HELP!! No hot water!! - wife's screaming!!

[ezspur]

Guys,

Can someone please help!
Last night, we returned home from holiday only to find that we no longer have any hot water in the house.

We have a standard setup, Vokera boiler, immersion tank with temp stat, Honeywell 3-port motorised valve and a Honeywell programmer.

Justto explain, the central heating is working fine, however there is no hot water from the taps (all mixer taps by the way!).

I've read the 'curing airlocks' threads, but i think i have an open system therefore can't get an airlock.

So far i've tried checking the boiler - this works fine ie its on and firing the central heating, i've checked the immersion heater by switching off and then on again, it makes a noise and the pipes above the tank are getting warm, so this leads me to the motorised valve, but i have no idea how to check this (don't think there are any manual settings!).

LASTLY, we awoke this morning to find that the programmer was completely off - i checked the fuse box to find the heating switch had tripped off - any ideas why this has happened!!??

If anyone has ANY advice at all it would be much much appreciated!!! I know if i call a plumber out without understanding a bit more, then i'm gonna get seriously ripped off!

PLEASE HELP!
Cheers in advance.
EZ

 

[JohnD]

you mean that when you open the taps nothing comes out?

Have you got a water tank in the loft? Climb up and see if it is full. Look for a drowned rat, squirrel or pigeon blocking the outlet. Observe all the taps on pipes going in and out of it. Is there any reason why any of them might have been closed?

 

[Nixt]

I know if i call a plumber out without understanding a bit more, then i'm gonna get seriously ripped off!

With that general attitude towards the trade (who's free advice you now seek), perhaps you shouldn't have left it till you were without hot water before trying to understand the technicalities your heating system.

 

[ezspur]

Sorry Nixt!

That was supposed've been a joke.......a bad joke on my part! No offense to anyone!

JohnD - i am getting water out of the taps, its just cold water though! Both from cold AND HOT taps!!

 

[Nixt]

In that case comments withdrawn, sorry.

 

[JohnD]

I am going to guess that it is the mixer taps, perhaps a mixer shower, kitchen sink mixer, bidet mixer. Have any or all of them got service valves on the pipes that supply them?

And have you got a cold tank in the loft, or not? If so, how full is it? What happens to the water level when someone turns a hot tap on?

If you turn off the main water supply to the house (stopcock may be in the garden or in the corner of the kitchen) does anything come out of the hot taps or the cold taps?

 

[ezspur]

Yup we have a mixer tap in the kitchen, a mixer tap for the bath and one for the sink in the bathroom and a normal set of independant hot and cold taps in the downstairs WC - and yes they all have service valves.

The last time i checked the water tank in the loft - yes it was full, but i have to admit i haven't checked it again today.

I'll check when i get home - i'll also check to see what happens when the mains is turned off.

Just one thing! A friend at work suggested that it could be the micro-switch in the mororised valve - would this cause hot water to stop running!?

Or perhaps the heating element!!??

 

[JohnD]

no and no

since you say that the cylinder is hot.

If I have misunderstood and the cylinder is cold, turn on the immersion heater and wait for 20 minutes before trying a hot tap again.

However, if the cylinder is hot, and has been heated by the boiler, then:

If you turn off the service valves on the cold supply to all your mixer taps, and then try turning on the non-mixer hot tap, it will be interesting to see if hot water comes out. If so, I would expect that one or more of your mixer taps is allowing cold water to flow through into the hot pipes. This is more usual on a mixer tap with a mains-pressure supply, usually the kitchen tap.

 

[ezspur]

Hey JohnD - thanks for the info!

When i checked the hot water cylinder before i basically turned the immersion heater on at switch - this made the immersion heater 'whirr' and i could feel the pipes above the cylinder getting warm (not really hot - just warm) - i just assumed that this then meant that my cylinder was ok?

The reason why i'm thinking it might be the motorised valve is because when i flipped the manual switch (on the 3-port valve......not really a manual swicth, but i think it opens the valve completely) and then turned the central heating on, i found that the taps did have some hot water - but this didn't last long!

The reason i think it could be the heating element is because this morning i found the immersion heater switch tripped inthe fuse box and the programmer was off!

I will try what you've said - but does any of the above comments point to anything else!?

 

[petetheleak]

Just a wild wild guess son cause its hard sometimes to evaluate a problem through the written word ,but i would hazard a guess and say your immersion is knackered along with your 3 port Vv.

 

[JohnD]

the immersion heater is entirely separate from the way the boiler heats the cylinder. A fault on the immersion heater is not very likely to cause the boiler programmer to stop working. I would hope that you have an MCB for the immersion heater circuit which is quite separate from the electrical supply for the boiler and programmer.

I was trying to understand if it is the cylinder not getting hot (quite likely cause: the 3-way valve faulty) or if the cylinder is hot but no hot water coming out of the taps.

Turning the immersion heater on for 20 minutes or more ought to get the top part of the water in the cylinder hot. Sometimes you can hear an immersion heater "sing" slightly if it is a bit scaly.

It will not be helpful to tinker with the boiler and 3-way switch at the same time as the imersion heater, as you will not know which made a difference.

 

[ezspur]

JohnD, petetheleak,

Thanks for all your help so far.
JohnD, just to let you know, i checked the water tank in the loft and its fine, no blockages and completely full.

Secondly, after turning the mains off, checked the taps again and apart from the water left in the pipes, still no hot water from the taps!!

Lastly, and this may well be the clincher, i powered the immersion heater up again (yes, there is an MCB in the box under the stairs and a fused switch in the airing cupboard just above the cylinder - i powered up both), the programmer came back on, BUT, the immersion heater is no longer making the noise it was before (which indicated it was at least heating up), the pipes are not getting warm and basically nothing is happening - SO, i think thats it - the immersion heater is buggered!!!

petetheleak - i don't think it's a problem with the motorised valve aswell, as the central heating is till working, but i may be wrong with this assumption.

JohnD - you mentioned that the immersion heater makes a whirring or singing type sound which could indicate scale-build-up, i'm pretty sure mine's been making this sound for a while now, so i'm guessing the build-up has finally buggered it completely.

Any other thoughts!

Cheers again
EZ

 

[Agile]

It certainly sounds as if the immersion is faulty now.

Unfortunately much of what you are saying about turning off the mains water and getting nothing from the hot taps is difficult for us to comprehend because its the loft tank which supplies your cylinder UNLESS its an unvented like a Megaflow.

You also dont seen to be clearly stating if water is coming out of the hot taps COLD or if NO WATER at all comes out.

Faced with this lack of clarity then its not really possible for me to give you any useful advice.

Why dont you supress your hatred of ripping off plumbers and call one to replace the immersion and see what else is wrong?

Tony

 

[todiyfor]

Can someone please help!

Can't improve on the plumbing advice, but you might try something like chocolate or flowers for the screaming wife. HTH.

 

[ezspur]

Why dont you supress your hatred of ripping off plumbers and call one to replace the immersion and see what else is wrong?

Agile - i don't have a hatred for plumbers at all, i already stated that this comment was supposed've been a joke (should've added the smiley face at the end to indicate this, but i forgot!) - understandably its a bad joke on my part, but i was merely poking fun at myself actually for not being an expert!
Soz if i've rubbed anyone up the wrong way - that wasn't my intention!

I'll give someone a bell now!
T.
EZ