stove/heating issues

thomand

i have a solid fuel stove in my house and an oil boiler i seldom never use. when the oil boiler is on eveything works fine, rads and hot water. when i light the stove the hot water taps dont get very warm and it only heats two radiators luke warm. also steam comes from black tank in my attic and drips down the wall.
is this a major job to fix?
Any suggestions for a self fix?

Buford T Justice

thomand wrote: »

i have a solid fuel stove in my house and an oil boiler i seldom never use. when the oil boiler is on eveything works fine, rads and hot water. when i light the stove the hot water taps dont get very warm and it only heats two radiators luke warm. also steam comes from black tank in my attic and drips down the wall.
is this a major job to fix?
Any suggestions for a self fix?

Is the back boiler in the stove plumbed to fill the rads too? If it is, it could be a few things. Firstly make sure the circulating pump is working correctly, and that the pipe stat for the boiler is working. That'd be a good start.

There is steam coming from the tank upstairs because the water is boiling over in the back boiler and is rising up the OSV pipe.

thomand

ive checked both and they are working fine. the stove did heat all the radiators before but now only somewhat heats two of them.

beanie10

Do you have thermostatic valves if so turn them up to max, bleed all rads with pumps turned off. It sounds like you have air in stove boiler. Loosen the big screw on stove pump to let air out and tighten when air turns to water.

plumber man

you sure the pump is working sounds very like the pump is not circulating

Buford T Justice

plumber man wrote: »

you sure the pump is working sounds very like the pump is not circulating

+1. Sounds to me like the Circulating pump has given up the ghost too. If nothing else has changed in recent times, then that's the first place I'd be looking

thomand

the pump and stat i was looking at are actualy for the oil boiler. the stove dosent have a pump. all the pipes are boxed in around the house and ive checked them and it dosent have one.
The pipes from the stove go back into a stone wall and appear again straight upstairs, then t connections, the connections right go to 3 upstairs rads, connections to the left has 2 more t's again which go to the small black tank.the pipes on from those t's travel across 2 metres in the ceiling then drop down stairs and t off for downstairs rads and continue around the back of the kitchen units into the hotpress at the far end of the house. these pipes are again t'd into the cylinder and the other end connects to the pipes coming from my outside oil boiler.
There are no motorised valves or stats or thermostatic valves.
This is and old cottage i bought 2 years ago and its worked fine until the last few weeks.
Roaring fire, little hot water,little heat in some rads, some freezing.
If i put a pump in would it solve the problem and if so where would i put it?
Thanks for the comments so far.

Buford T Justice

Maybe someone else can help here, but personally, I can't understand how the stove could have been heating all the rads before without a circulating pump, especially the ones at ground level.

Was the heating on the same time as the stove when it was working before?

You would most certainly need a pump on this imo, and a couple of NRV's too.

thomand

yes it heated the cylinder and rads all at the one time, but never as hot as the oil boiler. where should i put the pump and nrv?

thomand

Anyone?

Plombier

I wonder is the pump hidden behind the stone where the pipes go.

thomand

no ive had a good look and there is none, no thermostat. ? any ideas where i should put it on the exposed pipework?

Buford T Justice

You'd really need to have the system looked at. For example, do you have to OSV pipes running into you're expansion tank in the attic? You need one for each system, as in the boiler and the stove etc....

thomand

just from the stove, 1 into the bottom and one inoto the top

Buford T Justice

thomand wrote: »

just from the stove, 1 into the bottom and one inoto the top

Yes, but both of the systems need to have their own open safety pipe up to the expansion tank in the attic.

thomand

so where do i put the pump?, i cant afford to bring a pro in.

Buford T Justice

thomand wrote: »

so where do i put the pump?, i cant afford to bring a pro in.

Its not as simple as that. You need a plumber to look at the system that's there, and even just to give advice and set you on the right track..

Fitting a circulation pump with NRV's in backwards or with no Expansion pipe is extremely dangerous.

bustersdad

i had a system doing a similar thing ,check rads get same temp all over if theres a cold spot system is clogged