Does my house need repiping?

[Purplesilver]

Hello everyone any help or advice very much appreciated! I am fed up of living in a chilly house I can't get to go above 19 degrees when it's winter! Last year we had the hot water system power flushed but still the house won't warm up. I got British gas out today and he said it seems there is a blockage in the system as the temp of the water coming out the boiler was 22 and only 9 coming back in which shows its too sluggish and suspects a blockage. He said power flushing obviously isn't enough and we might have to repipe the house. Is this right as ripping up our house to repipe isn't an option for us do I have to live in a chilly house and just put up with it? He said our boiler is the right size for the house. Any ideas? Many thanks!

 

[D_Hailsham]

the temp of the water coming out the boiler was 22 and only 9 coming back

If that's true, the water is hardly being heated. If there was a blockage I would expect the water to heat very quickly up to max temperature and the boiler then cut out.

Which boiler do you have? - make, model and size (kW).

Is the boiler constantly turning on and off?

 

[Purplesilver]

Thank you for taking the time to reply, very kind. Yes he did say the boiler keeps cutting out for about 5 minutes then it goes back on for a couple of minutes then boiler cuts out again for another 5 minutes so it isn't constantly going even though the house hasn't got to the right temperature. We also have very very high gas bills which he said was due to the blockage £800 a quarter in winter we have a 4 bed house! The boiler is quite old but working fine and we had a new pump on it last year. It's a prima f and he said its an 80 and the right size for our house. Also it's set the 3 he turned it up to 4 but it just overheated and switched off so it's back on 3. Many thanks again!

 

[lightning]

i be looking at a blocked cold feed

 

[Purplesilver]

Thanks lightning what does that mean I need to get done, sorry I don't know what a cold feed is? Thank you.

 

[Purplesilver]

Also on his notes he has written suspect blockage on heating return pipe flow return pipe only 22mm and the left saying repiping is probably what we need and we would need to dig up all the tiles etc

 

[Gas2Air]

A re-pipe would be the ultimate end fix when everything else has been checked. Is that all he did measure temp at flow and return? As said a blockage would give a very high flow temp. What size piping to rads do you have, are they in copper?

 

[HERTS P&D]

Why not put in 2 doses of x800 and run the heating on full for 6hrs then flush through, it must be the cheapest option first?

Andy

 

[Purplesilver]

I'm not sure what else he did while he was here but was here about an hour and told me his conclusions but not sure what else, he said he can't check the pipes as they are under the tiled bathroom floor but mentioned something about a magnetic something to test with??! Sorry I don't know about plumbing and heating terms. I believe we do have copper pipes. Not sure on size though sorry. Is x800 to do with the power flushing? Should I get the guy who power flushed the system last year to come back and do it again? Although the British gas guy today said it wouldn't clear the blockage and wasn't enough to just power flush?

 

[Gas2Air]

My advice would be take some pics of your system, start with boiler, rads and pipework, airing cupboard and loft if pump and or valves are up there. Post them here.