Why does my pump get noisy when rads are turned off?

[Terrywookfit]

if i can stop plumbcenter ripping you good people off, i will make sure everybody hears pass it on, and dont let big business take working class money for nowt we may not all have terrywookfit dosh to squnder

I take it that you meant squander!!
Plumb/Parts and whatever center will try to rip off any one who is unwary!!
But you cannot blame them for charging a restocking fee if you ordered the wrong part.
I will agree that they will try to charge extortionate prices but if you accept them and part with your hard earned cash then who is to blame!!
I personally never buy without comparing prices with a competitor and then I will haggle because they will always come down in price!!
I once bought a boiler and because of the aforementioned haggling the manager of the branch threw in 3 goats and his daughter (only for the night though) .She was very fit but I got complaints from the neighbours as they thought I was a priest!! l later sold the goats to the local Hal Al butcher realising a profit of£120.00 .
A couple of days later I had to visit the local GU clinic as she had passed on a STD but you do not need to know about this!!
My advice to you therefore would be to haggle further and get 4 goats!!

Terry

 

[gas4you]

I don't know what the fuss is all about. My PC often joke that I take more back than I buy

If PC cock up like they did this week I just invoice them for a days labour and I get a credit on my account for it

 

[Last Triumph]

Anyway......

Pump draws water away from the vent pipe.

I'll try the trick of blocking off the vent and see what happens.

I've tried to identify the noise some more. When all the gate valves are closed preventing anything flowing from the pump, it goes silent and runs super smoothly.

Part of the noise sounds like air in the pump, but Like I say, this goes away the second flow is stopped.

Also, the droaning noise actually isn't coming from pump itself but sounds like it is coming from the pipework. It isn't a metalic noise as if two pipes where touching, and grabbing all the pipes I can see and pushing them around doesn't change the noise at all.

I've put my ear to the walls, the floor etc, but it is definately louder as soon as the airing cupboard door opens, but I am positive that it's not from the pump as when I put my ear to the pump, all I can hear is that air bubbles type noise.

Sorry if this post is getting dull!

 

[namsag]

Sorry triumph hijacking your post for a min. G4U . Are you serious if so how do you get them to do it....Ours is blo#dy abysmal just now.. I kid you not not even a length of 15mm or 22mm on the shelf today

 

[gas4you]

Sorry triumph hijacking your post for a min. G4U . Are you serious if so how do you get them to do it....Ours is blo#dy abysmal just now.. I kid you not not even a length of 15mm or 22mm on the shelf today

Yes I am serious Stock levels within PC are absolutely crap. It has got to the point where you ask what they actually have, rather than what you want

I had a boiler on order for collection on a Monday morning, went to get it, they didn't have it. I was told it would be in Tuesday morning. Guess what, it wasn't. Was then told it will be on 2nd feeder delivery about midday, which it was. I went and removed existing boiler on job Monday am. Came home lunchtime. Started back on job Tuesday PM. Invoiced pC for one days labour along with a stinging letter of complaint.

High up, one below MD I was told, arrived at my branch and invited me in for discussion. I told him what I thought then he said well what about this invoice then. I said it still stands and you should think your selves lucky I'm not charging you double time for the Saturady I had to work to complete my job!

He went out of office and instructed my branch manager to credit my invoice to my account No one in pC could believe that I had got it. They said they had never heard of it happening before.

This weel PC had accidentally cancelled my heating order so I had nothing to do Monday. I have since got compensation from them via other means to cover this

I think it helps that I only ever use them and they know I am loyal to them. I am not a big customer as such, but one of the biggest of their smaller customers if you get what I mean.

I have also had them give me bathroom sinks and pedastals FOC along with all waste fittings when they have cocked up and not ordered the correct sinks and fittings in in time.

Invoice them, but address it to the area manager, not the branch manager

 

[namsag]

G4U ..Good on you for doing and getting what we all keep saying we should do. I do know branch managers are under a lot of pressure to get stock levels down, but all it is doing is costing them money . When you can`t get the basics you end up getting everything elsewhere, faceless accountants don`t realise this and will keep reducing stocks as sales drop further.

