Am I missing something??

[maidmarionuk]

Hi,

Excuse any mistakes but this is my first post but I hope you can help. I have a really old central heating system (approx 30 years), now everything is working fine except.... ever since I moved in 3 years ago! In summer I turn off the central heating on the timer and just have hot water on for an hour. Only thing is that the rads get hot as well as the water. Ok I thought I'll check for some valve to switch between the 2, have found it and it says 'satchwell' and 'duoval' think from reading posts that its a 3 port. It has arrows on side pointing to 'hot water' and 'central heating' and there is a long narrow slot. I have had a look at the new sunvic motorised valves and they don't seem to have levers.
Am I missing a lever of some type?? If not how do I switch between the hot water/central heating/both? Not a professional but a quite savvy female

 

[Softus]

A picture of the pipework and your motorised valve would speed things along, but, in the meantime, a three-post valve would have three pipes connected to a brass T shaped body with a plastic or metal 'box' on top.

With the system starting from cold, and only hot water selected at whatever controls you have, if you feel the inlet pipe (the one entering the centre of the 'T') then when it gets hot only one of the side outlets should get hot.

If both of the outlets are hot then you have one of the following:

1. Faulty valve;
2. Faulty controls;
3. Installation error.

If it used to work and there have been no changes then you can forget the third suggestion and proceed to the usual fault-finding.

 

[wilhelm]

have you fallen over Softus? ??

and knocked yer head?



I can actually understand you.

 

[Softus]

Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw...

 

[wilhelm]

Prefer Skimbleshanks.

 

[Softus]

Used to like him too, but Lloyd-Webber spoiled it for me.

 

[superdupergasman]

These valves dont have a lever on the side,

They are also a pain in the neck if you have never worked on them before and work a little differently to a normal 3 port as the motor shut to HW rather than spring closed.

I would say it would be a passing body, but to replace you have to replace the full thing as the heads dont come off the body very easily. its a fairly easy job to do BUT you have to get the correct BODY of valve and HEAD, and when fitting new head to new boady make sure it goes on with arrows pointing to correct pipes as they fit on upside down too!

 

[Softus]

Just bang on a Honeywell - the passport to an easy life.

 

[maidmarionuk]

Thanks for you replies guys and gals? There's been no changes since I moved in it's always been this way. i'm off on me hols now so won't be able to post pic till I come back but will try the suggestions then.

Watch this space and thanks 4 all yr patience!