Central Heating help

[gremlyng]

Hi Forum,

I'm completely new here - I'm completely stumped and a complete novice with heating / water systems!

I own and live in an older Terrace house in South Wales UK.

The previous owner had fitted the central heating system many years ago! probably in the 70's.

I have 8 radiators, one copper water tank in the airing cupboard with what looks like a pump fitted on the wall along side, there is also a tap which I assume is for the cold water feed.

The boiler is situated in the kitchen and is called - Ideal 'E' type it say inside that it is an 'RS Balanced flue gas boiler'

I have a header tank in the attic with what appears to be a much small tank along side both of which have the traditional ball cock's fitted. The main tank is full with clean water but the smaller tank seems to have some scum in the water and to me looks like it is never used.

My problem is that I have several cold radiators, I have tried bleeding them although there doesn't seem to be any air in them. The rads that heat up are very warm and our warm water tank seems to be working fine.

I'm am wondering if the system self fills, and if it is possible that at some stage the water level within had dropped so low that the cold radiators no longer have enough water inside to heat up.

There is also thermostat controls on the radiators, so I'm guessing they could be faulty? I wouldn't have thought they have been replaced since the system was installed.

I guess I could and maybe should get an expert in, but I thought I'd give the forum a go first, as cash is a little tight so soon after Christmas.

Thanks for reading any help and advice it highly appreciated.

Cheers
Paul (gremlyng)

 

[Terry7556]

paul are the rads cold all over?
on the cold ones can you feel the pipe that leads to the thermostatic valve.is it hot up to the valve but not past the valve or the valve itself.
if it is like this the valve is stuck and not opening

 

[buck51]

Remove the thermostatic valve heads and see if the pin is stuck down!

 

[gremlyng]

wow that was quick

I've just been around checking the rads, the kitchen and seperately the bathroom rad's are cold all over - the pipes coming to and from these radiators are also cold.

Every other radiator has very hot water going to and from them, the heat being given off these varies so I'm guessing that these must need bleeding.

I can't work out why the kitchen and bathroom ones are cold.

On a sperate note inside the airing cupboard there are two sperate silver boxes which appear to be fitted inline with the pipes, both when held are warm and feel like they are pumps. I might be completely wrong in calling them pumps. On top of one of the silver boxes is a slider type switch or blade that freely moves back and forth.

Cheers for the help so far

 

[twgas]

When you tried bleeding the rads did you get anything out of the bleed point (water or air)?
"there didn't seem to be any air" doesn't really tell us much.

 

[Terry7556]

the two silver valves in the airing cupboard are your c/h and water valves.they open electrically on response from your roomstat for c/h and the stat on the cylinder is for hot water.
with you having varying heat from the rads read the FAQs at the top for balancing your system

 

[twgas]

The silver boxes are motorised valves, the loose levers will(should) have resistance when the circuit it controls is off.

 

[gremlyng]

The two offending rads when bled let cold water though only.

 

[gremlyng]

Hi Mick,

I switched off the water and seperately the heating and both of the blades showed resistance so I guess they work fine.

Cheers
Paul

 

[Terry7556]

read the boiler and c/h frequently asked questions at the top of the page about balancing your system

 

[gremlyng]

ok thanks everyone - I'm going to have a read

Cheers
Paul