oil heating not coming on downstairs but ok upstairs?

purerandom

hi,
i have a firebird boiler which heats upstairs and downstairs. both levels are managed by stats on the wall.

i turned on the heating y'day and it was fine upstairs but no rads came on downstairs. The stat seems to be working correctly as the light is on, i also checked the oil tank and there is plenty of oil in the tank.
I went around and bled the rads but that did not bring any joy either.
has anyone experienced this before? any help here would be great.

Buford T Justice

Faulty stat perhaps, not sending the signal to the motorized valve to open the circuit, or faulty motorized valve not opening when it should?

Orion

I had a similar problem with a Firebird. Turned out the pump was knackered. New pump and full central heating again.

purerandom

thanks for the replies folks.
ok, i would wager its a faulty valve as the boiler is able to heat upstairs ok.
the normal 'working as usual' light comes on the boiler aswell so i am praying its not the boiler.

is there any way i can check the valve myself without getting an electrician in?

kscobie

purerandom wrote: »

thanks for the replies folks.
ok, i would wager its a faulty valve as the boiler is able to heat upstairs ok.
the normal 'working as usual' light comes on the boiler aswell so i am praying its not the boiler.

is there any way i can check the valve myself without getting an electrician in?

Yeah, there is usually a manual override on the side of the motor body, should slide open into a groove/slot that will keep the valve in the open position. If the rads heat up, you know the problem

purerandom

thanks for the info,
i do recall a little box in the hotpress upstairs that has a little lever with a groove on it. I cant say i have ever seen one downstairs in the utility room. i assume a similar box will be there behind the utility press beside the boiler. is that where the lever+groove will be for downstairs do you think?
i can check this tonight when i go home, i have something to test anyway which is great, thanks again.

Sparkpea

the other option is the water circulating pump has stopped working, if your pipes to upstairs rise from the boiler then they will heat by gravity but downstairs wont heat without the pump working.

you can check if the spindal is working on the pump

if it is then its more likely to be the motorised valve

purerandom

right gang, i found the downstairs motorised valve last night and set it to manual. the rads downstairs then came on!
i set it back to auto, and tested it when the rads had cooled down and it now works as normal. maybe the lever got stuck or something but panic has been averted.

thanks to everyone of you who helped me on this. your comments are much appreciated.