Vented system with ?back boiler

[Vw1978]

Hi all.
we've recently moved into a 1930s house and we are trying to figure out the heating system, it is a vented system with a wall hung Worcester gas boiler, we've just been tracing the pipes back today from the bathroom where the cylinder is and found that their are 22mm pipes to the bathroom radiator that reduce to 15mm about 3cm from the bottom of the radiator so we can see 22mm pipe above the floorboards on further inspection we found that these 22mm pipes 'T'ed off under the bedroom floor in the next room and appear to run to the other side of the room and disappear down into the wall where the chimney breast is and downstairs, in the downstairs room their is a gas fire. My question is what could these two 22mm pipes be doing, they both get hot when the heating is on, so there is flow and return but they don't go anywhere, there is no rad there so is it possible that an old back boiler was left in place and it is still running through it?
All the other pipes seem ok there is 22mm flow and return to the boiler and their are another pair of 22mm running down the wall in the kitchen for all the rads.
Any advice appreciated.
cheers.

 

[Killy Bing]

Do they get hot the entire length? Or just under the rad.

unlikely that the back boiler has been left in.

 

[Vw1978]

Yes they get hot the entire length for as far as I can reach which is when they disappear into the wall, the wall they disappear into is approx 4m away from the bathroom rad and they are both red hot when the heating is on, there are no pipes under the floor void around the chimney breast downstairs either.

 

[Killy Bing]

Get us some photos?

they could have had a lazy twit just link the pipes together......

 

[kay-jay]

Probably looped the flow and return in the chimney breast when bb was removed instead of cutting back and capping. Or they may ho through the chimney breast into the void under a suspended floor and still ooerate to feed the downstairs rads

 

[Vw1978]

Got to wait for a corgi plumber to come and disconnect the gas to the gas fire first, then we can take it out and have a look, so will take some pics then, it wouldn't surprise me if it were a lazy twit coz the pipe work is all over the place in this house, I would say most of it needs redoing, which I will do when we have a new combi boiler fitter, been looking at Ariston clas HE 38, any opinions on this boiler?
Thanks

 

[Mike Jackson]

Do they get hot the entire length? Or just under the rad.

unlikely that the back boiler has been left in.

You can tell you've not been around for long. I've seen back boilers left in circuit a few times.

 

[Killy Bing]

You can tell you've not been around for long. I've seen back boilers left in circuit a few times.

Ive seen the pipes looped but not the back boiler left in!

wouldent be enough room for the new gas fire surely?

actually

while updating a combi, we found the origional combi still piped up, all connections but the mains was turned off.
Boxed in behind a bedroom cupboard.
an chaffo

eating our lunches and thinking "where on earth is that flue coming from?"

 

[Mike Jackson]

Could easily be the old fire front still working. Worst I saw was a back boiler and fire front left in situ, still connected to the gas and electricity and left in circuit. The combi was the other side of the wall in the garage and when it fired up the gas fire went out. The installer had picked up the gas from the 15mm supply to the back boiler.

 

[IDCHAPPY]

Could easily be the old fire front still working. Worst I saw was a back boiler and fire front left in situ, still connected to the gas and electricity and left in circuit. The combi was the other side of the wall in the garage and when it fired up the gas fire went out. The installer had picked up the gas from the 15mm supply to the back boiler.

Blimey, that's scary stuff :O

 

[Ermintrude]

Options on ariston......... Don't buy one!

Valliant
Ideal
Baxi
Worcester boooosh

Vokera

All the b&q rubbish

Blokes who used to make washing machines.

 

[Ollieg]

They could be the drop for the downstairs rads. They could be the primary flow and return.

Where is the new wall hung boiler? The bathroom rad could act as a bypass and be on the primarys so it is also on all year round.

 

[Ermintrude]

Might have picked up primaries from cylinder in bathroom and tied up on to heating in back of bbu.

 

[albatross]

Ariston and off and on and off and on and off!

 

[Vw1978]

Update. Took the gas fire out and chopped it out to find this ( see pics ), I assume this is the old back boiler, is this normal practice to leave it connected? Could this be the reason I've been havin a right job trying to balance the rads?, can I just trace the 22mm pipes back to the bathroom and cap them off?
cheers for the help.

 

[Killy Bing]

Christ, thats a coal fired one isnt it?

 

[tom609]

Update. Took the gas fire out and chopped it out to find this ( see pics ), I assume this is the old back boiler, is this normal practice to leave it connected? Could this be the reason I've been havin a right job trying to balance the rads?, can I just trace the 22mm pipes back to the bathroom and cap them off?
cheers for the help.

no dont cap it if there is still water in there you will pressurize it, unlikely to still have water in unless still connected to the system, you could cap off the pipes after the rad providing your sure there are no other branches off them then drill a hole in the back boiler and take it out

 

[Vw1978]

It is still connected to the system and getting hot when the heating is on, so I need to take it out of the loop. And yes 'Killy bing' I believe it is a coal fired one, don't think it would be a good idea to have a fire under it at the minute though, I hear these things can explode.

 

[stevetheplumber]

if thats still in circuit i would think the boiler is full of all manner of crud by now

 

[Chalked]

Update. Took the gas fire out and chopped it out to find this ( see pics ), I assume this is the old back boiler, is this normal practice to leave it connected? Could this be the reason I've been havin a right job trying to balance the rads?, can I just trace the 22mm pipes back to the bathroom and cap them off?
cheers for the help.

looks like its got an automatic bypass and a back boiler bypass!

 

[Vw1978]

Another update:- removed the back boiler today that was fed by 22mm pipes, drained down the system and put a hole in the back boiler, then cut and capped the pipes. we've had right problems balancing the rads prior to this, some wouldn't get hot at all, we ended up removing some of the trv's but the rads would just get hottish with the boiler on full, now after removing the old back boiler and cutting back the 22mm pipes all the rads are red hot with the trv's on and I can now turn the boiler down, maybe I'll save on some gas now!, anyway job done now, just got to brick up and plaster the old fire place now, cheers for all your comments and advice.