Back boiler questions

[Donkii]

Hi guys,

We have a back boiler at our open fire in the front room, we moved into the house last year and never really used it and don't have a clue as I can't get it to heat the radiators to a hot temp. It does heat the water however very very well so I don't understand.

There is a switch near the fire which I presume turns the back boiler on. There is a manual knob thermostat in the hotpress and a small water pump. Now when I turn the switch on by the fire I hear the pump start to turn but only when the manual thermostat is set to a very low temp. I am just very confused with how I'm supposed to set it to heat the whole house? I can get pictures if my awful discription isn't very good lol.

Any ideas?

 

[flameport]

Pictures will help, although a likely setup is that the pump is used for the radiators, and the system is arranged to have hot water as a priority, which means the radiators will only heat up once the hot water cylinder is fully heated.

If that is correct, setting the thermostat knob (which is presumably on the side of the hot cylinder) to low, then leaving the boiler on should heat the radiators. It may take a while, and it is also possible the radiators are full of air / sludge / both if they have not been used for a long time.

 

[bengasman]

Back boilers are open flue systems and should get a full service every year.

 

[Donkii]

Thanks guys, the radiators and all are fine, there is oil fired central heating in the house also which is what we have been using most of the winter but we started lighting the fire and thought we might as well make the most of the back boiler to hear the house.

So the thermostat in the hotpress is to set the temperature of the hot water tank? So setting it to 0 will just heat the rads? Also the pump has a switch with 1 2 3 on it pump speed I guess? Is 3 the best? Also whats the electricity cost, just the pump running or higher? I will try this again at the weekend as although the radiators got warm they were HOT. I will post pics tomorrow, thanks so far.

There was a service carried out in June on the boiler and system I just wasn't in to question the plumber .

 

[Agile]

Not much point in having a working boiler if you dont know how to use it.

Would it be worth calling the plumber and see if he can remember or was he one of those people who probably does not remember where he was yesterday?