Heating gone, pump noisy

[Jackbauer77]

Hi - woke up this morning to cold radiators, though had hot water. Getting kids to school etc stopped me doing anything about it then, but when I came home the pump was making a racket, so I switched it off.

Boiler fires up ok when you switch the heating on, but seems to go off pretty quickly. It is warm to touch. The pump is roasting to touch. Showering the kids this evening, the hot water ran out after 10 mins, and now I can only get luke warm from the taps.

I don't have a combi boiler, but not sure how to describe the system beyond that.

I will be calling a professional in the morning - just wanted to check if this was something obvious, or what I can expect? Thanks for any help.

 

[Jackbauer77]

Don't know how I managed to omit this from the original post - but more (hopefully pertinent) information...

The day before we had work done on two on-suite bathrooms which involved removing the radiators to replace them with heated towel rails at a later date (next day or two)

 

[jackthom]

it's possible the system was drained down the day before then not properly refilled. An air lock could have left the pump with no water, which would cause it to overheat and get very upset.

if that is the cause you can bleed the pump by loosening the large screw on the front with a flat blade screwdriver until only water trickles out.

 

[Jackbauer77]

Thanks - I've loosened that screw - but nothing happened, no air, no water. It is roasting to touch. I'm wondering if that noise I heard was it's death rattle.

Plumber is coming this afternoon (same guy who took out the radiators) to have a look and hopefully sort it. Didn't explain what he thought it was but seemed to think it might have been caused by him draining the system.

On a side note - it's frikkin freezin! So i'm off to warm my hands on the pump!

 

[kbdiy]

Sounds like he didn't refill it properly and vent any air out. Let's hope he makes a better job of it second time around

 

[Jackbauer77]

He had put a bung in the tank in the loft when he drained the ststem to take the radiators out, then forgot to remove the bung - or seemed to assume leaving it wouldnt be a problem for the heating.

Anyway - he took it out and now the radiators are filled and heating up.

Not entirely sure what he's done - but it's sorted now so no harm done.

 

[jackthom]

Ouch! Not at all good for the boiler or the pump.