Boiling Up!!!

[MabbyMabster]

I have an Ideal gas boiler and a couple of issues with the heating/hot water:

1. The heating comes on using a digital timer control panel (British Gas UP2) and there is also a wall thermostat in the hallway. When the timer turns the heating on it gets very hot in the house despite the thermostat temp. I thought the thermostat was faulty so i replaced it but the issue remains, in fact the heating still comes on with no thermostat wired (and no wires touching).

2. There is a hot water tank on the first floor. I would assume that the gas boiler would fill this tank with hot water but it doesn't. The tank is currently being heated by an immersion switch as this is the only way to have hot water. This doesn't seem normal to me.

3. The digital timer control panel is wired up so the timing for the heating comes on with the hot water, but the hot water timing does nothing. I'm not sure if this needs re-wiring, or if this is a job i can do easily.

4. When the hot water taps are running there's a rumbling/humming sound coming from the tank. I've drained the system to see if it was trapped air but this hasn't fixed it.

I'm confused about this system because it really doesn't seem to be right, clearly is too hot and really inefficient. Any ideas in how to fix would be appreciated.

 

[HERTS P&D]

Turn off the immersion, the hot water should get hot via the boiler.

You seem to have a problem with a 2/3 port valve.

Post some pictures and you will get more help.

Andy

 

[MabbyMabster]

Thanks Andy, I have turned off the immersion but all that results is that i have no hot water, to get around this i have installed a timer on the immersion as a stop gap otherwise i had to leave the immersion on all the time to have hot water.

 

[HERTS P&D]

Post pictures of your hot water cylinders pipework.

Andy

 

[MabbyMabster]

Here's the pipework for the boiler and the digital heating/hot water timer panel...

 

[MabbyMabster]

Untitled

• MabbyMabster
• 30 Jun 2013
• 1

Untitled

• MabbyMabster
• 30 Jun 2013
• 1

 

[ianmcd]

The blue plastic square box in your pic is a 3 port valve and it is most likely that the synchron motor has seized inside there an easy fix for a heating engineer and this will heat your water via your gas boiler instead of you using an immersion heater

 

[cumfy]

There seems to be two electrically controlled valves.

Either could be faulty, or the control for them, or the control logic could be wired incorrectly.

Might be worth trying to listen to them whilst turning the hot water on and off on the control panel.

I'm no expert but am surprised that 2 control valves are needed.

 

[cumfy]

Actually, your system's symptoms are consistent with the control panel being broken. (looks pretty old).

The lack of a control signal to the hot water valves and the lack of response to the thermostat is consistent with a broken input/output circuitry on the control panel.


Or it could just be wired incorrectly.

Do you have any evidence of it ever working properly ?

 

[D_Hailsham]

There seems to be two electrically controlled valves.

I thought the same, then realized that the blue thing on the right is the pump! The picture needs turning 90 degrees clockwise.

The actual problem sounds like a faulty motorized valve - that's the blue box in the middle of the pic with three pipes in a T shape. There are detailed diagnostic instructions in How a mid-position valve works.