Noisy air filled system

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regsmyth

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In my new house the hot water and heating system are very noisy. As soon as the pump starts you can hear bubbles moving around.
I'm not sure if it's all set up properly, although I guess it's been like this for several years.

The boiler is an external mounted oil boiler.

The central heating also works, but when I checked it out in May, I found some radiators not getting hot, even after bleeding.

Here's some photos but I haven't put labels on them to identify which pipes are what yet.

Can anyone offer any advice or suggestions please.
Thanks.


 
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From those pictures you need a pro to come and have a good look at the installation. The first pic is worrying. As is the second.
Jeff
 
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Ok heres a diagram to show how it all connects.



Does this explain why the system seems to constantly cycle air bubbles (even when on hot water only)?

As I understand radiators were added several years ago to replace a system of night storage heaters.

Any thoughts please?
 
Cold feed and open vent pipe should be just before the pump (vent, feed, pump in that order). Yours are after which is causing the problem. Your header tank is full of rusty water so probably all your radiators and pipes, including the boiler, are too. Potential symptoms: lots of air, blockages forming, cold radiators at the bottom and eventually pinholes in pipes and radiators. System will need totally draining (to get rid of as much material as possible), pipework altering and then refilling with system inhibitor added. You might be lucky enough that you've caught it early to stop the list of problems I described from developing!

Cold feed and open vent on the cylinder pipes was common with older gravity hot water systems but shouldn't be on a fully pumped system, yours has been converted poorly by someone who doesn't understand system design. Also your open vent pipe should be 22mm, not 15mm.
 
View media item 32248Not exactly same as yours, just substitute the 2 zone valves for your 3port.
Really posted to show the correct way the pipework should be configured.
Disregard the info on back boilers.
 
From your photos and diagram it needs some re-piping.
The cold feed and vent should be on the flow from the boiler before the pump in the order of: Vent,cold feed,pump,3 port valve.
Cold feed and vent no more than 150mm apart, cold feed in 15mm and vent pipe in 22mm all the way up over the feed and expansion tank.

With that setup I'm surprised its not pumping over leading to water coming out the feed and expansion tank overflow pipe.

The cold feed piped up like a U shape is asking for trouble aswell as it will easily accumulate a potential blockage.

No pipe lagging, no earth bonding.

Don't like to see isolation valves on heating pipes either but that's my opinion.
 
Thanks for all the replies.
Hopefully a relatively easy fix then.
Draining as I type.
Will let you know how it goes.
 
It was going well, I have re- done the pipework, but when clearing up noticed a puddle at the back of the tank.




It seems the connection to the top of the coil has been leaking for some time.
When I apply a bit of torque to the top nut, I can see the back "washer" rotate too.
I can't get a spanner onto the back nut without cutting off insulation. I may as well try that unless anyone has a better idea?


The rust isn't good either, the old cold feed "U" was full of it. Theres black gritty lumps in the pipework....



When it's all connected again I'll put some sludge remover in and see how it runs, but I fear there will be ongoing problems.
 
It's a wonder it works at all with that amount of muck in it!

Get it all cleaned out properly, and re-piped before winter comes.
 
Have had to cut the insulation many times for exactly that reason! Sometimes you can cut it out neatly with a knife and put it back afterwards if access is good. Won't make a big difference if you can't though.
 
D

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