 

[gas4you]

G4U ..Good on you for doing and getting what we all keep saying we should do. I do know branch managers are under a lot of pressure to get stock levels down, but all it is doing is costing them money . When you can`t get the basics you end up getting everything elsewhere, faceless accountants don`t realise this and will keep reducing stocks as sales drop further.

We realise this, branch staff realise this and take the ****e off us, but as you say the faceless accountants don't see it

An example is them getting rid of all branch cleaners and telling staff to do it themselves My branch's staff are short staffed enough anyway and now have to choose between answering the 'phone, serving the customer or cleaning

When will these faceless trolls learn

 

[namsag]

I bet those boxes of charity sweets for a quid on the counter is a head office scam too.

 

[gas4you]

I have heard that head office want to charge 10p per drink now

 

[DavidJW]

As the weather warms up and we start to turn rads of in various rooms, the more rads we turn off, the noiser the pump gets.

Why do you turn the rads off?? Is it because you do not have a timeswitch with separate on-off switches for heating and hot water? If you do have separate switches, then all you need to do is to set the heating switch to "off" and leave the hotwater switch at "timed" or "constant" (the words may vary). There is then no need to go round turning off all the rads!

When did your noise problem start, or have you always had it? If not, were any changes made to the system prior to the noise starting?

Did you put the bypass valve back to its original position after you experimented with opening it fully?

 

[Last Triumph]

I turned the rads of one by one as the weather improved.

I could just have the timer set to water only as you say - same thing as far as the pump is concerned.

I can't remember where the bypass valve was to be perfectly honest as I turned it on and off a long time ago without realising what it was....

Can't honestly say when it started being noisy, probably when I'd drained it one day to make a repair to one of the downstairs rad valves or something and then when the next summer came, it started making the noise the more that rads where turned off (resistance increased)

I was up in the loft today when the heating came on - could only just hear the droaning noise, but the 'air in the pump' type noise was quite audable from the vent pipe although blocking this off made no difference as there was neither a positive or negative pressure there.

As I've said, I've now realised that the pump isn't causing the noise, as when flow it interupted completely by closing ALL the gate vales, the pump spins almost silently - it's the flow af the water that is causing the problems - somewhere!

 

[DavidJW]

As I've said, I've now realised that the pump isn't causing the noise, as when flow it interupted completely by closing ALL the gate vales, the pump spins almost silently - it's the flow af the water that is causing the problems - somewhere!

It's not a good idea to isolate the pump by shutting off the valves either side as the pump relies on the flow of water to lubricate the bearings!

You say that the feed from the 3-way valve (1 in and two out) to the cylinder coil is 22mm but the connection from the cylinder to the boiler return is only 15mm. It could be that this is causing the problem. The water flow will have to speed up quite a lot when it reaches the 15mm section.

Have you tried opening the bypass valve slowly, say quarter turn at a time to see if it affects the noise?

If you have the boiler installation instructions, it should give details about setting the bypass.

If you open all the radiator valves but turn off the heating at the timeswitch, do you still get the noise? In theory, you should as the 3-way (midposition valve) should have the heating port closed and the HW port open all the time.

 

[Last Triumph]

If I have the timer set so that only the heating (rads) side is swithed on, all that happens is that the honywell valve switches to the radiator position and nothing else - the pump stays swithed off, along with the boiler.

The pump / boiler only switch on when the hot water side of the switch is activated, irrespective of the heating side.

 

[MANDATE]

The pump and boiler should switch on when on CH only. that is of course if the room stat is turned up.
If it does not you need to check for faulty operation of 3 port valve.
Are you saying the radiators never get hot at all or do they get hot only when you call for HW and CH.

 

[Last Triumph]

Rads only get hot when water and CH turned on.

Valve works perfectly well as you can hear it swith over when the different modes are selected.

It's just that the pump doesn't switch on unless the water is turned on.

The wall stat is turned up high and is in a cold hall way.