Hot water running brown and giving off a smell

[Rodders289]

First of all I apologise for scant details as the problem is in my sons house. I hope by relating what has taken place over the past couple of days will make sense to someone and come up with an answer. My son lives in a 4 in a block cottage style flat in Glasgow. I am unsure of his water system set up. For example in this type of house is there a header tanks. There is no close so it there was it would have to be in an attic and access would be gained vis the upstairs neigbours house ??

This is an ex corporation house so probably built in the 1940s.

He contatcted me 3 days ago and told me that the radiator in a bedroom was stone cold whilst all others were hot. He checked his boiler and the pressure was nil. He topped up the pressure and this radiator immediately heated up. Apart from this all the water has been running fine.

As he is doing up this bedroom he removed the radiator to replace it etc. All he did was close the inlet and outlet valves and removed the radiator. He tells me water was everywhere due to problems fully closing the valves but he managed to do this.

Since then the hot water in his bath, washhand basin and kitchen sink has run brown and smells. He has run it for a few hours and it is still brown.

I was at the house today and noticed one of the valves where the radiator was, was leaking due to a bent pipe, I replaced that with a new valve and the hot water initially ran clear but then became brown.

After removing the radiator he tells me his pressure was low so he topped up to 1 1 /2 . On turning on the CH this shot up to 3 and he is having trouble getting it back down.

Sorry for the long post but hope this make sense.

 

[muggles]

The make and model of the boiler would help enormously here. Does he have a hot water cylinder or is it a combi boiler? Sounds to me like the expansion vessel may be blown on the boiler, but that wouldn't directly cause the hot water to turn brown and smelly, so there's more than one fault here.

Bit more info and I'll be able to help more!

 

[tonybhoy]

As your man above said there's not an awful lot of info but it sounds as though it's a combi boiler with a burst hex and a heating system with an awful lot of corrosion in it.

 

[Rodders289]

I phoned him up and he tells me it is a

Eurocombi STYX model SX20. It also says on it MFFICE Type C Merloni Termo Sanitari SPA Italy.

He is under the impression that all he has is a cold water mains in.

Thanks

 

[bengasman]

Old Ariston, which by the sound of it is a bit of a question mark whether it is worth it.
Get a good breakdown specialist to have a look at it.

 

[muggles]

As Tony has said, your heating system sounds like it's badly corroded, this could really do with sorting as it'll only ever get worse, a good flush out and a dose of inhibitor would do wonders for the life of the system.

The heat exchanger is part number 571785, good luck getting one though as I've got a feeling they may be obsolete, I certainly can't find any online, though it's possible they've been superceded

 

[Rodders289]

Could you tell me the best way to flush out the system.

Many thanks for all the answers

 

[misterdubya]

I use DS40, but it requires neutralising. The instuctions are detailed on the product. Its no-where near as stong as it used to be though.

Mr. W.

 

[Rodders289]

Cheers but what I was meaning was the actual process. I take it it is with a hose and running water. If so what do I connect my hose to?

 

[muggles]

You need to sort the boiler problem before you start thinking about flushing, or you'll end up with central heating cleaning chemicals in your hot water pipes

 

[Rodders289]

Sorry Muggles I do not know what you mean about getting the inhititor into hot water pipes. Is this the CH pipes or just the domestic pipes?

I was looking at this from Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wchAheInuas

 

[tonybhoy]

Change the boiler mate and get a powerflush done on the heating system pipework.

Nothing to do with the domestic how water side as in the pipework.

Sounds as though the heat exchanger has burst in the boiler allowing contaminated heating system water to pass via the heat exchanger into the hot water pipe-work for the house.

Probably the heat exchanger has been burst for a while which has caused a lot of corrosion in the heating system pipework. The same thing can happen if the filling loop is left permanently open to try to keep the pressure up in the heating system.

 

[bengasman]

Cold mains flush is harmless enough, unless your pipes are wonky in which case you'll have a flood.

I would not recommend using acid like fx2 or ds40, as incorrect use can do a lot of damage.

 

[Agile]

Before you go replacing the boiler or pulling it apart check that the filling loop is the correct type and working properly. Ideally by removing the flexible part.

That problem could be caused by not having a proper filling loop with a non return valve.

Can you post a picture of the filling valves? Or describe them?

Its very rare that the HE in that model fails.

Tony

 

[tonybhoy]

The Hex must have burst Tony as there's dirty brown water coming out of the hot tap.