Moved to house with Microbore heating - a few questions

[goalc]

We have just moved to a house with microbore heating and I have a couple of questions which I hope you can help with.

1) when the heating comes on (and goes off) there is a lot of loud clicking as the pipes expand/contract that goes on for a long time , much more than in our old house with \\\"normal\\\" pipes. Is this typical of microbore, or is there a problem with a pipe catching somewhere?

2) we live in a hard water area, and I am sure that the previous owners never put anything in the pipes to reduce limescale. Is there anything we can add to get rid of any build up in the pipes, or is this like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted ?

3) we want to fit thermostatic valves, but cannot find any that fit a microbore system - do they exist ? Or is it possible to adapt the microbore pipes coming out of the wall to a more standard size so that we can fit any thermostatic valve on ? (the bathroom has a sort of adaptor as they have fitted a heated towel rail with standard 15mm joints, but this does not look like a very good/secure solution how they have done it)

4) in our ensuite, there is also a heated towel rail fitted, and whilst the inlet pipe is always hot, the towel rail hardly ever gets hot - 95% of the time it is cold, then it will suddenly come hot then be cold again for a few days - is this a faulty valve, or something to do with the microbore system ?

5) any other things we need to watch out for with the microbore?

6) finally, is it worth replacing the microbore system with normal pipework, or I am smoking something here as it would be a very expensive / difficult thing to do ?!

thanks for any advice....

[ACOperson]

Ask DP or Al-Glasgow, loads of microbore up un Scotland. They're probably best to tell you.

[Slugbabydotcom]

goalc wrote:

We have just moved to a house with microbore heating and I have a couple of questions which I hope you can help with. 1) when the heating comes on (and goes off) there is a lot of loud clicking as the pipes expand/contract that goes on for a long time , much more than in our old house with \\\"normal\\\" pipes. Is this typical of microbore, or is there a problem with a pipe catching somewhere?

Happens in any system where the pipes notches under floorboards are cut too tight stopping the free movement of the pipe

goalc wrote:

2) we live in a hard water area, and I am sure that the previous owners never put anything in the pipes to reduce limescale. Is there anything we can add to get rid of any build up in the pipes, or is this like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted ?

So long as you have no leaks that havent been sorted out for a long time there should be only a negligible amount of limescale as you are re-using the same water for the CH side of the system. There are products available for descaling heating systems but if this was an issue a powerflush might be a better option than just chemical treatment

goalc wrote:

3) we want to fit thermostatic valves, but cannot find any that fit a microbore system - do they exist ? Or is it possible to adapt the microbore pipes coming out of the wall to a more standard size so that we can fit any thermostatic valve on ? (the bathroom has a sort of adaptor as they have fitted a heated towel rail with standard 15mm joints, but this does not look like a very good/secure solution how they have done it)

You are definitely not looking hard enough. There are loads available! The choice is yours but FWIW I am currently using Europa ones from Graham plumbing and have had no probs with them

goalc wrote:

4) in our ensuite, there is also a heated towel rail fitted, and whilst the inlet pipe is always hot, the towel rail hardly ever gets hot - 95% of the time it is cold, then it will suddenly come hot then be cold again for a few days - is this a faulty valve, or something to do with the microbore system ?

Could be a faulty valve or perhaps a blocked manifold, pipe or even that your towel rail simply needs bleeding

goalc wrote:

5) any other things we need to watch out for with the microbore?

Apart from kinks in the pipework there is another rarer fault that sometimes occurs with a type of manifold called a Berlin manifold. It is basically a 22mm stop end fitting with a number of holes usually four into which the microbore pipes are inserted. What happens is that the lowest of these holes is prone to blockage with debris or solder.

goalc wrote:

6) finally, is it worth replacing the microbore system with normal pipework, or I am smoking something here as it would be a very expensive / difficult thing to do ?!

Unless you are having lots and lots of problems the answer to this is no.

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