Gloworm CH not working but HW is ok..help!

[JPsantos]

Hi all, hope someone can help me out here and BritishGas can only come out in 10 days and it's freezing!

Have a Gloworm Ultimate boiler, probably over 20 years old, I'm a tenant.

I'll try give as much detail as possible:
For some reason yesterday the central heating stopped working. Hot water works fine.
Turn CH dial on the wall, can hear it click.... but boiler won't fire up. On the programable display its set to 'always on'
I dont think the problem is the boiler - if I select the hot water to be ON or always on, the boiler fires up no problem.
Nothing I've done so far has managed to get it to fire up when the central heating is selected.

I have read about a motorized valve that might have failed, but where abouts is this exactly? thinking of hammering it just in case it got jammed or something...
some photos below hope it helps.

I'm ok in taking things apart and fixing, but this is new to me, so any ideas fire them across and I'll give it a go. tools are not a problem.

thanks for any help!
I'm on to the landlord but rather just get it done and fixed if I can do it than rely on someone else to come over.

 

[terryplumb]

Motorised valve will be near your hot water cylinder .post pics of Pipework around there .

 

[JPsantos]

Hi, here's some photos.
the red pump? yesterday had light on, numbers, now it has nothing, but even when the lights were on yesterday i still had no central heating, havent investigated why lights not on right now as just taken photos and came here to upload.

couple of years ago, the pipes around there were rusted solid, they were cut, new ones put in and this electronic gadjet/pump? added in
thank you!

 

[terryplumb]

The white square box is the valve. Need a pic of that , are there three pipes connected to it ?

 

[JPsantos]

hi, yes there is 3 pipes to it, heres some photos, thanks for the help!

 

[terryplumb]

On the side of the valve is a small black lever and markings W --M--H.
W is hot water
M is mid position
H is heating.
Put programmer on continuous central heating ,wall stat calling for heat ,say 20 degrees. Go to that white valve and tell us your observations .
If you can stay by the valve whilst a second person turns the programmer on ,that would be helpful.
Listen for any sound the valve makes ,and any movement

 

[JPsantos]

Got it going mate!
had a look on youtube and how that valve works (had no clue it was a valve) I used the manual override lever, pushed it to the right, as soon as it was all the way to the side and the marking was on the H I heard the boiler downstairs kicking in (I had left the dial at 25 degrees and the digital programmer as "always on")

I'm going to let the house warm up a bit then I'll do the test you mention.
But judging by what's happening so far I reckon somehow that valve is not working remotely. either motor inside packed up or no voltage being received from downstairs controls.

am I thinking this right?
to be honest I could open it up and check voltage to the motor, if its there when downstairs should be sending signal up and could isolate the problem between controller or motor.. but if this gets me going for now, I'll leave it for the landlord to sort it.

 

[terryplumb]

Ok ,your sorted for now. Voltage testing would be done at the wiring centre ,no need to do any at the valve itself. What you have done manually will keep you going. The motor in it has probably failed.

 

[JPsantos]

just had a thought, what happens when the hot water comes on on the dial?
as I now tried to get that lever back to its original place and doesnt seem to move... as I thought "Do I have to move it back to W when I need hot water?" seeing as there's no auto control of that valve.
(and was going to test what you said before see if I can hear anything at the valve when temp dial goes up and fires up the boiler)

Or am I thinking this wrong?

 

[terryplumb]

If you move to mid position you should get both .

 

[kidgreen61]

You can replace just the actuator on that valve, rather than the whole thing.

Assuming the spindle hasn't seized.

 

[ianmcd]

As @terryplumb says manually set the valve in Mid position and you will get both, but the cyl thermostat will be by-passed so if the water is getting too hot simply turn the thermostat on the boiler down a bit

 

[JPsantos]

Not sure what is going on but I can't move the valve now to middle position, I notice a notch on the override lever, but even moving it up so it slides on the slot I cant move the lever back, seem to be stuck.
but.. at least the house is warm again!
Need to test what happens if the hot water comes on.

EDIT: ok, switched it all off at the dial and then gone upstairs and the lever had moved back to original position.
but i dont seem to be able to set it to M. its slides back to W. no way of putting it in the middle. its either on W or locked to H. which then moves back to W when i switch heating off at the programming display

 

[terryplumb]

The trigger lever on the valve end needs to be pushed slowly ,until the indicator moves to M ,you then push inward the trigger lever to lock it there.

 

[JPsantos]

gotcha! pushed the lever in and it locked on M.

However if I leave it on M, the hot water comes on (when I force it to always on on dials, hear boiler come up), but the heating does not come on (when I force it on dials nothing happens with the boiler)
If I push the lever all the way to H, then the boiler does fire up when I force it on on the dials.

it gets us going like this till BG comes over though.
at least been learning something new