What is this pipe for?

[TheRunningMan]

I have a pipe (the one in green) that I can't seem to figure out what it's purpose is. One part of it comes from the bottom of the hot water cylinder and the other is located after the pump but before the MagnaClean. It doesn't seem to serve either the hot water or the radiators. Can anyone point me in the right direction.

I've attatched my very best drawing

Thanks folks

View media item 68619

 

[Armo74]

Looks like the cylinder return to the boiler.

 

[doitall]

Its a by-pass in the return.

 

[TheRunningMan]

Thanks for the quick reply guys. I've had two plumbers out and both of them said they had no idea what it might be.

Does it look to be in the right place and what is its purpose? When the gate valve on the green pipe between the pump and MagnaClean is closed the pump seems to work harder than when it's open and when it's open, it seems to take longer for the heating pipe to warm up. Is this normal operation?

 

[doitall]

The pump is on the flow and the short pipe with the valve is the by-pass, should be cracked open or change for an automatic by-pass valve.

Common practice on virtually all fully pumped systems.

Why your plumbers fail I've no idea but don't use them

The Magnoclean is better on the common return pipe.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Your plumbers are muppets.

 

[TheRunningMan]

Haha I'm thinking that now too. Now just to find a decent one in the Preston, Lytham or Blackpool area

 

[Agile]

Did you pay the muppets?

Or did they get an idea that you were not going to pay them?

A lack of a payment can make people very forgetful!

 

[TheRunningMan]

Making payment or charging for the callout was never mentioned. The plumber was the husband of someone my girlfriend works with.

Now I know what that pipe does it may help to solve to CH issue.

When I turn the central heating on, the boiler springs into life and heats the water as it should and the pump comes on and pumps the water too so they don't seem to be at fault. After a while (when turned on from cold, the boilers errors with an F25 error (it's a British gas 330+ which I believe is a gloworm with the same model number) which seems to suggest air in system/poor circulation.

Before the boiler errors the hot water for the CH makes it to the manifold and the 7 flow pipes for the seven radiators from the manifold get hot but only a few of the flow pipes at the radiators get hot. The radiators whose flow pipes get hot are only hot at the top (cold at the bottom) and the returns don't seem to get hot at all.

The pipe work is about 8/10mm from the manifold to the radiators and my guess would be there are blockages in the pipes to the radiators which stay cold and a build up of crap in the radiators which get hot which has settled at the bottom.

My guess would be that this crap in the system is preventing the bit water to flow effectively throughout the CH system and return to the boiler and therefor causing the boiler to error with F25.

Can anyone confirm or deny my theory

 

[bellairaphon]

Do the pipes go too the same side of the rad or opposite ends?

Nath

 

[TheRunningMan]

Do the pipes go too the same side of the rad or opposite ends?

Nath

If you mean the flow and returns they are at opposite ends left & right. If you mean is the flow pipe always on the right hand side then no.

 

[gigz]

Have you cleaned the magnaclean out ? As alreadt said its not in the right place, it should be on the return as close to the boiler as possible, the way it is the carp is going through your boiler first.