Unvented megaflow hot water cylinder with regular boiler

[bigbaddomy]

Hi, I've just recently moved home and lookingfor some general advice please from any experts out there. We have a HeatraeSadia CL210 Megaflo unvented hot water cylinder in the airing cupboard. The pressure forthe taps and showers is absolutely great but we've just started having centralheating and boiler issues. The guys have been out from the heating companywe've got central heating cover with and they seem to be confused with thesetup that we have. I assumed as we have an unvented hot water cylinder thatthe boiler would be a system boiler and pressurised in terms of the heatingsystem. Turns out we've got a glow worm 18hxi regular boiler which I found outfrom glow worm and we've got some sort of header or cold water tank in the loftwith a pump in the airing cupboard. I know pretty much nothing about plumbingor heating systems, but can anyone advise me whether having a regular boiler and pump is normal and quite standard alongside anunvented hot water cylinder? I would assume the setup should normally be an unventedsystem or vented for both heating and hot water or am I in the little bit ofknowledge is dangerous / you know nothing about heating go away son category?

 

[Ermintrude]

Sounds like it's fine. As long as the megaflow is fitted properly

 

[kay-jay]

Its quite normal although I prefer a sealed heating system.

 

[bigbaddomy]

Thanks both for your replies much appreciated. The megaflo seems fine only issue is I can't seem to find a tundish but think I'll get someone to come and check it over.

 

[Dotty]

Good man.

Also consider changing the heating cover you've got to a small independent who knows what they're doing.

This company you're with will be trying to sell you a system flush and then a combi if you're not careful.....

 

[stevetheplumber]

the heating system can be either vented or not makes no difference you dont say what problems you have been having?

 

[bigbaddomy]

Steve & croppie thanks both for your replies. With southern electric but realising that any savings are proving false economy when they keep sending kids out who don't appear to know what they're doing. I will ask the next chap who comes out whether his mummy lets him out to do out of hours oncall. Cheers for the heads up about flushing and new boilers. Problems we've had long story, started off pretty much every rad was cold at the bottom up to half way up the rads but tops were hot. Also a couple of the rads were lukewarm at best. Called them out to check it over, my own thoughts were either needs rebalancing, boiler not powerful enough to get to all rads or maybe sludge in the system. In the meantime went out one day came back and house was absolutely boiling hot and all rads were hot even though thermostat was at 18, just thought something had kicked into life. Later that day boiler stopped working with an F5 fault. They came out and said pump had packed up so they changed it and reset the boiler. All worked ok for about 2 hours and boiler again had same fault. They came back and changed an isolator valve and said there was a problem with the wiring and boiler was overheating and couldn't be set to above 65 degrees otherwise would overheat. Worked ok until the morning packed up with the same fault F5 on the boiler. I went into airing cupboard and noticed water on the wiring, they came back and said new pump and isolator valve both leaking so valves above changed parts also need changing. So a weekend without heating later they are due to come back tomorrow.

 

[kay-jay]

Steve & croppie thanks both for your replies. With southern electric but realising that any savings are proving false economy when they keep sending kids out who don't appear to know what they're doing. I will ask the next chap who comes out whether his mummy lets him out to do out of hours oncall. Cheers for the heads up about flushing and new boilers. Problems we've had long story, started off pretty much every rad was cold at the bottom up to half way up the rads but tops were hot. Also a couple of the rads were lukewarm at best. Called them out to check it over, my own thoughts were either needs rebalancing, boiler not powerful enough to get to all rads or maybe sludge in the system. In the meantime went out one day came back and house was absolutely boiling hot and all rads were hot even though thermostat was at 18, just thought something had kicked into life. Later that day boiler stopped working with an F5 fault. They came out and said pump had packed up so they changed it and reset the boiler. All worked ok for about 2 hours and boiler again had same fault. They came back and changed an isolator valve and said there was a problem with the wiring and boiler was overheating and couldn't be set to above 65 degrees otherwise would overheat. Worked ok until the morning packed up with the same fault F5 on the boiler. I went into airing cupboard and noticed water on the wiring, they came back and said new pump and isolator valve both leaking so valves above changed parts also need changing. So a weekend without heating later they are due to come back tomorrow.

This is the problem with big firms. They have an army of staff and they send them out one after the other until problems are resolved.

A small local firm has to get it right as a bad reputation is a killer. As such a small local firm with a good reputation is likely to cut throuh the crap and resolve your issues promptly.

 

[helpsy]

Ask for their G3 unvented card, for proof of qualification.

 

[bigbaddomy]

Just by way of an update, the latest diagnosis was valve was sticky so that was changed along with other leaking valve and another new pump. Megaflo was dripping into the tundish so air gap regenerated and cylinder drained down etc. Now have working boiler but some radiators are colder than others and we have yellow brown hot water but cold water is clear and ok. I'll be getting a local company in who know what they're doing.