One pipe system woes - please help, I am desperate!

[Johnny8718]

Dear All.

I fully appreciate that the real answer to this question is to repipe the system with two pipes. This would be something that I would plan for next summer, but for now I need a quick fix.

Last year I searched around for a firm to fit me a condensing combi and a two pipe system. I originally had a one pipe system connected to a Baxi back boiler and hoped that someone would take on the job. Whether or not there was an ample supply of work in my area remains to be seen, however not one firm seemed interested at all and either priced me above and beyond or just never bothered to get back to me. However, a friend of a friend who can now only be described as a complete clown offered to have a look and I now have an issue with the work that he did. I know that I should have gone back to him, and that I did - only to be shrugged off, told to go away and ignored ever since. Issue being, this was a foreigner, a cash job and I have no legal standing. I have threatened to contact the firm that he works for. However, what would that solve? I still have the issue that I will explain below.

He insisted that he could fit a combi in a bedroom, and could pipe it to the one pipe system. He used the old gravity fed water pipes and joined in at the loft, feeding the original radiators, leaving the old boiler in place (the fire is still connected and works). Initially the rads would not get warm and he believed that this was due to the pump on the boiler working so fast that it was racing around the system, under each rad, failing to enter and only heating up the old 22mm pipe. Reluctantly and against my better judgement, he cut the pipes underneath each rad so that the water was forced to enter each and every rad in series. Sounds awful, but the heating worked great. He fitted a Potterton Apollo Boiler incidentally.

Since then, I have converted a bedroom into two rooms and need a rad in the 'new room'. Today I have hung a small double rad, have piped it in 15mm plastic and have fed it from the flow and return 22mm in the loft, about 15 feet away from the boiler. The heating bled up, runs fine and all of the rads get warm bar the new one. Only a very small portion of the feed pipe to the rad gets warm in the loft and no amount of bleeding and messing about cures it.

I assume that the free flow of the one pipe system again is allowing the water to flow in the easiest direction (it is racing past the branches that I have fitted)? Without repiping at the moment, how can I persuade the water to flow along my new branch? I have considered fitting a 22mm stopcock/tap into the 22mm flow somewhere near to my branch to slow the water down, but fear that I may damage the boiler or put the pump under too much pressure.

Please don't ridicule me. I know I have made a mistake, but it was the only way I could get a combi fitted. I have a basic knowledge in plumbing - my dad is a retired plumber and I have worked with him off and on over the years.

Can anyone help me get this rad warm? We are foster carers and need that rad to work until at least the time where I can afford and/or have the time to do something about it in the warmer weather.

Sorry for the long post. John.

 

[Ermintrude]

Easy, just do as u said throttle down the feed on to one pipe. U may have to adjust the rad locksheild and the one pipe valve a few times. Did he disconnect old pump and pipework from old back boiler. . Sounds a pleb. Don't use fire till it's been checked by a competent engineer.

 

[Chalked]

Sorry to be the bearer of more doom and gloom. But, the way he has made your heating work ( sort of) is to cut out the single pipe loop beneath each radiator. This is there to allow the isolation of individual radiators. The way your is, if you turn any radiator off, all the rest will stop too.the reason the extra one you have added won't work, is you need to extend the loop past the radiator, not just tee in, like you would on a two pipe.
Hope this helps.
in the longer term, please get your system checked out by a gsr, and plan to re-pipe into a two pipe.

 

[Ermintrude]

Sorry to be the bearer of more doom and gloom. But, the way he has made your heating work ( sort of) is to cut out the single pipe loop beneath each radiator. This is there to allow the isolation of individual radiators. The way your is, if you turn any radiator off, all the rest will stop too.the reason the extra one you have added won't work, is you need to extend the loop past the radiator, not just tee in, like you would on a two pipe.
Hope this helps.
in the longer term, please get your system checked out by a gsr, and plan to re-pipe into a two pipe.

Just re make the one pipe below rads

 

[Johnny8718]

Thanks for that.

I understand what you are saying Chalked in relation to the lack of a pipe at the bottom of each rad. That was an issue for me as I can't balance the rads. However, it does seem to work OK and I am pleased with the heat, and the plummeting gas bills!!

Ermintrude. Just a little bit more advice on the throttling down of the flow....

Do I add a stopcock somewhere in the line near to the tee I have used to feed the new rad? If so, whereabouts? Just prior to it? Will this affect the boiler? Could it damage the pump?

Thanks, John.