Central heating fault

[Albs]

My parents have an ancient central heating system (conventional system, installed about 20 years ago) and it has been functioning fine until recently.

One of the radiators decided not to get hot and my old man decided to do some DIY. However, he found that after bleeding one radiator, another one would refuse to heat up and in the most recent of events, three went dead.

However, this evening, one of the radiators being bled went wrong and the brass bleed valve shot out after being loosened too much resulting in a rather big flood This radiator has been turned off completely on both ends but now none of the radiators are getting hot. None of the pipes leading to the radiators are hot either.

The central heating system can also heat up hot water and that works fine. We can hear the pump in action and when needed, the boiler will fire up to heat up the water. However, if only the central heating is turned on, the boiler would fire up briefly and turn off again (which is not what it is suppose to do).

All this has happened after the leak. I'm keen on getting the entire central heating system changed for my parents but it's their call and they disagree as they think it is a simple problem Any ideas?

 

[Burnerman]

Check that the flow and expansion tank in the loft has water in it....ideally about 4". Just for starters!
John

 

[Nige F]

20 years is Not ancient A sensible , savvy Heating engineer could recommend modernising it if necessary . I`ll bet extra insulation in and around the house would be money better spent too . There is a payoff with a brand new all singing /dancing economical boiler .....Hundreds of parts to go wrong