Confused.com - emersion / boiler issue

[darrenh]

Hello

My shower runs cold very quickly - I have to use the emersion heater as for some reason the normal oil fired boiler just does not seem to heat the water up.

Questions:
- does hot water always take prescedence over heating (i.e when the boiler is fired up is it heating water for the tank or is it heating rads)?
- how can I tell if my emersion is knackered? It creates some hot water but not enough for a single 5 minute shower!

cheers

D

 

[wilhelm]

f.f.s. does the boiler have a name?

 

[darrenh]

The boiler is a Camray Oil Fired boiler approx 5 yrs old

 

[Terrywookfit]

Is your system fully pumped or gravity hot water ??

 

[darrenh]

Gravity hot water but pumped to shower.

 

[Terrywookfit]

I meant your heating system my fault!
If you have gravity circulation from boiler to cylinder ,check for water in the expansion tank!!

 

[darrenh]

I have a gravity system.

I have two tanks - a smal one and a large one (I think one is for the boiler and the other is for the emersion).

Both have water in although the smaller one seems shallow and is full of dirt in the bottom (possibly blocking the feed pipes at the base). Sat next to it are some old bottles of central heating cleaner fluid).

I'm new into the house - could there be a blockage effecting the system?

 

[JohnD]

If you can post some pics of the pipework around your Hot Water Cylinder and Boiler, showing the pump and any electrically operated valves, that will help.

What size is your hot water cylinder

Run your pumped shower into a bucket and see how many litres per minute it delivers.

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