Hi,
Apologies firstly. I'm a complete newbie and don't understand much about my central heating system. I've looked through the forums but have come to the conclusion that there could be a multiple of reason why my downstairs rads are not coming on (but the upstairs are).
I had a new ecoTec Plus 630 and uniStor hot water storage cylinder put into my house. A lot of the piping was replaced. The ecotec is downstairs in the kitchen and controlled with a honeywell unit. I also have a honeywell thermostat downstairs. The unistor is in the loft with an extra expansion vessel. I was told that this is an unvented system. This was all done October 2009. All radiators were replaced so don't think I could have sludge in them and definitely not in all of them. engineer said that a little top up 3 to 4 times a year is ok and have checked with him and installer outside for any visible leaks. Water pressure coming into house is naturally low. But everything was working before.
Since then I've had the following:
1. Dropping of pressure, the gauge on the ecoTEC was dropped below the gray part and I'd have to top it up using the valves in the loft with the Unistor. This happened about 4 times in the first 7 months.
2. Called in Vaillant to check system and the engineer said there was no permanent live to the boiler from the honeywell and they would not support the boiler as the display was not permanently on.
3. Called the installer who said nothing wrong with the wiring and could not understand what vaillant meant. Unfortunately, the vaillant guy did not leave me with much of a detailed explanation. I then called in an electrician to redo the wiring so that there was a permanent live in July 2010.
4. I called in vaillant again to check it out because pressure was still dropping and the guy who came to check could find nothing wrong with the boiler itself (an independent plumber had said that it could have been faulty thermostat or safety valve in the actual boiler unit). He then checked the gas supply to the boiler and immediately called out the gas supply people to replace something on the top of my gas meter.
5. Hot water always running fine and set to continuous. Now in October and it's getting cold. Set timers for central heating and it was all working fine. All rads heating up.
6. IS THIS AN INDICATOR: Started to hear beeping sounds in house every now and again. Checked all smoke alarms and intruder alarms etc.. no problem. Now thinking it was a sound from the boiler system.
7. Had boiler serviced and all was said to be fine. From that night on, no heat in downstairs rads and upstairs take a bit longer. The central heating dial in the ecotec is set to 2'o' clock position. System is probably about 2 bar. Tried bleeding all rads downstairs but no air came out. Just lots of water. One radiator is a wall mounted one with a flat face. Could not figure out how to bleed this one. Ended up bleeding a lot of water out of system and had to top up again.
8. That night, rads came on warm downstairs but only after about 3 hours!!!
9. Went away for weekend and when back they remain cold. Tried bleeding as ecotec showing s.52 message (pressure > 2.9 bar). Now the pressure is more like 2 bar. When tried central heating the status codes went from s.1-s.4 with flame and other icons on. But still no heat downstairs rads.
10. In morning, when try to fire up central heating, getting the s.7. It also does s.97 briefly. Radiator icon is flashing on unit even though heat demand is switched off.
I've got vaillant coming in (will ask them to check the pump) in a couple of days but also have installer and service guy coming later today. Is there anything else I can do???? I'm very confused and have a little baby in a cold house.
Thanks in advance
Apologies firstly. I'm a complete newbie and don't understand much about my central heating system. I've looked through the forums but have come to the conclusion that there could be a multiple of reason why my downstairs rads are not coming on (but the upstairs are).
I had a new ecoTec Plus 630 and uniStor hot water storage cylinder put into my house. A lot of the piping was replaced. The ecotec is downstairs in the kitchen and controlled with a honeywell unit. I also have a honeywell thermostat downstairs. The unistor is in the loft with an extra expansion vessel. I was told that this is an unvented system. This was all done October 2009. All radiators were replaced so don't think I could have sludge in them and definitely not in all of them. engineer said that a little top up 3 to 4 times a year is ok and have checked with him and installer outside for any visible leaks. Water pressure coming into house is naturally low. But everything was working before.
Since then I've had the following:
1. Dropping of pressure, the gauge on the ecoTEC was dropped below the gray part and I'd have to top it up using the valves in the loft with the Unistor. This happened about 4 times in the first 7 months.
2. Called in Vaillant to check system and the engineer said there was no permanent live to the boiler from the honeywell and they would not support the boiler as the display was not permanently on.
3. Called the installer who said nothing wrong with the wiring and could not understand what vaillant meant. Unfortunately, the vaillant guy did not leave me with much of a detailed explanation. I then called in an electrician to redo the wiring so that there was a permanent live in July 2010.
4. I called in vaillant again to check it out because pressure was still dropping and the guy who came to check could find nothing wrong with the boiler itself (an independent plumber had said that it could have been faulty thermostat or safety valve in the actual boiler unit). He then checked the gas supply to the boiler and immediately called out the gas supply people to replace something on the top of my gas meter.
5. Hot water always running fine and set to continuous. Now in October and it's getting cold. Set timers for central heating and it was all working fine. All rads heating up.
6. IS THIS AN INDICATOR: Started to hear beeping sounds in house every now and again. Checked all smoke alarms and intruder alarms etc.. no problem. Now thinking it was a sound from the boiler system.
7. Had boiler serviced and all was said to be fine. From that night on, no heat in downstairs rads and upstairs take a bit longer. The central heating dial in the ecotec is set to 2'o' clock position. System is probably about 2 bar. Tried bleeding all rads downstairs but no air came out. Just lots of water. One radiator is a wall mounted one with a flat face. Could not figure out how to bleed this one. Ended up bleeding a lot of water out of system and had to top up again.
8. That night, rads came on warm downstairs but only after about 3 hours!!!
9. Went away for weekend and when back they remain cold. Tried bleeding as ecotec showing s.52 message (pressure > 2.9 bar). Now the pressure is more like 2 bar. When tried central heating the status codes went from s.1-s.4 with flame and other icons on. But still no heat downstairs rads.
10. In morning, when try to fire up central heating, getting the s.7. It also does s.97 briefly. Radiator icon is flashing on unit even though heat demand is switched off.
I've got vaillant coming in (will ask them to check the pump) in a couple of days but also have installer and service guy coming later today. Is there anything else I can do???? I'm very confused and have a little baby in a cold house.
Thanks in advance
