Hi, just had my usual plumber in to try and sort out the following problem but he hasn't managed to.
System is from the early 80's when the house was built but the boiler has been moved at some point from the kitchen downstairs to the upstairs cupboard where the hot water tank is. Gas boiler heats the water and this goes via a pump to a valve. This valve then feeds the hot water tank/central heating system. The boiler is working fine and I have hot water from the taps. The pump looked OK but was replaced in case it didn't have enough power to force the water past any blockage. The valve is opening and closing correctly.
Turning the CH on results in the pipe on the CH side of the valve getting very warm but the radiators not getting any heat to them - they are all cold. Opening the valves fully on all radiators didn't result in any getting warm. Closing all radiator valves except those on the 1st radiator in the circuit resulted in that radiator heating up after 5 - 10 mins. But the temp of the radiator wasn't as high as the pipework from the valve and the return pipe was only marginally warm.
I cannot see where the feed from the header tank goes into the return pipe - I think 'cos when the boiler was moved it was left under the bath or something like that.
The plumber reckons that there's a blockage in the return pipe in between the 1st radiator and the boiler. Hence the hot water doesn't even flow round the shortened circuit when only the 1st radiator valves are opened. He's suggested a power flush but doesn't have the kit for it. Another suggestion is to use a heavy duty cleaner but will this work if no water is getting round the system?
So, the final question is....."is this the likely cause, could there be others and how do I go about fixing it or getting it fixed !!!"
tks
Dave
System is from the early 80's when the house was built but the boiler has been moved at some point from the kitchen downstairs to the upstairs cupboard where the hot water tank is. Gas boiler heats the water and this goes via a pump to a valve. This valve then feeds the hot water tank/central heating system. The boiler is working fine and I have hot water from the taps. The pump looked OK but was replaced in case it didn't have enough power to force the water past any blockage. The valve is opening and closing correctly.
Turning the CH on results in the pipe on the CH side of the valve getting very warm but the radiators not getting any heat to them - they are all cold. Opening the valves fully on all radiators didn't result in any getting warm. Closing all radiator valves except those on the 1st radiator in the circuit resulted in that radiator heating up after 5 - 10 mins. But the temp of the radiator wasn't as high as the pipework from the valve and the return pipe was only marginally warm.
I cannot see where the feed from the header tank goes into the return pipe - I think 'cos when the boiler was moved it was left under the bath or something like that.
The plumber reckons that there's a blockage in the return pipe in between the 1st radiator and the boiler. Hence the hot water doesn't even flow round the shortened circuit when only the 1st radiator valves are opened. He's suggested a power flush but doesn't have the kit for it. Another suggestion is to use a heavy duty cleaner but will this work if no water is getting round the system?
So, the final question is....."is this the likely cause, could there be others and how do I go about fixing it or getting it fixed !!!"
tks
Dave
