Boiler Cuttiner Out

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31 Mar 2006
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Dorset
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Hi

I have an open gravity fed system with an old Ideal Concorde WRS boiler. A few months ago the rads weren't heating up downstairs so I went through the usual process of turning off all but one rad etc, this would normally work for a short while so I thought it may be a balancing / air lock issue but recently had all but one rad turned on and still no heat.

Next step was to check the pump, I removed the top screw and the impeller is defnitly turning and humming. For the first 4 years of moving in everything was fine!

Over the last couple of years I've done a few DIY jobs on the rads so I thought maybe there's a severe air lock so tonight I comeplety drained the system and now no heat in any of the rads! The hot water is fine though.

I started to think back on what I may have done. One thing was to remove the thermostat from the wall last summer and join the two red and black wires together before taping it up and sticking it in the walln then sealing it over!!!! (lol). Maybe this caused the problem but wasn;t noticed till winter time. The other thing is that currently the boiler kicks in but cuts out after a few mins. On the front of it there's a temperature dial saying Off, 1-6. When it cuts out if I TILT (not turn)i.e press down at 12 o'cock it seems to kick back in put when I let go it cuts out!!! What could be making it cut out? Could it be the thermostat or something more serious. This is driving me up the wall as we now have no heating and the wife is going to wake up in the morning with a frying pan in hand!!!

Any help please?
 
Just because the armature is spinning doesn't necessarily mean that the impeller is attached. I can show you a few that have snapped off.
Isolate the pump, then you should need a 4, 5 or 6 mm allen key depending on the make and age of your pump to remove the pump head
 
Thanks I'll give it a go. It has been making one hell of a rattle for the last couple of years! Does the fact that the pipes above and below the pump are piping hot not mean its working?
 
An easy thing to check before you do the pump thing would be to clamber up into your loft and look in the small F&E tank. Make sure the ballvalve isnt stuck in the 'up' position and that the water is above the outlet level.
another thing to check after the pump is that the cold feed pipe isnt blocked. Cross that bridge when you get to it.
The hot water in the area of the pump could be heat from the pump motor itself or a bit of gravity circulation.
The reasonn your boiler cuts out is likely to be; that the water in it has reached temperature due to the pump not moving it round the system.
Why did you take your room stat out of line when its job is to stop you getting too hot thus saving you money?
 
I have the same boiler in my house and we have had the same problem and today we found the fault.

This system has a pump for the hot water and two individual timing pumps. One of the timing pumps has failed. It comes on for the hot water when the timer turns the hot water on. But when it tuns the heating on it switches off or even tries to turn on but doesnt.

These two timing units are grey metal boxes attached to the pipes with wires coming from them. They look like Aluminium boxes.

You can manually turn on the unit by playing with the top bit. But this is a temporary solution.

I would suggest that you get a competent heating engineer or just use British Gas as they have a good deal on at present.

thanks
Peter
 
I have the same boiler in my house and we have had the same problem and today we found the fault.

This system has a pump for the hot water and two individual timing pumps. One of the timing pumps has failed. It comes on for the hot water when the timer turns the hot water on. But when it tuns the heating on it switches off or even tries to turn on but doesnt.

{Aluminium boxesThese two timing units are grey metal boxes attached to the pipes with wires coming from them. They look like .}

You can manually turn on the unit by playing with the top bit. But this is a temporary solution.

I would suggest that you get a competent heating engineer or just use British Gas as they have a good deal on at present.

thanks
Peter

ZONE VALVES!
 
PostPosted: Fri Mar 31, 2006 5:15 pm Post Subject:

think he might have twigged by now
rofl5.gif
 

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