Potterton Suprima - banging and clanging!

[Mamps]

My boiler is 5.5 years old.
When the boiler first comes on, its sounds like the pipes are having a fight with a baseball bat. It makes really loud clanging noise.
I think its only when the heating is on, but i'm testing that theory in the morning.
Its so loud, its sounds really unsafe and like its about to blow up.

I've read in this forim that it could be air in the system or sludge. how would i fix that to see if it is that. I'd like to eliminate obvious problems myself before i call an engineer out.

Any ideas??

 

[chrishutt]

Check that you have water in the system (feed tank has water to normal level) and that the pump is working (listen using screwdriver as stethoscope - tell us what you hear). Turn boiler stat off when testing pump.

If you need a good heating engineer, say what part of London you are - some of the guys giving advice here cover London.