Is it just me or is this Cycling Pump on Backwards?

[303]

Hey there guys! This is my first post to you all but I have frequented the forum before when looking for for solutions to problems and it's always been incredibly helpful.

I'm a University student, and whilst I study maths I seem to have this curse of always wanting to know how things work and I like to inspect any problems I have first before I get the necessary people to deal with it (or dealing with it myself if I'm able).

As students, we like to save money so the heating doesn't generally get used in the house, but when the snow hit several days ago we all agreed that the time had come to make use of the radiators. The problem was, they didn't work.

So I did all the things I could think of as a non-expert. I checked all the valves on the radiators to make sure they were all open, double checked that the power to the boiler was on, etc but they still refused to work. So I took the casing off to have a look at the boiler itself and it seems to me that the pump doesn't work. Even when it was supposedly switched on it was giving no noise and didn't feel to be vibrating or moving when I touched it. Then I took a closer look and saw this:

The pump:
View media item 42462
The Boiler itself:
View media item 42463
The arrow on the pump is pointing towards the boiler, and I wondered if this is how it should be or if it is on backwards. As I said, I'm certainly no expert but I was wondering if someone could confirm this or offer up any possible explanations as to what could be wrong. I'm going to contact the landlord later but I expect things will be sorted quicker if I know what's wrong with it.

Thanks for reading guys! Sorry for the long post but I thought more information would be better than too little. Thanks for any help!

Regards,
MathWiz

 

[mysteryman]

It appears to be pumping on the return to the bottom of the boiler. This would be correct. It is not a good layout, but it is as intended by the installer as far as I can see.

 

[mysteryman]

It appears to be pumping on the return to the bottom of the boiler. This would be correct. It is not a good layout, but it is as intended by the installer as far as I can see.

 

[303]

Well at least that's ruled out one of the possibilities

I just don't understand what's going on really. It heats water for use in the taps with no problems, but it just doesn't seem to heat the radiators. Any ideas why this may happen?

 

[45yearsagasman]

Call your landlord and get the pump checked out.
Also ask to see a current gas safety certificate.

 

[mysteryman]

Is the pump running? If yes, there may be motorised valves somewhere else, one may not be open. If no, check the power to the pump via the programmer and room thermostat. Is the heating system full and vented, all isolation valves open?

 

[gas112]

Make sure clock and room stat are demanding heat.
Hold pump in one hand and give it a couple of sharp hits with a hammer .
As you have not been using it ,it has probably seized up.
Or take the centre screw out and try spinning the shaft with a small flat bladed screwdriver.
You will get a tiny bit of water coming out when you first undo the screw.