Cold downstairs radiators

[retropete]

Hi All

Seem to have a problem with the downstairs radiators staying cold whilst the upstairs radiators are hot. Have checked there is no air in the system, and I understand that the pump could be faulty. However, when the heating is on, the pump is whirring, and all pipes to and from it are hot. Also, the metal box valve thingy which is sat ontop of a pipe (close to the hot water tank) - the pipes to and from this are also hot.

There is a metal lever on this box which says auto at the top, and manual at the bottom. I have set this to manual but still the radiators downstairs are cold. Can somebody please advise me

Many Thanks

Pete

 

[kevplumb]

turn the hot rads off first then see what happens

 

[retropete]

ok,have shut down all the upstairs rads, and set the stat in the hallway to 35,the timer in the airing cupboard is on but now nothing is coming on.could it be the stat which is failing?.cheers.

 

[kevplumb]

see this

 

[retropete]

ok,i shall put as much info as i can. the ch system i have is a gravity fed system, powered by an Ideal classic boiler which is downstaires in the utility room. It is supplying hot water via a tank in the airing cupboard,and11 radiators.6 upstairs 5 downstaires.The system is 6 years old,and i flushed the header and re furnoxed the system about three years ago.The system has been fine so far ,but about 6 weeks ago i turned of the ch via the timer switch.However when the weather took a turn for the worse recently ,i swithed it back on.This is when the problems on the previouse pages started.Hope this will help.


many thanks pete.

 

[kevplumb]

reet

1 are you sure the pump is running and pumping
they have been known to lose the impeller ie the motor is running but it ain't pumping
the upstairs will work by gravity

 

[retropete]

oh i see,well when the heating is switched to on,if you put your hand on the pump, its definately vibrating,and all the pipes connecting it are hot,but at the moment ,ive got upstaires rads shut down, stat set to max (35) and switch set to hot water and heating,but nothing (including pump)is working.Seems like the stat will only work when it wants to,and the air temp in the hallway is certainly not 35 degrees.is there a way to check the pump without removing it?

 

[kevplumb]

short the stat out it's only a switch

as for the pump you will have to take at least the head off to check after closing the isolation valves of course

 

[retropete]

Sorry for the double posting there!

Will do, Thanks very much!

Pete

 

[retropete]

good news, the system has now powered up,and with the upstaires rads shut down , the downstaires rads are starting to heat up

 

[kevplumb]

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