Air in radiators/tank overflowing - problem solved

[sharpo]

Will try & add vent, pump & valves to drawing tomorrow, pump arrow does face up.

The old pump was on slow speed, and radiators rarely needed bleeding, just the one in the bathroom where the hot water tank is (perhaps every few months)

Boiler is a Potterton Kingfisher.

That's me done for tonight now, thanks all.

 

[davebgas]

Turn this pump speed down. They come out the box on speed 3.

 

[sharpo]

Turn this pump speed down. They come out the box on speed 3.

Done that - it is on lowest speed, tried that straight away

 

[sharpo]

Hope this is the final drawing, think I have managed to fit it all in more or less as it appears.

 

[ollski]

If that is an accurate drawing your best bet is to combine your feed and vent by teeing the feed pipe into the 22 mm vent

 

[doitall]

You show the flow and return at the top, is it a hot rod in the immersion heater boss. I bet not many on here remember them.

The obvious problem is the cold feed is in the wrong pipe, it should be between the vent and pump.

 

[ollski]

I bet not many on here remember them.

Remeber them?, they are a daily occurance think cash must be tighter than in Royal Bath Spa!

 

[sharpo]

You show the flow and return at the top, is it a hot rod in the immersion heater boss. I bet not many on here remember them.

The obvious problem is the cold feed is in the wrong pipe, it should be between the vent and pump.

The flow & return are at the top of the tank, it is one without an immersion heater.

So the cold feed & vent need altering then? I don't know much about these things (obviously) but just found it strange that it was OK before the pump was changed. Suppose the new pump is more powerful then???

I'm with British Gas Home 200, don't suppose that includes alterations to piping??

Thanks for feedback so far.

The next step is to find somebody to get the problem sorted. If BG don't cover it in Home 200, I don't know any plumbers - how do you find a good plumber who doesn't rip you off?

 

[doitall]

What speed is the pump set on, you turn it down as far as it goes and still gets the rads hot.

Only the cold feed needs altering, not a big diy job.

If you send me an email (in my profile, if you take the white space out) I'll knock up a drawing of how it should be.

 

[ollski]

Seeing how tight the space is between the vent and the pump your best bet, as I said, is to simply cut the exsisting feed from the tank and tee it into your 22mm vent pipe to give you a combined feed and vent.

 

[sharpo]

Thanks for the replies folks.

Haven't been able to make any progress over past couple of days, will try & get it sorted somehow next week.

Won't be doing it myself, might have tried it years ago - but not as young as I used to be.......

I have noticed that when the pump is only pumping to heat the water in the hot water tank, the inlet pipe gets warmer, so water is being pumped into the header tank, causing the water to dribble out the overflow pipe.

Still not sure whether to just get BG to do it or try a local plumber/heating engineer. That's the difficult part!

In the past I've had problems with both - useless isn't the word I would use!

 

[sharpo]

Just thought I should bring this to a close. My wife asked a friend, whose brother had a best friend that happened to be a plumber!

I described the problem to him over the 'phone, also said what BG had said about needing a powerflush because "there was a blockage". Explained where feed & vent pipes were and what had been mentioned as a solution from comments here.

He came round, studied form, we drained the system & he modified the pipework. The feed pipe from the loft is now "before" the pump, (as is the vent pipe) not after, so no water is being forced up into the header tank.

Everything now works fine, no probs. Powerflush? No way, what a farce!