drillng disaster

[schizo]

I have what appears to be an open vented central heating system powered by potterton profile. water is mains pressure (closed). rads are on 8mm microbore

few weeks back i drilled through a pipe in the downstairs cloakroom. i cut the pipe and after flowing water for ages, it stopped. had it repaired the next day. since then apart from downstairs cloakroom, no other downstairs heaters are working.. I had british gas round who closed upstairs rads and downstairs worked fine. then when reopened same prob. they felt it may be boiler thermostat, changed.. no result. then recently was living with them being luke warm downstairs, but 2 valves were leaking. they came to change valves.. downstairs totally stopped working (apart form cloakroom). came again.. engineer turned pump round backwards before replacing it.. now it's all knackered... only immersion for water. they want me to fork out £600 for ppowerflush.

I can;t figure if my initial drilling caused blockage on manifold.. or just an old airlock. but if this was the case pipes around pump should still get hot.. they;re not. boiler is hot, so cutting out pump.

also dont see why him turning pump backwards has knackered everything. help... should i find the manifold and clear it out.. or drain system.. or pay for powerflush.

help

 

[Agile]

Dont pay BG for a power flush.

I see that situation reported on here so often. When they dont know whats wrong they say it needs a power flush. At BG prices most people call an independent and get it properly diagnosed and fixed at a fraction of the price.

Tony

 

[namsag]

If you have twin entry microbore valve then powerflushing is not recommended and will not clear out the carp.
Find the manifolds cut them out and clear all the crude only problem is if you have a lot floating about they can lock up again.
If your not getting anything even with new pump i would be cutting air seperator out if you have one, also checking for crude from motorised valves through pump and back to boiler flow connection

 

[schizo]

thanks guys.

i have microbore coming in one end then out the other. is that twin entry? Could it be possible when the new pump was put in backwards it damaged the air separator? Its only about 6 inches up form it?

 

[Razor900]

Sounds like you should be jumping up and down at BG, how long did you have the pump in backwards? Pushed all the rubbish into the manifolds.

 

[schizo]

running backwards for about 10 mins. now its the right way though it makes an awful sound when it kicks in exposed pipes above boiler both get hot, but don;t go anywhere.
tried draining system from return pipe to boiler whilst allowing it to fill from mains but no joy. boilers getting hot and cutting out pump, because its not going anywhere. i figure there must be a blockage from boiler to pump as that would knock out hot water and heating.
have lodged a complaint with BG. wouldnt hold my breath though.. will prob have to get an independant in to change separator and find/change manifold... i'm guessing its near to the honeywell 2 port valve.. otherwise i'll be exposing a lot of floor boards...

 

[Razor900]

Are you sure they opened the valves either side of the pump after they replaced it?

 

[schizo]

yeah checked that. took screw off it and pressed in side a few times, not sure if some air came out. sounds a bt better.. but no improvement in circulation

 

[ollski]

Sounds like an airlock although the guys who worked on the system will know more as they have removed the pump and a couple of rad valves and will have seen the state of it. If it is choked up and the water is like oil then it almost certainly would benefit greatly from a flush.

This scenario though "boilers getting hot and cutting out pump, because its not going anywhere." shouldn't happen, the pump runs continuously to dissipate the heat unless it's overheating in which case get them back to chase out the airlock.

 

[schizo]

i figure it is airlocked when downstairs rads stopped working after drill incident, but since pump reverse hot water not working either.. the waters always been clear, never mucky from valves etc.. don;t think BG want chase airlock, they want me to pay for powerlush.

 

[schizo]

any reason why i couldn't connect a hose to the drain off (on return pipe to boiler) and connect to a tap to push water back through system?

 

[gas_man_gaz]

i don't understand why ya think its the eng from bg fault. the sys was obviously not working right before he came!
id be checking ya f+e tank then ya cold feed before digging ya manifolds out

 

[Paul Barker]

any reason why i couldn't connect a hose to the drain off (on return pipe to boiler) and connect to a tap to push water back through system?

Drain offs tend to leak a lot. I would take a rad off, make up a pipe to rad valve and backfill through there.

 

[schizo]

did that, water goes to header tank. still not working.. any ideas???

 

[namsag]

so what happens when you just put the hot water on what noises does it make how long does it stay how far up the pipes does it get hot (past the pump?up to cylinder?)
What boiler do you have . is the cold feed open vent in on 2 tees or does it have an air seperator