Just moved in

[ChrisR]

Quite.

 

[Litherbeth]

edited message below

 

[Litherbeth]

Thanks Guys! I have actually tried turning the rads down upstairs and it made no difference. The house is older than 3 years but the previous people had a big extension done and renewed the system. I am not sure if is a drop system or not. What about the speed of the pump? Should I turn it up to III? It gets pretty noisy then. Wouldn't sludge show itself a bit when I bled the rads? Powerflushes are more expensive than new pumps aren't they? How would you diagnose which it is?
When I had the boiler looked at - he put some sort of meter thingy on it and it read perfect, he said. It certainly seems to be on all the time, struggling to heat the rads which are (I forgot to say) erratic. They go warm and cold throughout the time they are on. So heat is getting through, although it takes up to 2 hours sometimes for it to warm up.
Thanks a lot - look forward to more replies - Thank you

 

[wilhelm]

you have bled the rads? and water did .come out?

 

[Litherbeth]

Yes, I bled the rads and clear water came out.

 

[wilhelm]

cool.

now do us all a flavour and rip the pump head off, and tell us if its full of black stuff
if its a big extension, (ooer) perhaps boiler aint up to job....and with that bombshell...im not corgi... ill leave it to the experts

 

[andsam]

I would go for balancing. Can you put rads on only and if so what are they like then.

 

[Litherbeth]

So how do I balance the rads then? On the rads upstairs there are only metal adjusters, no TRV's or proper rad valves. I have no idea what they are on - high or low. The ones downstairs have rad valves on (not TRV's) but again, turning them up or down makes very little difference.
Thanks for your help.

 

[andsam]

Can you put rads on only ?

 

[Litherbeth]

What? without the hot water? Yes I can do that.......do you want me to do that?

 

[andsam]

Yes

 

[Softus]

Sludge in a house that age?! Behave yourself chris! I ll put a wager on my diagnosis. Yes there are other possibilities but im stating the obvious and most likely.

The heating system is reported as being 3 years old. How old is the house PP?

As for wagering on your diagnosis, this is the attitude of a fool. The ethos of the forum is helping people, and the emphasis is not on rushing to make a correct diagnosis before anyone else.

IMHO, the best way to help someone in the long term is to help them understand how a diagnosis is reached, and to guide them in the use of knowledge and reason so that they're better informed and more capable the next time a problem occurs.

To say that people do "your head in" reveals that you aren't a very patient person, and probably not particularly rational - two very bad traits for an engineer of any discpline.

 

[Litherbeth]

The house is old but the system, we think, is about 3 years old. I think the house is about 1928?

 

[ACOperson]

If this is an open vented system then we could have a situation where a circuit is being created between the feed an the vent pipe. In this case the pump could be brand new and the rads upstairs all closed off but still not heat going downstairs. Solution is to clear sludge and possibly combine feed and vent pipe.

If not an open vented system then the ownder should remove the central screw from the Grundfos pump and stick a screwdriver in to see if the impeller is turning.

 

[andsam]

It could be poss that the dhw circuit is robbing most of the heat when your calling for ch and dhw .Thats why I suggest trying the ch on its own.