Massive central heating problem. Novice needing help!

Joined
9 Nov 2010
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Location
Cleveland
Country
United Kingdom
Hi. my central heating system is horrible. its an old one with the back boiler in my living room, which i cant get to without taking out the fireplace. when i switch my heating on, the gas pipes up fine, and the pump seems to start working properly. the radiators upstairs are blazing hot, although i dont need all of them on. the two radiators in my front room, directly below the working radiators upstairs, might take an hour to get 'warm' then maybe one of them will get hot after longer. the rest of the radiators downstairs (kitchen, dining, spare bedroom, bathroom) do not work at all.

iv bled the whole of the house so its not that. but oddly, some radiators when bled, i see a horrible brown water come out, but others, clear water. there is no corrolation between radiators that work and dont, and the colour of water in them. surely the water goes in one radiator and into another, so the same colour water in all?

Iv tried balancing them by opening the upstairs control valves only slightly (still get nicely warm) and opening downstairs more, which helps the living room radiators slightly. when i close off all upstairs the living room get warm. the other rooms (kitchen, dining, spare bedroom, bathroom) still freezing. when i cut off all the radiators apart from them, they still cold.

Iv read endless sites on how to sort your heating out and im at my wits end. I cant really afford a new system and dont really want to get a plumber/heating engineer out. So could someone please tell me what my problem is and how i could go about fixing it before i really have to call someone out?

Greatly appreciated, Thanks, Mark.
 
Sponsored Links
are any of the rads fitted with trv's ?
what the condition of the water in the f/e tank in loft ?
has the cold rads ever worked ?
 
problem is sludge you might have an even more horrible single feed " primatic" hot water cylinder - are there 2 tanks in your loft - I big I small ?. Irrespective of the working or not of the system I strongly suggest you get the boiler/fire unit serviced and the necessary air supply into the room checked by a Gas Safe engineer :!: ( The piping side can be sorted by a non gas plumber like me - but you`ll be lucky to find one as good @ snagging ;) )
 
no trv's. the cold water rads worked years ago, but ive put up with them not working. there seems to be only one tank in the loft.
 
Sponsored Links
how can i look in the tank in the loft?, i really havnt done anything like this before. im just a youngster haha. iv just turned the upstairs rads off and the front room ones (the only ones turned on in the house) are red hot
 
as said can be sludge on an old system like yours and with only one tank can be a primatic cylinder, so you can't add cleaning chemicals to the system.
 
You have already been told what the problem almost certainly is by Nige F above, but I guess because you don't want to sort that out your looking for something easier to fix it ! :(
SYSTEM FLUSH or at least start by getting the sludge out of the rads.
 
ok, so i have came to the conclusion i need to flush the system. thanks guys! can i just ask, is it possible to do this myself? if not, how much will it cost me? i have 11 rads.
 
if you know nothing on heating systems best is to get someone in to look.
with your system/age even removing a rad to flush it can run into problems with old valves/pipes etc.
 
its an old one with the back boiler in my living room, which i cant get to without taking out the fireplace.

Do you mean the fireplace, or just the fire? (just checking!)
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top