mistergrumpy
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| posted on 24/8/10 at 01:57 PM |
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OT - Plumbing Help
Went to Buxton at the weekend to help my uncle put some thermostatic rad valves on his radiators. We did 13 rads in total, 2 were already done and we
left the obligatory 1 without in the hallway.
Now his house has 3 floors, a cellar where the boiler is and an attic where the header tank is.
The water cylinder is located midway between the ground and first floor.
The job went fairly easy other than when we drained the bottom hallway rad out of the door it emptied very quickly and we soon realised the system was
still part full and we ended up having to re drain that bottom rad everytime we started a new floor as the water just stopped coming out until
we'd drained the above floor.
Now, the problem is when we tried to refill the system we released the ball float on the header tank which we'd tied up, set the 2 way motorised
valve near the boiler to manual, put the pump onto 3 and put the heating on. Then ran up to the ground floor and opened all the bleed valves and nowt.
After a couple of hours of trying and opening a bleed valve that was on a pipe besides the cylinder we managed to get water into the ground floor but
that's it.
This was Saturday and we still can't get water up to the other floors, the pump feels to be running and everything and the system was fine
beforehand. My uncle has now opened a pipe on the 3rd floor and says he's not got 20 pints of water down there but it's as though
there's some kind of massive air bubble somewhere and you can hear the system gurgling every once in a while.
Does anyone have any ideas on the cause or a fix? There's 2 older people and a child in the house and it needs sorting 
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jase380
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| posted on 24/8/10 at 02:07 PM |
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When i had my boiler changed the plumbers opened the bleed valves on every radiator before refilling the system, it might be worth a try if not done
so far
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adithorp
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| posted on 24/8/10 at 02:57 PM |
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I assume it's an old style boiler and not a combi. I thought you bled the system with the heating off, but I'm no expert. Are all the
thermostotic valve you've fitted at max?
"A witty saying proves nothing" Voltaire
http://jpsc.org.uk/forum/
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BenB
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| posted on 24/8/10 at 02:57 PM |
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Why do you need the boiler running to bleed the radiators?
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dinosaurjuice
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| posted on 24/8/10 at 03:33 PM |
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on vented systems its usually best to bleed with nothing switched on. let the header tank do its thing and try opening more than 1 bleed valve at once
- easy with 2 of you.
Some rad valves only work 1 direction, but can usually be adjusted to suit either, might be worth checking.
Its unlikely, but you may have disturbed some sludge and created a blockage. very unliekly to have this much effect though.
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jase380
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| posted on 24/8/10 at 03:38 PM |
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its a combi boiler now but we bled the old one the same way, as mentioned above its pretty easy if theres a couple of you to shut the valves as they
bleed through
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designer
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| posted on 24/8/10 at 04:13 PM |
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I understood you should open all bleeds , turn on supply and turn off bleeds as water reached them.
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mistergrumpy
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| posted on 24/8/10 at 04:33 PM |
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It's not a combi boiler, it's a vented system.
All the ground bleeds were open to get them that high. Can't leave them open now though as water runs out.
All the middle floor ones were open but there's absolutely no movement in the water. We turned the heating on to get the pump working and
pushing the water round.
The rad valves work in both directions according to the instructions and the heads are not on them so they're currently fully open.
The thought this morning, as mentioned by dinosaurjuice is that possibly a load of sludge had been disturbed as when he's trying to bleed the
rads now he says there is shitty water coming out instead of the clear stuff before but I wouldn't have thought draining and refilling would
have caused any more disturbance that running the system as usual.
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ruskino80
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| posted on 24/8/10 at 07:19 PM |
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try to back fill it with a hose pipe and cold mains via the drain off point-it will shove a probable blockage back up into the f+e tank- make sure
the overflow is connected to the tank before trying this.
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macc man
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| posted on 24/8/10 at 07:31 PM |
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Almost certain to be an air lock in system.
Best way is to drain down every leg of system and re-fill slowlly. If still full of air remove a radiator on floor which is locked and let a large
volume through to clear air out. Try blowing down air vent in loft to clear air lock. No quick remedy but you will clear air out eventually good luck.
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craig_007
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| posted on 24/8/10 at 10:19 PM |
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Also possible the cold feed from the header tank is blocked.
This is a common problem I have come across on open vented systems.
If the system fills up no problem by connecting a hose to the cold main I would say that's your problem.
If it is blocked the first place to check is where the 15mm cold feed tee's into the heating circuit(Usually around boiler or H/W/C area)
Just cut above the tee but bung the F&E tank and the open vent from the boiler first,Once cut stick a small plain driver down and chances are you
will feel resistance !!
HPH
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