Heating Problem

[HelenMidd]

Please help before we end up getting divorced if anyone can that is...
Have had a heating problem for about a month now.
Our heating seems to have a mind of its own...We have radiators that only seem to work occasionally.
Have bled all the radiators and know the pump is working properly. Our boiler is making noises as though it has air pockets in it, so drained the only radiator with a draining valve and got air out of it, then the radiators worked fine for a while.
A week later same problem, but instead of being ok for a week, they are only ok for a few hours now..as far as we can work out, our boiler and pump are upstairs sometimes the closest radiator to them works, sometimes the only one to work is the one furthest away.
So as I,ve said all radiators have been bled and the only one that could be drained has been. Any idea what we could try next please.

 

[breezer]

our "resident plumbers / heating engineers" will want more information

Type / make of boiler

combi or not (do you have a large cyinder in a cupboard commonly called airing cupboard)

how mant radiators have you

have you changed anything (new rad? taps, anything)

how old is boiler

anything else that may be relevant

 

[breezer]

helen was unable to reply to this post? so she made a new one so i qouted it to avoid confusion, and i will ask for origonal post to be removed (to avoid more confusion)

Had to make a new post, wouldnt let me reply to other one for some reason

As far as I can see it is an Economist boiler

Yes its combi

Have 2 rads upstairs only one of which gets hot ( closest to boiler )

3 downstairs, only 1 of which gets hot

Havent changed anything to heating system, and dont know how old boiler is , we moved in 8 years ago and it was here then

I forgot to mention, hubby has done some of the bleeding and draining with the pump on, I said all the things I,d seen about this said to do it with the pump off...He said it should not make a difference,can someone please clarify this is you can.

It just seems we drain and bleed when problem occurs, get air out and about 6 buckets of water, some of which is hot, some cold, its ok for a few hours then rads stop working again.

 

[HelenMidd]

Thanks Gasman....I only said its not the pump because it is only 6 months old, so wouldnt expect it to go wrong this quickly...

The rads that are usually hot are the one closest to the boiler up stairs, and the one directly below it in the dining room, the otheres upstairs and downstairs are the ones that usually are cold, but again, sometimes they are hot, like at the moment, the bathroom one downstairs is hot, but not the one in the lounge downstairs.

 

[Registered Gas Man]

Sorry got it wrong, is not a combi

Tut, tut, Oilman LOL.

Is this all the radiators or just the upstairs ones?

Is it the rads furthest from the boiler??

How do you know the pump is fine who checked it ( Your Hubby) ???

Is the header tank in the loft space filling with water??

 

[oilman]

First, thanks breezer, your standard response to these heating queries to get some base information is really helpful. Keep it up

I forgot to mention, hubby has done some of the bleeding and draining with the pump on, I said all the things I,d seen about this said to do it with the pump off...He said it should not make a difference,can someone please clarify this is you can.

DO IT WITH PUMP OFF!!!!!!!!!! You won't know whether its sucking or blowing if the pump is on. Could be a large part of the problem.

You don't say if it is a sealed system or open vented, but I assume as it's a combi, it is probably sealed. If it is, you need the expansion vessel checking. Search the forum for "filling loop" or "expansion vessel". If you have problems bleeding the system, I suggest you get someone in to do it.

 

[HelenMidd]

Someone suggested putting refresher in the feeder tank to seeif it was a sludge problem, is this a good idea or not?

 

[oilman]

RegisteredGasMan wrote

Quote:
Sorry got it wrong, is not a combi
Tut, tut, Oilman LOL.

This thread has confused me, things get replies before they've been sent, (acccording to the post's timing) so not sure what you mean

HelenMidd, deal with the air first, if that works, drain some water from the bottom of the system somewhere and if it's black, you could put some refresher in, but you will need to drain and flush the whole system in a couple of weeks to make it worthwhile. Then you need to add corrosion inhibitor when you refill (and bleed of course )