Problems with gravity fed solid fuel

[wrightk]

Hi all, im new to these forums to bear with me and i hope someone can help.

We have a solid fuel system with a 13kw stove, It does the heating and hot water. Downstairs rads are on a pump with high and low limit stats on the cylinder. Upstairs rads are gravity fed. At present only two rads work upstairs and i cannot for the life of me understand why. I have bled and checked the TRV'S on the rads that aren't working.

When i have the system going for a day or two the pipe going to these faulty rads is warm..just.

I have tried thinking what to do but i am not a plumber so i dont really know. i did wonder if it would be possible to pump the upstairs rads but i understand you should never fully pump a solid fuel system. It seems like there is not enough flow to the rads upstairs?

any help would be appreciated
thanks

 

[RGII79]

What size piping is used to feed the rads

 

[wrightk]

connecting to the rads- normal thickness (i dont know exactly but its the same thickness ive had on gas rads)

from the cylinder - at least twice as thick?

 

[erj]

do you get hot water ok? and are the large pipe to the cylinder hot? check the header tank in the loft some times the ball valve sticks there might not be enough water in the system

 

[Best]

How is this piped? Did it ever work? How can you have 2 gravity circuits & one pumped circuit & the cylinder circuit fitted with stat?

 

[tamz]

How is this piped? Did it ever work? How can you have 2 gravity circuits & one pumped circuit & the cylinder circuit fitted with stat?

He doesn't!

To the OP
The answer is in the logic.
Easy fixed for a fee.

 

[wrightk]

He doesn't!

To the OP
The answer is in the logic.
Easy fixed for a fee.

unfortunately its not that simple. because part of the system is working and it is a counil property they are reluctant to sort it. i have had someone from the council out. he was useless and told me i was not stoking the fire up enough and i needed to get the pipe to 90 degrees, which of course is nonsense.

im not sure how the system is pumped as i am not a plumber. there are 4 very large pipes coming from the stove next door to the hot water tank. 2 large pipes go upstairs which i presume is for the gravity feed. there is a pump on the system but after looking at the pipes and where they go this only seems to feed the downstairs rads. the two rads upstairs that work on gravity feed work ok, i know they must be gravity fed because they are warm before even the pump kicks in, so it got me thinking they are on two different systems.

hot water is good. although when we do have a bath or whatever i change the low limit stat just before to 45 to prioritise hot water instead of heating and back to 35 to prioritise heating

 

[SimonG]

TRV's?

 

[Best]

Yea, who put the TRVs on?

 

[wrightk]

Yea, who put the TRVs on?

Not me, I presume the council

 

[wrightk]

although i should point out that there are not trv's on all the rads upstairs, just two- the ones that dont work

 

[Best]

although i should point out that there are not trv's on all the rads upstairs, just two- the ones that dont work

Exactly, if it is gravity to those rads, then TRVs could be your problem. I would personally change it to pumped, but that's a repipe. You could change the TRVs to ordinary valves.

 

[AWheating]

if you remove the trvs pipe the rad top and bottom if possible.

 

[wrightk]

if you remove the trvs pipe the rad top and bottom if possible.

funnily enough ive just checked. the rads upstairs that work dont have trv's on them and the 2 that do dont. they have the screw type fitting as below


would changing to this fitment solve the problem?