Water cut off, now downstairs radiators don't work

[HateMyHeating]

Hello

A mains water pipe in the area burst and meant the house was without water for ~7 hours. Since then the downstairs radiators do not get hot (no hot water to pipes feeding the rads either). It's a hot water tank type set up.

There seems to be no change in the noise the pump is making, and I set the diverter valves to the manually open position (though it seems like one isn't "engaging"?) but no change.

Is this all related to the burst mains pipe, or is it coincidental? What can I do!?

Thanks

 

[terryplumb]

Does the boiler fire up and are your upstairs radiators heating normally ? If so its likely that the pump isnt running
Is the hot water cylinder heating up ?.

 

[HateMyHeating]

Hi Terryplumb

Upstairs radiators are heating normally, as is the hot water cylinder. How can I tell if it's the pump? It sounds like it's pushing water around at the same speed as before.

Thanks

 

[ianmcd]

nothing to do with the water main being off

 

[terryplumb]

Hi Terryplumb

Upstairs radiators are heating normally, as is the hot water cylinder. How can I tell if it's the pump? It sounds like it's pushing water around at the same speed as before.

Thanks

Would need to know more about your system. Do you have zonal heating ,your down and upstairs rads separately controlled ? Can you take pics of pump and pipework around hot water cylinder including motorised valves and post the pics here ?

 

[breadnbutter]

have you checked your header cistern, ball valve might be stuck. or a blocked orifice

 

[ScottishGasMan]

Nothing to do with the water main being off.

Do you have one "diverter valve" for hot water cylinder and one for heating? or more than one for heating.

What you want to try, it turn hot water off, and close the thermostatic valves of the upstairs radiators to see if it will push a possible airlock down and begin circulating the downstairs radiators again

 

[HateMyHeating]

Thanks for the help everyone. I've checked the header cistern which all looks fine. Here's some pictures (excuse my helper!). I'll turn off all the upstairs radiators now and see what happens downstairs. Should I leave the heating off for it?

 

[terryplumb]

Hot water to OFF ,central heating on ,wall stat to high. ( if you have latched motorised valve ,put back to auto position ). Down rads trvs on full ,upstairs rads trv closed off.

 

[breadnbutter]

it could be when they turned mains on, a rush of water into cylinder disturbed the coil, and a piece of scale or debri sludge loosened off, and traveled round , either getting caught in pump impeller, or diverter valve. reducing the flow . maybe.

 

[HateMyHeating]

Thanks all, downstairs rads are now getting hot. Will leave it a while to see if every rad downstairs gets to temp. Assume that rules out the diverter valve at least!

 

[terryplumb]

Once all downstairs rads are upto temp ,open upstairs rads trv ,one at a time, and bleed air from them as you go.

 

[HateMyHeating]

Evening all! Thanks Terry. So it looks like I can't get my downstairs rads to temp. It probably doesn't help that most of them have been installed backwards with the TRV on the outlet of the radiator rather than the inlet?

I'm starting to think it's pump related but could it be something else like sludge? If anything the pump has got quieter over the past week, if that means anything?

Cheers!

 

[ianmcd]

modern TRVs can be installed either way round, if they are installed the wrong way round it is just a noise nuisance they will still work

 

[terryplumb]

When upstairs trvs were closed ,what exactly happened to the downstairs ones ? Did they get to the same hot temperatures that upstairs were getting to or not ?