Drilling a hole in a radiator supply pipe??

[dylanF]

I drilled a hole in a pipe supplying a downstairs radiator, thus emptying the dirty water from the central heating system onto my lounge floor.
I had the hole fixed and refilled the system, but now the combi boiler (potterton netaheat 40e) in the kitchen will not ignite. What stops the boiler lighting?
When the system was emptying itself the pump upstairs was going crazy and got really hot, but it seems to purr contently again now.
Is there someway of checking the water pressure is right in the boiler?

 

[Agile]

Now this fellow, who sounds as if he should be in Wales, calmly drills a hole in a central heating pipe just to empty dirty water onto his lounge floor.

He then tells he has a Netaheat Combi boiler !

Now I have just finished a bottly of pretty aweful rose wine from a Virgin mail order offer. But in contrast I have just watched one of the best ever live musical BBC shows from Albert Aquare, Manchester on BBC 3 and again on BBC 2, so what shall I say?

The Netaheat is NOT a combi !!! Or the pump should be quiet? Or he should bleed any air from the pump screw and check the shaft rotates? And also he should bleed from a few rads? As well as checking any manual bleed points around his hot water cylinder?

Must go, Buddy Holiday music film on BBC 2 ! Reminds me of the jive I did to entertain the guests at the wedding last week!

Tony

 

[geoff@cetltd]

Have you re-pressurised the system
Have you bled the rads
is there air in the oump
is the auto air vent working
Have you tripped the overheat stat?

don't forget to put some inhibitor in the system

and steer away from religious crap on't telly

 

[JohnD]

Are you sure it is a Netaheat?

Are you sure it is a Combi?

How did you refill it to replace the missing water?

What colour was the water that came out, and what was the sediment like?

At what point did you turn off the boiler?

 

[dylanF]

Yeah I put the inhibitor in the system as I refilled it.
i've bled the rads. but don't know how to be sure I've got the right pressure.
Cheers 4 prompt response but I really need a step by step guide as to what I can do to:

Check the pressure is correct?
Check the pump is not causing a problem?
What else can I do?

 

[dylanF]

Black water went all over the floor.
I turned the boiler off straight away, but could not find an isolator for the pump.

 

[dylanF]

The boiler says "Netaheat on it"
I filled it up by releasing the floating ball thingy in a tank in the loft. which I had, had to wedge up to stop water continually being emptied on to my floor.

 

[geoff@cetltd]

First approximation, you should e able to "feel" the water in the pipe circulating near the pump

did the boiler come on for a few seconds when you restarted it ? if so, then you might have tripped out the overheat , if not, then look elsewhere

 

[JohnD]

The boiler says "Netaheat on it"
I filled it up by releasing the floating ball thingy in a tank in the loft. which I had, had to wedge up to stop water continually being emptied on to my floor.

Then I don't think it's a Combi. Have you got a hot-water cylinder? Is there a biggish cold-water tank in the loft (as well as the little F&E?)

If that's the way you filled it, then you don't need to set the pressure, it's all done by the weight of the water in the F&E tank, and its head above the boiler and rads.

 

[dylanF]

If say I've tripped the overheat thing. what can I do about it? There is a reset button on the underside of the boiler, but no combination of pushing this, switching the boiler off, or tring to get it to fire up seems to achieve the required result.

Yeah I've bled the rads, so the pressure should be ok.

the boiler does heat both the CH and HW, I think. Now that it's not working I can get HW through the immursion heater.

It seems there are 2 tanks in the loft but the big one is for the cold taps and toilet.

 

[JohnD]

You also need to bleed the air out of all of the radiators, do you know how to do that?

The black water indicates corrosion, so you can do a clean and add inhibitor later, but that can wait until you've got the boiler running.

I've used a Netaheat but without the manual wouldn't know what to do about the non lighting. Has the boiler fired at all - even for a few seconds - since the flood? And when you say your tuned off the boiler straight away, what did you do the turn it off? the thermostat; time switch or FCU? When you try to turn it on, do you hear the fan running, or relays clicking?

When I had a Netaheat, it was over 20 years ago - do you suppose yours is as old as that?

the boiler does heat both the CH and HW, I think. Now that it's not working I can get HW through the immursion heater.

It seems there are 2 tanks in the loft but the big one is for the cold taps and toilet.

OK, then it's not a Combi. So you don't need to presurise it - just bleed the rads and it will fill itself.

 

[CorgiIOW]

Combination, not sure what you mean.

Turn boiler off, press reset button, turn on again, and call for heat.

Tell us what happens.

Dave.

 

[dylanF]

When I turn the boiler on the fan starts.
When I set the gage it clicks and sounds like it should be firing up but there is just no flame.
I have pushed the reset button at every stage of this process and tried it all several times.

I guess the boilers about 15 years old.

 

[JohnD]

What did you do to turn the boiler off when you had the flood? The FCU, the timeswitch, the thermostat on the boiler, the thermostat on the wall?

 

[dylanF]

I turned the boiler off at an isolator switch next to the timer programable thingy.