L
leeroy_25
So a couple of months back my heating system pumped packed up. Called a plumber out to fix it and he swapped it over and advised he would change the zone valve while doing the job as this was also quite old and might fail at some point down the road. He also replace the manual air bleed for an auto bleed valve.
So we have a regular old heating system not combi. As in head tank up in the attic, cold water tank up in the attic, hot water tank in airing cupboard on second floor and boiler downstairs.
All was working fine up until the point the pump seized. Straight after the system was running I had a lot of air in the radiators where it had all be drained. but the more I bled the more came back and the tank was bubbling away like a good and the auto bleed hissing air out. We then started getting water coming out of the heating header tank overflow outside. it Turned out where the tank had been drained during the repair the lid had fallen in a jammed the ball valve from shutting properly. But it was not continuous water coming form the overflow. Just when the heating and hot water came on mainly. It appeared as though the hot water tank overflow/vent had become submerged in the over filled tank water and was trying to circulate all around. I mention all this in case it could be related to the remaining issues. with the lid sorted and tank level correct the vent seems to be fine with no fluid coming out. but the tank still bubbles a lot and seems to create air inside which gets bled from the autobleed. The plumber came back thinking maybe some kind of blockage was in the system so put some cleaner in and left it a week or so then came and neutralised it. Still the same. At this point I discovered that the bubbling only occurred when the hot water was switched on. as in boiler.. not immersion. If you ran hot water on it's own as well the bubbling would start. Heating switched on on it's own and all is rosey and the heating is a lot more efficient. Air does not see to get drawn into the system now since bleeding it off and now running the hot water off the immersion so we don't have to put up with the kettling noise coming from the hot tank.
It is hard to say if it originates from the hot tank or boiler as the pipework carries the sound but it is like a surging, kettle boiling kind of sound and definitely pulling air in somewhere as the auto bleed hisses periodically when it is happening. The plumber seems at a bit of a loss what to check next. I have asked if it could be the zone valve somehow he thinks not.. The other thing I would say is the new pump seems to whoosh the water around much faster than the old one to the point you can hear it going around the pipes when it first fires up and sometimes in the night when the house is quiet there is a dull kind of hum from it. Could the pump working to fast cause and issue? Like cavitation or something?
I really hope someone can help shed some light on this as I am not looking forward to the electric bill if we have to stay on the immersion for much longer!
The last point I would like to bring up again as it maybe related is I have noticed that hot water tap on the upstairs basin seems to splutter for a couple of seconds with air the first time you turn it on after running a bath. I am pretty sure it did not do this before. Also the hot pressure downstairs is pretty poor. It has never been great but I am thinking it might be a little worse. We had a strange incident a couple of weeks back.(after new pump bits fitted) where we went to run a bath and ran out of hot water. I think around the time we first switched over to the immersion. In fact I think the day after the noise had been so bad in the night I had to switch off the hot water heating. So the first day we properly went over to immersion. When I say we ran out of water I mean the tap went down to a dribble!
I had this before when the ball valve on the cold tank blocked and the tank drained. I could not check quick enough that day but after the tap managing to clear it's own air lock later in the evening and being able to run a bath again I check the tank and although the level was quite low and the ball valve a bit slower than I would expect to see there was still water there a good few inches above the outlet pipes to the hot water tank. Since then I really noticed this spluttering on the basin hot tap after running a bath?
I think I just wrote a dissertation so sorry if there is a lot to take in but I wanted to get it all out at once in case things are related.
Really hope someone can help.
Thank you
Lee
So we have a regular old heating system not combi. As in head tank up in the attic, cold water tank up in the attic, hot water tank in airing cupboard on second floor and boiler downstairs.
All was working fine up until the point the pump seized. Straight after the system was running I had a lot of air in the radiators where it had all be drained. but the more I bled the more came back and the tank was bubbling away like a good and the auto bleed hissing air out. We then started getting water coming out of the heating header tank overflow outside. it Turned out where the tank had been drained during the repair the lid had fallen in a jammed the ball valve from shutting properly. But it was not continuous water coming form the overflow. Just when the heating and hot water came on mainly. It appeared as though the hot water tank overflow/vent had become submerged in the over filled tank water and was trying to circulate all around. I mention all this in case it could be related to the remaining issues. with the lid sorted and tank level correct the vent seems to be fine with no fluid coming out. but the tank still bubbles a lot and seems to create air inside which gets bled from the autobleed. The plumber came back thinking maybe some kind of blockage was in the system so put some cleaner in and left it a week or so then came and neutralised it. Still the same. At this point I discovered that the bubbling only occurred when the hot water was switched on. as in boiler.. not immersion. If you ran hot water on it's own as well the bubbling would start. Heating switched on on it's own and all is rosey and the heating is a lot more efficient. Air does not see to get drawn into the system now since bleeding it off and now running the hot water off the immersion so we don't have to put up with the kettling noise coming from the hot tank.
It is hard to say if it originates from the hot tank or boiler as the pipework carries the sound but it is like a surging, kettle boiling kind of sound and definitely pulling air in somewhere as the auto bleed hisses periodically when it is happening. The plumber seems at a bit of a loss what to check next. I have asked if it could be the zone valve somehow he thinks not.. The other thing I would say is the new pump seems to whoosh the water around much faster than the old one to the point you can hear it going around the pipes when it first fires up and sometimes in the night when the house is quiet there is a dull kind of hum from it. Could the pump working to fast cause and issue? Like cavitation or something?
I really hope someone can help shed some light on this as I am not looking forward to the electric bill if we have to stay on the immersion for much longer!
The last point I would like to bring up again as it maybe related is I have noticed that hot water tap on the upstairs basin seems to splutter for a couple of seconds with air the first time you turn it on after running a bath. I am pretty sure it did not do this before. Also the hot pressure downstairs is pretty poor. It has never been great but I am thinking it might be a little worse. We had a strange incident a couple of weeks back.(after new pump bits fitted) where we went to run a bath and ran out of hot water. I think around the time we first switched over to the immersion. In fact I think the day after the noise had been so bad in the night I had to switch off the hot water heating. So the first day we properly went over to immersion. When I say we ran out of water I mean the tap went down to a dribble!
I had this before when the ball valve on the cold tank blocked and the tank drained. I could not check quick enough that day but after the tap managing to clear it's own air lock later in the evening and being able to run a bath again I check the tank and although the level was quite low and the ball valve a bit slower than I would expect to see there was still water there a good few inches above the outlet pipes to the hot water tank. Since then I really noticed this spluttering on the basin hot tap after running a bath?
I think I just wrote a dissertation so sorry if there is a lot to take in but I wanted to get it all out at once in case things are related.
Really hope someone can help.
Thank you
Lee
