Power Flush Required??

[Doallyn]

Hi guys, if you've been following my screwed up heating system - this is the next chapter

bascially its an open vent system with a new cylinder, pump, 3port valve and programmer recently installed - everything is installed and working in terms of the individual items - the boiler fires, the pump goes round, everything is bled BUT there is no hot water circulating from teh boiler (which gets hot) to the pump!

the pipes out of the boilder are hot but at the pump its cold! - anyway, having struggled to figure all this out we got British Gas to come in for their one price fixes all deal, so this guy turns up - firstly says that the pipework is wrong and the cold feed needs to be moved to the pipe at the back (i wasn't there for that - cos that meant putting the cold feed into the pipe going into the pump from the boiler - err not quite right i think)

so next day he returns and now says that they don't need to do that but that there is a blockage and we need a powerflush that isn't covered, and also cos our boiler is so old they can't cover that and can't fix the problem - see you later bye!

so now i'm back to where i started - in a cold house! if there is a blockage between the boiler and the pump i can't see that it just suddenly formed when we drained the system to change the cylinder?? is there anyway of detecting this blockage, which must be in the pipework under the floor boards and is the power flush the only way to fix this - we couldn't say find the blockage, replace that piece of pipework and then treat the system chemically afterwards?!?

its all so frustrating!!!!

 

[hi-spec plumbing heating]

you say the pipe gets hot from boiler to the pump.

then you say the blockage is between the boiler and pump.

you drained the system did the f/e tank empty when you drained it ?

 

[MasterAbacus]

I bet the B-gas man also said that the required flush isnt covered on your "One Off" call out scheme either.....

Id rec you google the B-Gas and their offer of flush.... I bet you find some damn good reads.....

Oh and BTW.... I bet you dont even need a flush through the system.... "Or Power flush"....

 

[JohnD]

?Is the system full of water? If you bleed the highest radiator in the house, does water squirt hard out of it?

What colour is the water?

When did the system last work?

What has happened to it since it last worked?

Have you got a strong magnet?

Have you looked in the F&E tank, is it full? Did water flow out of it into the system when you draind it? how much sludge is at the bottom, and what colour?

people often like to sell you powerflushes. Powerflushes cost a lot of money. there may be a connection between these two facts.

 

[oakland99]

this may sound a bit silly but why don't you get the plumber back who did the work,,i am assuming it was done by someone else and not yourself,,why slag off the b.g engineer, i would be slagging off the bloke who done the work,, he has replaced cylinder, pump and valve and left it not working

 

[hi-spec plumbing heating]

ya then slag of bg for what their worth

 

[Doallyn]

sorry the pipes get hot at the boiler but that heat doesn't get to the pipes around the pump!

i don't really want to get the guy back who replaced the cylinder as he didnt' it just as a favour and i watched him replace it the cylinder as is - pipe for pipe - which is what i don't understand

we had another guy round (ex BG this time) and he looked at it and said that the system was configured in the "old way" and that the cold feed should be on the pipe coming from the boiler to the pump next to the open vent pipe ?!?! is taht right? sounds odd to me that you'd want a cold feed coming into hot water from the boiler?!

anyway he said that the configuration probably caused a blockage and we'd need that changing and a powerflush - 350 quid!

i'm amazed that you can tell where the blockage is just by looking at the pipe work - i'm just not convinced at that diagnosis?!? or that the configuration is that incorrect considering that it was working fine before all this!?!?!?

if there was a blockage wouldn't the system not fill up? all the radiators squirt out clean water and the air vent screw value next to the pump - if there was a blockage surely the system wouldn't fill up like that!??!

 

[brentwoodheating]

Are the pump valves open?
Have you bled the pump?

 

[Doallyn]

yep - pump valves are open and pump is dribbling water quite happily!

 

[EliteHeat]

Are you certain that the new pump is actually working?

 

[Doallyn]

yep - i've swapped it out to double check that so a newer one is in there!

the configuration we have is Boiler - open vent - pump - cylinder - cold feed - which having done some reading isn't the best and can cause "see-sawing" but would this prevent the system from working at all?

to me it seems that we have Boiler - blockage - open vent - pump etc.. but as the pipe from the boider to the pump is under the floor boards how can you tell? and if so is the flush the only way to fix this?

 

[JohnD]

post some photos so we can see how it's done.

have you bought a magnet yet?

 

[Doallyn]

not yet - where can i get a magnet from? does it need to be a big one to move sludge blockages or just small one to detect them?

Here's a photo -

you can see the cold feed going into the return from the cylinder

 

[EliteHeat]

I would have thought that a blockage in the primaries would be quite unlikely and if the system worked (and why wouldn't it) before, then why shouldn't it now? an airlock seems the only reasonable answer.

Why not spend fifty quid on hiring a power flusher just to see if you can get the system working? I remember replacing a boiler about two years ago and had similar problems. The only way I could get it working was to temporarily hook up the flushing machine - took about a minute to get it all working after that and then it's simply a question of putting the pump back on.

Edit: Love the photo - looks like one of my jobs!

 

[Doallyn]

does the power flusher just connect where the pump goes then? i've got a plumber mate coming round tonight to take a look and if there is a simple way of doing this (he might have a powerflusher?) would that solve the problem?