Different opinions from plumbers - who is right?

davey4444

Hi there. We've recently noticed some problems with our heating system and, having spoken to a couple of plumbers, we're none the wiser as to what the answer is.

We have a back boiler system with hot water cylinder and the main problem is that we have no hot water when the central heating is off. If we move the thermostat to 20+ then this obviously kicks in the radiators and we do get hot water too.
Possibly unrelated to this our cold water tank in the loft will always overflow when the heating is on.

Our first plumber explained that the valve to (or in) the cylinder is faulty and will need replacing, this will fix the lack of hot water. They then said that the expansion pipe going into the cold tank is not high enough, therefore the dripping. Added to this the ballcck is loose.

Another plumber tested the system and simply diagnosed that a new cylinder was needed as well as a de-sludge of our system. We have been quoted around £650 for this including the boiler service.

We've yet to hear back from the original plumber for a quote but one sounds like a lot more work than the other. Is there any way to know who could be right?

Thanks in advance..

adaze

I'm not a plumber and have no experience of this system, but I would imagine that if you used to get hot water when the CH was off then the first thing to check would be the directional valve that send water to your taps or CH or both. It may just have a blockage which could be caused by contaminents etc... or the valve may just need replacing. If the overflow pipe is dripping then your tank is filling up too much so a loose ballcock would explain this. I don't know about the expansion pipe height.

I don't know if you CH is independant to your HW with this kind of system, but I;m sure someone that know will be along shortly....