Rads fine but no hot water.

[Patrol]

Hello all, Im looking for a bit of aheads up on what can be wrong with my system. I am pretty sure that you all know the symptoms but will share with you again.

Radiators work perfectly ok, the thermostat on the wall does its job and brings the heat when required. To have any sort of hot water we need to run the radiators at full pelt for an hour or so, then and only then can we get enough water for a quick shower. If we attempt to turn the thermostat up above 45° on the upstairs tank we get a flow warning on our boiler (two lights flash) and can only resolve that by dropping the temp back down again. We have had a new (upstairs tank) pump fitted around 6 months ago and the pipes on both sides of this are hot indicating that it is working ok (I think), there is also another pump very similar to this one on another pipe below the water tank and again the pipes are hot on both sides.

I am unsure what you would call my set up but have added some images to give you an idea.

I hope this all makes sense.

Cheers.

 

[Killy Bing]

......what the? More photos of the green tank from some side angles please!

 

[Patrol]

Would you like a video.

 

[dancinplumba]

It looks like a thermal store

 

[Ermintrude]

It's an Albion indirect mains pressure thermal store. Absolute heap.

Basically there is one coil in the base of the unit ( it's actually 4 10mm tubes coiled in cylinder) this heats the cylinder contents. (130 - 180l)
There is a secondary coil at the top again 4 coils of 10mm. The cold water flows through these pipes collecting heat from the water in cylinder.

First possible problem the bottom coil is bocked thus heat not getting away from boiler.

Second; thermal store not full if water - check headder tank and also check pipes out of bottom and side ( near top) are clear. Dip a 1m bit of wire in one of the pipes, leave it in for five mins if it's burning hot the bottom coil is fine.

Third, top coil is scaled up and thus not transferring heat properly.

Fourth, the thermostatic mixing valve is duff.

I wouldn't spend a penny on the store as they are rubbish. Get a new unvented if you can stretch to £900 ish installed? One of the forum sponsors has a deal on wb unvented. Perhaps you should post that u are looking for and installer?

 

[Mickyplumb]

I think the new Gledhill pulsacoil/boilermate (?) is green. A second pump give the impression it is a thermal store, dead right fellas.

 

[Patrol]

It looks like a thermal store

Ok i have just Googled this and read that the water temp in the sylinder should be kept at a constant 76°, thinking about it the room where the tank is kept used to be very warm but is now at standard temp so I presume that the stored water has cooled down. Quick qustion, what heats the water in the store. ?

 

[Ermintrude]

Pump is on boiler side? Not DHW ?

Set the pump to SLOW and turn up heat you may have more success!

Vent the pump.

Also turn boiler temp down by 1/3 and turn cylinder stat up by 20c
And possibly add some cleaner to your system ( heating headder tank in loft) x400 - follow instructions on box.

 

[Mickyplumb]

It's an Albion indirect mains pressure thermal store. Absolute heap.

Basically there is one coil in the base of the unit ( it's actually 4 10mm tubes coiled in cylinder) this heats the cylinder contents. (130 - 180l)
There is a secondary coil at the top again 4 coils of 10mm. The cold water flows through these pipes collecting heat from the water in cylinder.

First possible problem the bottom coil is bocked thus heat not getting away from boiler.

Second; thermal store not full if water - check headder tank and also check pipes out of bottom and side ( near top) are clear. Dip a 1m bit of wire in one of the pipes, leave it in for five mins if it's burning hot the bottom coil is fine.

Third, top coil is scaled up and thus not transferring heat properly.

Fourth, the thermostatic mixing valve is duff.

I wouldn't spend a penny on the store as they are rubbish. Get a new unvented if you can stretch to £900 ish installed? One of the forum sponsors has a deal on wb unvented. Perhaps you should post that u are looking for and installer?

They are a pain in the neck, Erm.

The amount of times i've had the problem on the Gledhill's where a component (pump/motorised valve) has spiked the PCB and instead of the built in fuse blowing, it's melted the board. As you say, rubbish.

Assuming they can get the discharge away okay, an unvented is far better in the long run.

 

[Chalked]

Header tank could be full but the feed could be blocked, had this before and cleaned the feed out with one of these. cut the end off and cut down to about 1.5m. Then fit into ccordless drill. Works a treat

 

[dancinplumba]

Is not the water in the cylinder part of the system water which is open vent ?

 

[Patrol]

Thanks for all the advice guys, Time to call in a Profesional me thinks. :54:

 

[Ermintrude]

Not on these I don't think. Normally on an s plan some times idiots put on a y.

 

[Ermintrude]

Easy to check tho. Turn off mains and drain 5l out of ch. If headder on cyl still full it's indirect thermal *****

 

[dancinplumba]

Op mentions second pump, which will be for space heating and where immersion boss is indicates direct

 

[Chalked]

Got £130 scrap for the last one of these piles of poo!

 

[Patrol]

Thanks guys,

The hot water has been restored, following tips on this thread I seem to have cured the fault. It apperas that the feed pipe was blocked as all I did was push a leanth of heavy ampage cable down the feed pipe and twist it a few times and this seems to have cleared it.
I will monitor the problem for a few days and let you know if all is ok, but so far its looking good.

Well done guys and thank you all very much.

Hats off.

 

[Chalked]

Thanks guys,

The hot water has been restored, following tips on this thread I seem to have cured the fault. It apperas that the feed pipe was blocked as all I did was push a leanth of heavy ampage cable down the feed pipe and twist it a few times and this seems to have cleared it.
I will monitor the problem for a few days and let you know if all is ok, but so far its looking good.

Well done guys and thank you all very much.

Hats off.

Way to go ! 475 post and i got it right for once!

 

[Patrol]

Aye well done mate, you will make a good apprentice one day. :yes: