I have recently had a new boiler installed, a GlowWorm 30 Hxi. The old boiler was located in the living room and this new boiler has been installed in the kitchen. The house has 4 radiators upstairs and 4 downstairs. The pipe work seems to be a combination of copper and plastic. A previous owner added 3 downstairs radiators off a T from upstairs. I think the fourth downstairs radiator comes off the end of the upstairs loop on plastic pipes? The hot water tank is upstairs and there is a feed & expansion tank in the loft. The loft space is very shallow, perhaps 1 metre at the apex.
Since having the boiler installed we seem to have had numerous problems with radiators being intermittently on and off. The engineers have tried numerous things over the weeks since we had the boiler fitted. Changing TRV’s, flushing the downstairs loop with water to remove air, banging & shaking various pipes……
All the radiators now seem to be working however the upstairs radiators heat in about 10 minutes while the downstairs radiators don’t seem to start to get hot until about an hour after the boiler goes on. When I turned the upstairs TRV’s half down this morning the downstairs radiators seemed to hear in about 40 minutes. I also seem to be suffering from quite a lot of air in the system as I can bleed air out every day.
I’ve had the engineers back again today and they are telling me that the air in the system is because the vent pipe is not long enough (shallow roof) and that the downstairs radiators are slow because of air locks in the system (apparently plastic pipes are worse for this?). Their proposed solution is to cap/remove the vent pipe, add an expansion vessel in the airing cupboard and create a sealed system.
This all sounds plausible to someone who has next to no knowledge of plumbing/heating however I am reluctant to spend more money without a second opinion. I’d be grateful for any advice. Apologies for the essay but thought it would be best to give as much info as possible.
Since having the boiler installed we seem to have had numerous problems with radiators being intermittently on and off. The engineers have tried numerous things over the weeks since we had the boiler fitted. Changing TRV’s, flushing the downstairs loop with water to remove air, banging & shaking various pipes……
All the radiators now seem to be working however the upstairs radiators heat in about 10 minutes while the downstairs radiators don’t seem to start to get hot until about an hour after the boiler goes on. When I turned the upstairs TRV’s half down this morning the downstairs radiators seemed to hear in about 40 minutes. I also seem to be suffering from quite a lot of air in the system as I can bleed air out every day.
I’ve had the engineers back again today and they are telling me that the air in the system is because the vent pipe is not long enough (shallow roof) and that the downstairs radiators are slow because of air locks in the system (apparently plastic pipes are worse for this?). Their proposed solution is to cap/remove the vent pipe, add an expansion vessel in the airing cupboard and create a sealed system.
This all sounds plausible to someone who has next to no knowledge of plumbing/heating however I am reluctant to spend more money without a second opinion. I’d be grateful for any advice. Apologies for the essay but thought it would be best to give as much info as possible.