Is it safe to turn on my central heating with cold tank empty?

[biterbit]

All my upstairs water and hot water stopped working this morning. I checked and my cold water tank was empty. Via my insurance, an engineer called and tried replacing the value into the cold water tank but still no water came through. He diagnosed a blockage, probably limescale furring up the feed pipe from the mains. I'm now waiting for another visit to look at the problem but forgot to ask the engineer if I could use the central heating before he left. The insurance helpdesk said it was OK but did not sound too certain about it.

Does anyone know if it will be safe to turn on my central heating system with no cold water feed to the house (other than in the kitchen, directly off the mains)? I don't want to cause any more problems!

Thanks.

 

[rpm]

Any idea what sort of system you have such as vented or unvented? Also make and model of anything like the boiler you can find would help the guys help you later.

 

[Unregistered]

I think the system is about 25 years old. It has an old Potterton Netaheat 80 boiler. Vented/unvented I'm not sure about - is there a way to tell?

 

[ShaunCorbs]

does it have an f and e tank? eg smaller one to the one what supplies your water

 

[rpm]

biterbit, it really helps us help you if you remember to sign in everytime you post OR click the little circle "remember me" (think that is what it says).

 

[biterbit]

In the loft there is a little tank, separate from the main cold water tanks which I though was related to the heating - does that clarify the type it is.

+ thanks for logging in tip - I hadn't noticed that

 

[ShaunCorbs]

In the loft there is a little tank, separate from the main cold water tanks which I though was related to the heating - does that clarify the type it is.

+ thanks for logging in tip - I hadn't noticed that

yes does that about about 2-3 inches above the outlet pipe?

 

[REDSAW]

chuck a bucket of water in it to get u going
also, is there a stopcock in the airing cupboard thats closed?, it also may be clogged with scale.

 

[joni os]

The small tank is F&E for heating and provided it has a bucket of water in it your heating will be fine. Depress ball cock on F&E to confirm blockage in mains supply.

 

[biterbit]

Yes - it's above the outlet pipe an have just a few litres of water in it.

 

[Best]

Use an air key to try to vent upstairs radiator. If water comes out the system is full to at least that level.

 

[biterbit]

Thanks for all the info. I checked the small tank and, although no water comes in (confirming the mains water issue), the tank has plenty of water in it. Also checked upstairs radiators with a key and they seemed fine. Central heating now on and working fine.

Thanks again.

 

[REDSAW]

the donkey who changed the ballcock to header tank has snapped the stopcock to the valve in the airing cupboard then.
couldnt be rsed to fix it by the sounds of it!!!!!

 

[thompsonbrown]

the donkey who changed the ballcock to header tank has snapped the stopcock to the valve in the airing cupboard then.
couldnt be rsed to fix it by the sounds of it!!!!!

Then blamed it on limescale.

 

[gassafe]

Never heard of limescale blocking a water mains pipe... Very suspicious !

 

[Dsp]

Never heard of limescale blocking a water mains pipe... Very suspicious !

It's an internal problem and the mains not blocked as op says she has water in the kitchen directly off the mains so I would say it's a dropped/damaged valve internally

 

[biterbit]

Thanks for the additional comments. The insurance company are saying they cannot fix the problem under the 'household emergency' cover as its caused by limescale build-up which is specifically excluded. From your comments it sounds like this is an unlikely explanation (it had also occurred to me that limescale would surely build up in the hot water pipes first before affecting the mains inlet). I don't know enough to understand the significance of the comment about the airing cupboard valve - but is there anything I can test to demonstrate that there is a different problem to the one they are suggesting?

 

[Dsp]

Will the accept liability and pay the bill for your plumber if it's not limescale??
Do you have a major limescale problem in the property??
To replace the ball valve in the tank the water must be isolated to fit a new one and more than likely the valve used has failed closed and not letting water past that would need replacing and not limescale

 

[Dsp]

Will the accept liability and pay the bill for your plumber if it's not limescale??
Do you have a major limescale problem in the property??
To replace the ball valve in the tank the water must be isolated to fit a new one and more than likely the valve used has failed closed and not letting water past that would need replacing and not limescale

 

[biterbit]

The insurance cover will pay for temporary work to fix an 'emergency' issue (eg, no power, water) up to £1500. They paid for an engineer visit, resulting in the tank ballcock replacement. When fitting the new one the water was turned off at the incoming mains (under the kitchen sink) and them turned back on. As far as I know (though I wasn't watching everything) that's the only thing that was done. When the mains stopcock was turned on again, water returned to the sink but nothing came out at the loft tank. That's when limescale was blamed.

 

[Dsp]

The insurance cover will pay for temporary work to fix an 'emergency' issue (eg, no power, water) up to £1500. They paid for an engineer visit, resulting in the tank ballcock replacement. When fitting the new one the water was turned off at the incoming mains (under the kitchen sink) and them turned back on. As far as I know (though I wasn't watching everything) that's the only thing that was done. When the mains stopcock was turned on again, water returned to the sink but nothing came out at the loft tank. That's when limescale was blamed.

There will be a closed/failed valve in the pipe to the ball valve. Never seen limescale block a cold feed pipe
Where are you could a friendly local member help

 

[biterbit]

I am in Hertfordshire and have used two local plumbers before who I will be contacting for a permanent fix (if one is needed) but in the meantime I am going back to the insurers to question their diagnosis.

 

[Sparkgap]

I have had rust/mud/cr@p block up mains pipes in the past. In some cases the mains stopcock was turned off and when turned on again drew stuff from the mains pipe or scoured it from the inside of other pipes and blocked any narrow or tight spots. Usual blockage point was the ballvalve nozzle as it doesn't take much to block it.