Boiler help. PPLLEEEAAASSEEE!

[Sparklyoldwhizzbangcatpusswhee]

Right. We had a lovely plumber out last week. He bled the rads and repressurised the system, makin everything work beautifully and only charged us £20! Now, the boiler is working, the water is hot, as are all of the pipes I the boiler, but the rads aren't getting warm! What can I do?

Could they need bleeding? Start with the one furthest away, best to do it while the heating is on so be careful not to scald yourself

Timer is set to ON. Rad valves on full, boiler is working, water is hot. Had system repressurised and the rads bled last week. All was working fine. Suddenly nothing. The rads aren't even partly warm!

Oil boiler.

is there a hot water cylinder?

Is there a room thermostat on the wall?

It's a combi boiler with everything inside. The plumber last week said the pump was working, and it's feels like its working. No room thermostats, just rad stats. Temperature dials are set to 3 out of 5 for water and heat. Pressure is 1.3.

probably the diverter valve, then, but you will need a heating engineer who is familiar with your type of boiler. Plumbers and gas engineers are not usually skilled on oil boilers. You might ask the company who installed it.

It is curious, or coincidental, that it has happened shortly after being bled and repressurised, it might possibly be that sediment has been disturbed and caused a blockage. If so (this is more likely if the radiators are rather old) as well as having it cleaned, ask about having a system filter fitted. It will capture any circulating particles before they can settle into sediment or blockages.

btw a room stat will make it more economical to run, it is disappointing that it has not got one.

After something someone said on my chat thread, I had a look inside, and located the isolator valve thingy. It has 'auto' at one end of the slidy switch, and 'manual open' on the other. It was set near to auto, and I moved it to manual. There was a gurgle, and we have heat now. Is it safe to leave it on manual?
As for the company that fitted it, they're a shower of idiots! I had it serviced by a local engineer a few years ago. He looked at it and said he had never seen a boiler of that type before.
When I checked the paperwork, HE had flipping well installed it and serviced it twice since installation. His son tried to repair mums boiler, he put valves in backwards, spent ages trying to work out what the problem was, washed his hands of it and charged her a small fortune! Won't be touching them with a barge pole!

I am not familiar with oil combis and don't know. Where is this valve, and does it have an electric flex going to a square box on top? Is it marked "Honeywell" or "ACL Drayton?"

I would usually expect the diverter valve to be controlled by the flow switch (detecting hot water being run from a tap) and the room stat.

Time for you to ask around locally for a good oilman.

Yep. It's just like that, it's a Honeywell. Someone in chat reckons that the auto setting is for if you have a wall stat, so it ought to be on manual. I'm going to leave it on manual and see what happens!

It's the switch which says auto/manual open.

i have a combi and it always goes wrong after being bled, therefore i never do it

It had to be done, there was no pressure at all. We didn't have heat or water. I think I've worked out the problem. As the boiler cover has lost it's fixings, I didn't put it back on after the plumber came, as I'm planning to get some sticky Velcro to put it on with. It's right next to the washing machine. I think someone probably knocked the switch to auto whilst filling/emptying the machine!
The cover is back on now!

this is a 2-port Honeywell motorised valve

and this is a 3-port

Sounds like you mean one or the other.

I can't see how to work it without a room stat, probably the person you had in last week expected it to work in the usual way, I definitely reccommend to try to find a good oilman and ask him to fit you a room stat. It will improve economy and comfort.

A programmable stat might be about £70 more than a simple stat, but it will allow you to set different temperatures for different times of the day and night, and different days of the week.

I wouldn't have a wireless stat as it gives two more layers of potential failure.

I've got a 3 way!
I can't afford a room stat at the moment. I was dead relieved that the plumber only charged me £20!

if you have a 3-way, and leave it on manual, you might find the hot water is not as hot as usual, because the boiler may be simultaneously trying to heat the radiators and the tap. A combi usually gives priority to the taps.

Hmmm! I'm going to try it on auto tomorrow, see if it was just a glitch. Bloody mechanical things do my head in! Cars, boilers, electronics...
Give me a lame horse and I could pin point the problem and tell you how to fix it!