Anyone know anything about gas central heating?

[VaselineHero]

I'm not technical so bear with me..

We have a basic Potterton gas boiler. It's about 20 years old and never had any issues with it. The heating system in the house has just one zone so water and rads are heated at the same time. It's basically either on or off. There are just 5 rads in the house (2 bed).

We recently had a boiler service and safety check just as a precaution as I'm due to have a baby any day. Report came back saying all was fine, but since the check the 2 rads downstairs no longer get warm at all. I've bled all of them to check for airlocks. The upstairs 3 do warm up but much slower than before. Before the service/check all the radiators would get warm simultaneously. Now it's like first rad warms up..second rad..third rad...nothing.

I've contacted the gas company who did the service l and they have said nothing they did could have affected the system in this way. I don't know enough about it to argue but it seems like a coincidence to me

Has anyone experienced anything like this before, or may have an idea of how to rectify it?

Thanks!

Are the radiators warm at the bottom at all, or just cold entirely for longer than usual? Do you get any black sludge when you bleed them?
Is there a dial on the boiler for heating temperature? Does the pressure gauge look ok?

@Pigletjohn is the expert on plumbing here and is very helpful. Hope he comes by to advise.

turn the heating on for an hour. Does the tapwater from the hot cylinder get surprisingly hot?

I'll check these tmrw and come back to you with some answers. Thanks

@PigletJohn - the water is hot but not surprisingly so. I could wash my hands under it for example without feeling surprised at the temp.

@PlanBea
No black gunge. Water runs out freely.

Upstairs Rads 1 and 2 - piping hot
Rad 3 - warmer at the top than the bottom. This rad used to be much hotter than it is now

The hot water tank is between Rads 2 and 3 - if this makes a difference.

Downstairs Rads 4 and 5 are completely cold at top and bottom. Both used to be really hot.

There is a temp gauge on the boiler, although the plastic knob is broken . I know the boiler man turned it down a little when he visited. He said it should be 3/4 turned up (rather than at Max). I had never touched this before so can't say what it was on previously. Since discovering the downstairs Rads weren't working however I did try turning it up to max to see if that made a difference - it didn't.

The pressure gauge - I can't get at that as it's boxed in above the boiler. I'll try and take some pics.

Thanks for helping.

You need to be more insistent with the company who serviced it.

It was working before and isn't now.

Threaten social media or trading standards if they don't listen.

Boiler and what I assume is the gauge attached

@PigletJohn I've just tested the water in the bathroom (Rad 2) and that hot water is surprisingly hot. I tried the kitchen before.

@PeoniesarePink
I know I need to do this. I gave birth 2 days ago and just haven't got the energy to fight for it at the moment! I have spoken to them and the engineer who visited called me back. He was no help.

I just want the house to be warm enough for the baby - it's rubbish weather here and the downstairs is freezing.

Oh god, you poor thing. I hope you get it sorted soon, and congratulations on your new baby

I hope you get it sorted! I'm confused about the birth though, 24 hours ago you were due to give birth any day, today you say you gave birth two days ago!

@Sirrah
Where did i say that 24 hours ago?

Your boiler appears to be a Potterton Profile. This is an excellent boiler, though quite old. If you can find an experienced independent boilerman (probably not one from a big company) he will probably be very fond of it and will want to keep it going. He will not be very young.

I think you say that some of the radiators are surprisingly hot.

Turn these hot ones OFF.

Do the cool ones now heat up?

What colour is your hot-water cylinder?

Please photograoh the pipes and other things around it. There are likely to be one or two things with electrical flex connected to them.

Also please photograph the timer/programmer, and the wall thermostat.

The thing in your other photo is the pump.

I do not think your boiler will have a pressure gauge.

@PigletJohn
This is the tank and surrounding pipes. The tank itself is copper coloured.

I'll post a pic of the programmer. We recently had this changed. It was one of those manual dial types before where you push in the little notches to select the on/off times. That stopped working and we got a basic digital one fitted.

There is no wall thermostat.

I will try the turning the upstairs rads off tmrw. Just one thing, I tried to turn off the bedroom rad (rad 1) ages ago and it leaked water everywhere so since then have left all of them open and as they were when I moved in. Do I have to close the valves at both ends of each rads? Can I ensure it won't leak again?

If that's the pump then I think you are right about there being no pressure gauge. I can't see anything else.

Thanks.

when a radiator valve leaks on being turned, it needs to be replaced (some can be repaired with new seals). But if you turn it fully off, or fully on, it will probably stop leaking, for the moment.

I am inclined to agree that servicing or safety checking the boiler would not cause the problems you are having, it is more likely the settings of the radiator valves, and the poor controls on your heating system. Changing the programmer might possibly have made a difference, depending on its settings. your system may have a very old-fashioned control system, and I suppose it's possible the controller was changed by someone unfamiliar with it. however this can be changed. A wrinkly old heating engineer will have done hundreds.

You only need to close the valve at one end of a radiator to turn it off. The one at the other end has to be adjusted in a way that I will explain later, and subsequent turning will throw it out of adjustment and lead to uneven heating.

Which county are you in?

"We recently had a boiler service and safety check just as a precaution as I'm due to have a baby any day. "

This was in your original post, at 20.39 on 4th June.

@Sirrah
Oh yes! Well spotted, I couldn't see it for looking. Yeah that does make it confusing. I've been trying to write this post for a week now! Now the baby has arrived I am more motivated to get this problem fixed.

@PigletJohn
The app won't let me upload another photo, but the programmer is an EPH Controls R17 - 1 zone timeswitch.

Would the fact we had the bathroom recently refurbed make a difference. The original rad was removed and a towel rail was installed instead. This is Rad 2 and it gets v hot.

I'm based in Ireland.

yes, turn it OFF.

All working rads upstairs are now off

Living room valve below is now dripping water so I've turned it off

This one

This is the valve on the other side of the radiator

Both stems leading to the living room rad valves are cold.

These are the valves on the kitchen rad. The one on the r/h side has a warm stem but it doesn't seem to be adjustable?

@PigletJohn
I meant to say, once I turned off all the working rads, nothing happened downstairs other than how I've described. The last 2 didn't warm up at all.

Thanks.

I thought I wrote a reply earlier but it doesn't show.

When did the heating and HW last work properly?

Your system looks to have been good quality and well installed when it was new, but looks neglected and needs repairs at least, and preferably updating. Without wishing to be impertinent, is cost a problem?

It seems to me that some (or all) of your problems are caused by the old and faulty radiator valves, and that this should be the first thing to rectify.

It doesn't need a gas installer, so ask around for personal recommendations of an experienced local plumber. I'd replace all the old ones. This will involve draining down the system for a day or so, which at this time of year should not be too bad, as I see you have an immersion heater on your hot water cylinder. It would be preferable to put a thermostatic radiator valve on one end of each radiator, since you have no wall stat and presumably no motorised valve.

If you are willing and able to get into the loft a week or two before the drain, and add a cleaning chemical to your feed and expansion tank, after ladelling out all the mud and sediment and wiping it clean, this will help the drain to wash away more of the old dirt from the system. It's a cheap and easy move wich I can explan more fully if you wish.

Have a look at your gas meter and see how many cubic metres of gas you are using per day. For Hot Water only, I would expect it, with your system, to be in the region a 1 per day. With heating it would be more.

After fixing the radiator valves and getting the system going, you can look into updating the controls and insulation on the cylinder and the pipes, especially the ones between the boiler and the cylinder, which will improve efficiency and cut costs.

I don't see a timer. How do you turn your boiler on and off?