have problems after removing a radiator

[sanda]

Sorry for the long post.

Prior to knocking down a wall in my house i got a plumber in to remove the radiator on it. The pipes to the radiator run from upstairs so he removed the pipes that ran down the wall & capped them off in the ceiling.

When turning my heating back on not all my radiators came on. The plumber returned, he tried different things-he bled the radiators, he turned the hot radiators off & did get the cold radiators to heat. He turned the heating off again, then went round & made sure all the radiators were on (LSV & TVR open). He then told me he was going to turn the heating back on & balance the system-he went to the hottest radiator first closing the LSV abit then onto the next hot one & so on. A hour or so later it got to the point where the hot radiators LSV were open just slightly but the cold radiators would still not come on.

He returned the next day & said he needed to connect the two pipes together that were originally capped-which he did & the same thing happened-only some radiators got hot. My question is what is the difference in capping the system or joining it-can you do either or will one way cause the problem i have. Has my plumber done something wrong or is all this a coincidence & i have some other problem. I stupidly didn't check my heating was working before i had the work done, all i can tell you is it was fine before i turned it off for the summer. It is a Flexicom 35cx, the whole system is just over a year old in a new build.

Any help would be appreciated

 

[John506]

It wont make a difference, as for your problem, balancing is the only thing I can think of, but as you say you didn't know if it worked prior to the plumber coming in, who knows? Blockages? Sludge? Undersized boiler?

 

[John506]

Edit: The only time it would make a difference is if it was a one pipe system, but as you say the system is only a year old, it's highly unlikely.

 

[sanda]

thanks john for your reply

the system is definitely a two pipe system so hopefully the work he done is good & something else is my problem. With the system being just over a year old could i still get sludge?

I also should mention that i have tryed the heating on myself without the plumber being here & noticed the pump in the boiler gets red hot (cant touch it for long) I took the centre screw out to see if it was moving & water come out which i have read is normal-but is it normal for lots of water to come out ? (could only stop the water by putting the screw back in) Could my pump be the problem ?

 

[John506]

What is the pressure on your boiler? Overheating pump usually means lack of water

 

[sanda]

i can repressurise my boiler (top it up). Ive never let it go above 1.5 or drop below 0.5 when the manual says it will cut out & ive only personally had to do that after bleeding the radiators.

Sorry to keep adding things but also my boiler is downstairs in a 3 floor house, the radiator that was removed was the one nearest the boiler & the next one along is the one radiator that only gets warm not hot when turned on by its own. It is also one of the rad's that stays cold if all radiators are turned on at once, the rest in my house all get hot when turned on alone. The plumber also tried to turn on a radiator one at a time (starting with rad nearest the boiler)-then going onto the next radiator leaving the previous one on. He got to the middle level of the house & got 2 radiators in the kitchen on but couldnt get any more to heat-at this point the first radiator which is now nearest the boiler had gone cold.

 

[John506]

If balancing hasn't worked, I can only think pump fault, blockage or airlock. Probably pump though as you said it gets red hot. Make sure the pressure is at 1.5bar when cold.

 

[sanda]

Just one thing, when undoing the big centre screw on the pump should excessive water come out-i wanted to see if it was moving but with all the water coming out i just put the screw back in. Is there any other way i can test my pump is working ?

 

[ICETER]

First turn the power off then turn off the valves each side of the pump and then open the screw put a small towel under it so no water damage gets anywhere,turn on power for a couple of seconds and if you cant see it moving try gently putting in a screwdriver to see if its moving or try to move the propellor with a flat head,do this as quickly as possible as you dont want pump to burn out,it is normal for water to fly out so if you didnt want to turn off valve or power you could get a towel under it and take out the screw and and do the same as i said earlier above with the screwdrivers and that