Stupid Question about central heating pump

[Daveydub]

All sounds fine. Even with boiler on 1 pipework will be too hot to touch unless you are in the trade. Only thing is once cylinder is up to temp then it will all go off again so remove stat from cylinder if you can or take it in turns to have a bath. To confirm to yourself, can you get your hands on the 2 pipes as they leave the boiler? Flow should obviously be quite hot and return cooler but gradually you should be able to feel temperature increase confirming circulation. No need to but if you get nervous you can turn boiler to off on the stat and you will feel the flow cooling as remaining heat is dissipated.

 

[Belboz]

Thanks again DD. Boiler is a back boiler so cannot get anywhere near the flow and return pipes to/from actual boiler unit (if that's what you mean) I understand what you mean about removal of the cylinder stat and that, if I don't, the boiler will switch off once the cylinder water has reached temperature.

In the longer term, is it likely that it will be the actual motor assembly which needs changing as opposed to the whole valve (since the valve would appear to be opening on MANUAL) ?

Reason I ask is that, when the engineer arrives in a week or so, it would be good to prepare for having to drain the system before he arrives - I know that the older heads cannot be swapped out (no bump)

Thanks very much and Merry Christmas

 

[Daveydub]

Your valve consists of a brass body with mechanical parts and seals and a head with mechanical and electronic parts. Both of these components are now very old. If it were me, I would change the entire valve but others would take a different approach.
The price difference of a complete valve as opposed to a head only is less than it really ought to be.
It is sometimes a small leak from the spindle of the valve that has helped to destroy the head.
I admit that the quick fix is tempting but I would prefer to spend a bit more of my time and your money to not have you phone me again in a month leaving me to explain why a new valve body was now required.

 

[Belboz]

Thanks for the advice and I wholeheartedly agree with you. Already priced up costings and can see that there is not a gulf between the cost of a new head and the cost of a whole valve assembly. However, I am aware that the engineer's pricings will not be the same as mine! Will certainly be asking the engineer to fit a whole new assembly as opposed to just the head. At the end of the day, I can't really moan given that the valve unit has been working well for the last 25 plus years.

Will post an update on here when the engineer visits in a week or so.

Happy New Year to come to all on here.

 

[Belboz]

***UPDATE***

Thanks to all those who gave me advice on this one. Finally got the heating engineer round yesterday. In short, the wall thermostat was faulty (I was surprised at this as the unit was brand new in November 2012) meaning that the boiler wasn't getting the call for heat when the heating was switched on. Took him a few minutes with an appropriate electrical tester and a quick temporary fix (by joining 2 wires together in the faulty unit which I presume bypassed the unit and called the boiler for heat) before he fitted a new unit.

He did say that he suspects the microswitch on the heating valve head is on its way out and he agreed with the posters here when he said it is better (and cost-sensible) to replace the whole thing (valve and head) rather than just the head. However, he did say that it seemed to be working okay so to monitor it and see how it goes on the basis of 'if it ain't broke... I have my heating back and will keep an eye on it - I have booked him in for a full boiler service next week so will see him again then and update him on how it goes.

As always, best to rely on professionals.

HNY to all

B

 

[Daveydub]

Glad you got sorted & managed to keep the misses warm throughout