel tank or 2 seperate tanks, it could be an old Servowarm sysytem.
Is there a small shell type box fitted( no bigger than a shoe box) to the wall in 1 of the bedrooms at high leval?
This type of system is filled using a hosepipe and you just top it up with a jug of water now and again.They dont have a ballvalve fitted.

justontime

plumb1 wrote: »

Baguley is the maker of the cylinder.

If you have only tank in the loft, it could be a duel tank( it has a serperate compartments inside) to seperate the 2 systems.It will have 2 tank lids.

If there is no duel tank or 2 seperate tanks, it could be an old Servowarm sysytem.
Is there a small shell type box fitted( no bigger than a shoe box) to the wall in 1 of the bedrooms at high leval?
This type of system is filled using a hosepipe and you just top it up with a jug of water now and again.They dont have a ballvalve fitted.

There is only one tank and one lid in the loft. It is not an old servowarm system and there is no shell type box anywhere in the house. If you read my original post you will see that the whole heating system with the exception of the cylinder in the airing cupboard was replaced in Nov 2003. Prior to that we had a backboiler and I got rid of it because it restricted my choice of gas fire and I didn't like having to have an air vent in the lounge, but I don't think that has anything to do with the present problem.

Canucklehead

Hi


I've just been looking at the photos again , and realised that as the pipework is the original 1" copper I think the one at the bottom ( with the air vent) is where it may well be blocked. I still don't think it would warrant a new cylinder, but if you have the cash to spare then it will be more efficient in it's re-heat time.
If you have it done let us know what happens.

Corgi Guy.
PS
The boiler will have a red expansion vessel built inside it to accommodate the system water expanding on heating up. It does the same thing as the small tank in the roof that you probably used to have .