Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Gas central heating - why won't it work? Pigletjohn?

19 replies

doglover · 10/09/2013 21:38

We moved house in July and have been blessed with great weather............ until now!

There is a newish Worcester combi boiler which provides our hot water really efficiently but when dh pressed set the switch for the heating to come on, the radiators are stone cold.
Can anyone suggest what we should do? Is it a case of calling a plumber/heating engineer tomorrow?
TIA

OP posts:
ZolaBuddleia · 10/09/2013 21:42

Is there a thermostat? Do your radiators have thermostatic valves?

It might be that you've switched on the heating at the boiler end, but the radiators are not being activated.

doglover · 10/09/2013 21:44

Yes to thermostat, ZB. Dh fiddled with it but am not sure about radiators. Will check ................... Many thanks.

OP posts:
2kidsintow · 10/09/2013 21:44

Have you got enough pressure?

We unwisely decided to bleed our radiators on New Year's Eve - and the central heating cut out. It took about 20 mins of reading the manual in an increasingly cold house before we realised that there was a gauge showing pressure and that bleeding the radiators had dropped the pressure to a level that wouldn't work. Turning a tap that was by the boiler raised the pressure and the radiators would then heat up.

Marrow · 10/09/2013 21:45

This may be a daft question but have you checked the temp the thermostat is set at and also checked the timer is set up properly? Also check the radiators are turned up.

MummytoMog · 10/09/2013 21:45

Look for a thermostat if you haven't found one yet. For our heating to come on the dial has to be set to heating and hot water on the boiler and the thermostat has to be set to on and either cold enough for heating or on override.

MummytoMog · 10/09/2013 21:46

Sorry cross posted! Yes, check the valves and the boiler pressure. Or it could be that your diverter valve has got a bit stuck, which is a quick fix for a plumber.

doglover · 10/09/2013 21:46

Gosh. I will check all this out tomorrow. I'm rather braindead now but this is fantastic advice. Many thanks Smile

OP posts:
NaturalBaby · 10/09/2013 21:47

We moved in June and haven't turned ours on yet! I'm wondering how our buyers are getting on with our old boiler - it wouldn't work if the pressure dropped. It just had a switch to flick over to constant heating or timed heating.

colleysmill · 10/09/2013 21:50

Ummm this has happened to me and everything seemed ok - thermostats ok, pilot light on boiler and yet nothing happened.

Turned out we had an additional switch as an isolator for the boiler in a kitchen cupboard that needs to also be switched on to turn on the heating. I'd stuffed a load of cook books in the cupboard and accidentally switched it to off.

This is now the first thing I check if the heating wont work.

PigletJohn · 11/09/2013 08:49

Just seen this.

If the boiler gives hot water, then it should heat the radiators if both the timer and the room stat are on. Turn up the room stat and see. Does it click? It will not be pressure if the HW works.

Somebody might have turned off the rads with their knobs.

How old is the system?

If no joy, turn both Hw and CH off at. the programmer. After an hour, turn on CH only. Does the boiler start? Does it then quickly stop?

Waferthinmint · 11/09/2013 09:07

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

doglover · 11/09/2013 09:27

Thanks everyone. (Rolling sleeves up) I'll start my investigations today ............... Smile

OP posts:
2kidsintow · 11/09/2013 17:37

Fixed? Or still freezing?

doglover · 13/09/2013 17:27

Just a quick update ....................... Heating DOES work!! Smile Apparently the boiler has a wireless thermostat that dh found in a cupboard. By playing around with this, he got it going! Yay!

OP posts:
2kidsintow · 13/09/2013 20:41

Yay.

DIddled · 13/09/2013 22:59

Piglet John - I actually love you :)

PigletJohn · 13/09/2013 23:04

That will cost a little extra, of course.

Selks · 14/09/2013 00:06
Smile
DIddled · 16/09/2013 20:54

Ha ha- you are so generous with your time and knowledge- x

New posts on this thread. Refresh page