Whole house pump (Salamander) doing my head in!!

dew_3

Hi,
I have a whole house pump installed in my loft which provides cold water to whole house and another feed direct to my combi boiler. I have two issues which are just making me go mad.
1. It makes a lot of noise. The pump itself is not noisy (as i checked by gng in loft), but 'cos it's in loft, the base wood carries the vibration and it becomes really noisy in first floor.
2. Today, it has gone mad, it's just switchin itself on every 15-20 seconds for 3-4 seconds. First i thought the dishwasher is on, but no, none of the water consuming appliance are on. This switching on has been going on since last half an hour I have restarted the pump, tested by switching on the tap in bathroom etc, to no avail.

Any help/pointers will be much appreciated, esp for point 2.

Cheers,
Dew

dew_3

Wanted to add that the 2nd red LED was flashing which as per google means:

LOCK-OUT - RED L.E.D. ON due to aeration & or water starvation -in either condition
the pump will first endeavour to purge the airlock or blockage via an ON- OFF sequence during which No 2 Red LED will FLASH

I don't know how long will it take for it to purge the airlock! Anybody...

BobProperty

I think the answer to 2. is what you have put in your second post.

My question is why have you got a pump and a combi boiler? This is a very unusual situation as combi boilers aren't usually compatible with a pumped supply. Unless both were installed at the same time and / or the necessary checks were made that the two were compatible, then you will most likely always have problems.

dew_3

Well, all the builders ( i did take 3 quotes) told me to have a combination boiler (it's a 3 bed detached house). I had my reservations but a gentleman from this forum advised that if i get the lead-pipe change from mains to house , the vailliant 831 would be more then sufficient (new boiler was being installed). Now, even after getting the lead supply changed, the pressure was not good enough. So in the end the setup I ended up is:
1. 2 cold water interconnected tanks in loft.
2. A twin whole house pump , one feed goes direct to combi boiler and other supplies cold water in house.

This has worked fine so far. The hot water pressure is good and hasn't troubled so far. Though I am still trying to figure out how to quieten it down.

With due respect, the installer was expert in fixing combi-boilers and done exceptional job with it, am not 100% confident about his expertise in installing pumps/tanks.

Cheers

Canucklehead

Hi

I would have wondered why the main did not provide sufficient pressure before going down the pump road.Is this a problem that affects the whole area or street?
Please look at the following
...http://www.salamanderpumps.co.uk/Download/instructions.pdf

Important notice, second paragraph.
IMO a combi is classed as a water heater.
In normal pump situations I would sit the pump on a piece a paving slab (nice and dense) and the pipework would fixed with rubber under the clip.
As for the air, make sure the pipework is rising continuously to the tank/s.

Corgi Guy.
Edit.. A call or email to both Vaillant and Salamander would give you an answer?

plumb1_2

Sounds to me it has been starved of water, are your tanks big enough 50gall min?
Plus with it being in the loft, you will suffer from Negative head pressure, i believe the RHP pump requires 600mm head to avoid negative presure.
Lower the pump and pipe with 22mm pipe min.

KeithP

As Canucklehead said, get the pump sitting on a paving slab. If you can get a 24 inch one in loft that will cut down the noise considerably.

You still need to investigate the second point though.

ozskin

slamander pumpwise helpline is superb get all the details together pump number etc and give the guys a call will call you back as always busy