Hi guys,
Firstly, please excuse me for my ignorance!
To put you in the picture, I have a huge Ideal W (Stelrad Group) boiler in my kitchen. The pump is a Grundfos Selectric Class H TF110 IP42 and is situated (side on) underneath the boiler within the boiler drop-down casing. I have touched the pump and it vibrates gently when the CH is turned on, it's hot and the pipes either side of it are also hot. I have a large tank (yellow jacket) in the bathroom airing cupboard and a diverter valve which seems to be working fine. I haven't checked my tanks in the loft.
I'm not sure whether I have a general sludge problem, a huge airlock/blockage or whether one radiator (all will be revealed!) is affecting all the others .. is that even possible?
I've been in my house for just over a year and, of course, the CH worked just fine last winter. In the summer I had one upstairs rad removed and re-hung for replastering purposes (and no it wasn't flushed through while off and I did notice black stuff coming out of it). The guy who removed it cut the pipe and capped it as he said the original pipe had been soldered in 5 different places! Another friend drained the system, replaced the cut pipe and re-hung the rad for me. Initially it leaked when the water was turned back on again but he tightened it up and it's been OK since.
I put the heating on for the first time last week and all the rads were lukewarm even when I turned the thermostat up (out of interest, the CH doesn't come on below 15 degrees ... is this normal?). After a couple of days, the upstairs rads remained lukewarm (except the re-hung one which has been stone cold) but the downstairs rads turned cold. I tried bleeding them all (does it matter which order this is done?) and found that the bathroom rad had lots of air in both sides (all rads except the re-hung one are double). This one is now working fine and is lovely and hot. Water came out of all the others (although I couldn't undo one side of the hall rad ... and now the bedroom one is still lukewarm while the others are all cold). The only exception to this was the re-hung rad .... nothing came out of it at all!
On top of this, I couldn't budge the valve (I don't have TVRs) on the re-hung rad and the valve caps just spin round on a couple of the other rads! Should I have the valves replaced? Also .. just checking ... is it clockwise to turn on and anti-clockwise to turn off? I am nervous about having a plumber in (if I can even find one) as I felt I was royally ripped off regarding a corroded pipe and valve having to be re-fitted in my previous home.
One last thing, is it ever worth having some sort of service contract? I've been advised to go for 3* with British Gas but don't really want to have to pay £26 a month especially if it's a problem that I may be able to fix myself. Someone else also mentioned Thames Water at £15 a quarter but I will have to investigate further.
Sorry for all the questions but you don't learn if you don't ask!
Thanks in advance.
Bec
Firstly, please excuse me for my ignorance!
To put you in the picture, I have a huge Ideal W (Stelrad Group) boiler in my kitchen. The pump is a Grundfos Selectric Class H TF110 IP42 and is situated (side on) underneath the boiler within the boiler drop-down casing. I have touched the pump and it vibrates gently when the CH is turned on, it's hot and the pipes either side of it are also hot. I have a large tank (yellow jacket) in the bathroom airing cupboard and a diverter valve which seems to be working fine. I haven't checked my tanks in the loft.
I'm not sure whether I have a general sludge problem, a huge airlock/blockage or whether one radiator (all will be revealed!) is affecting all the others .. is that even possible?
I've been in my house for just over a year and, of course, the CH worked just fine last winter. In the summer I had one upstairs rad removed and re-hung for replastering purposes (and no it wasn't flushed through while off and I did notice black stuff coming out of it). The guy who removed it cut the pipe and capped it as he said the original pipe had been soldered in 5 different places!
Another friend drained the system, replaced the cut pipe and re-hung the rad for me. Initially it leaked when the water was turned back on again but he tightened it up and it's been OK since.I put the heating on for the first time last week and all the rads were lukewarm even when I turned the thermostat up (out of interest, the CH doesn't come on below 15 degrees ... is this normal?). After a couple of days, the upstairs rads remained lukewarm (except the re-hung one which has been stone cold) but the downstairs rads turned cold. I tried bleeding them all (does it matter which order this is done?) and found that the bathroom rad had lots of air in both sides (all rads except the re-hung one are double). This one is now working fine and is lovely and hot. Water came out of all the others (although I couldn't undo one side of the hall rad ... and now the bedroom one is still lukewarm while the others are all cold). The only exception to this was the re-hung rad .... nothing came out of it at all!
On top of this, I couldn't budge the valve (I don't have TVRs) on the re-hung rad and the valve caps just spin round on a couple of the other rads! Should I have the valves replaced? Also .. just checking ... is it clockwise to turn on and anti-clockwise to turn off? I am nervous about having a plumber in (if I can even find one) as I felt I was royally ripped off regarding a corroded pipe and valve having to be re-fitted in my previous home.
One last thing, is it ever worth having some sort of service contract? I've been advised to go for 3* with British Gas but don't really want to have to pay £26 a month especially if it's a problem that I may be able to fix myself. Someone else also mentioned Thames Water at £15 a quarter but I will have to investigate further.
Sorry for all the questions but you don't learn if you don't ask!
Thanks in advance.
Bec
