This might be long-winded but I'm an amateur and I want to give as much detail as possible.
I have been in this house since new - 9 years. The central heating & hot water system is fired by a Pro Therm 40-50 CI boiler and has been serviced every year by British Gas.
The system has always been very quiet until about 12 months ago when a vibration developed and British Gas replaced the pump. This fixed the vibration but almost immediately a noise appeared, in the pipes in the airing cupboard. My best description of the noise is sometimes a 'rushing', sometimes 'wind howling through the trees'. British Gas were recalled but weren't interested in doing anything - a mixture of "we don't deal with noises if everything's working" and "all heating systems make noises". We unfortunately then had a very bad few months with an ill relative and just didn't have time to sort the heating system out last winter.
Now that it's central heating time again, we're plagued with the 'howling wind' noises again. The noises come and go - sometimes the system can be really quiet.
A local plumber/heating engineer has looked at the system but he's a bit flummoxed himself. He's checked that there's no air being sucked in, and has added a double dose of Cal-Chem but it's made no difference.
The boiler thermostat has been set to about 3/4 of maximum and the pipes in the airing cupboard get red hot. We've tried turning the boiler thermostat down to minimum and that does reduce, almost eliminate the noise. But then the radiators don't get hot enough. On this basis he's suggested that the boiler thermostat might be malfunctioning, by allowing the water to boil, so he's kindly advised that I should get British Gas to replace the boiler thermostat under the annual cover we pay them for.
There - I did warn that this would be long-winded. Has anyone experienced similar please? Please tell me of any other info that's needed.
I have been in this house since new - 9 years. The central heating & hot water system is fired by a Pro Therm 40-50 CI boiler and has been serviced every year by British Gas.
The system has always been very quiet until about 12 months ago when a vibration developed and British Gas replaced the pump. This fixed the vibration but almost immediately a noise appeared, in the pipes in the airing cupboard. My best description of the noise is sometimes a 'rushing', sometimes 'wind howling through the trees'. British Gas were recalled but weren't interested in doing anything - a mixture of "we don't deal with noises if everything's working" and "all heating systems make noises". We unfortunately then had a very bad few months with an ill relative and just didn't have time to sort the heating system out last winter.
Now that it's central heating time again, we're plagued with the 'howling wind' noises again. The noises come and go - sometimes the system can be really quiet.
A local plumber/heating engineer has looked at the system but he's a bit flummoxed himself. He's checked that there's no air being sucked in, and has added a double dose of Cal-Chem but it's made no difference.
The boiler thermostat has been set to about 3/4 of maximum and the pipes in the airing cupboard get red hot. We've tried turning the boiler thermostat down to minimum and that does reduce, almost eliminate the noise. But then the radiators don't get hot enough. On this basis he's suggested that the boiler thermostat might be malfunctioning, by allowing the water to boil, so he's kindly advised that I should get British Gas to replace the boiler thermostat under the annual cover we pay them for.
There - I did warn that this would be long-winded. Has anyone experienced similar please? Please tell me of any other info that's needed.
