Possible airlock somewhere

kkelly77

I posted a thread last week (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056127799&highlight=kkelly77) about an issue with frozen central heating pipes.

I was woken up at 2:45 this morning to the sound of the header tank running. Great I thought, the pipes have finally thawed. However, the tank was filling for over an hour!! After investigating it turned out to be a pipe in the shed beside the boiler was pissing water everywhere. The water was coming from a pipe that had been crimped and soldered (see photos attached). I cut it and put a stop cap on it. Then I let the ball cock loose in the header tank.

Problem is, the pressure gauge on the boiler is still reading zero. Bled all the rads, which had plenty of air in them. I also opened the drain valve beside the boiler to get the water flowing. Still have zero on the gauge.

Any ideas what's going on? I'm pulling my hair out here at this stage :mad:

Buford T Justice

With regards the heating system, is it a closed system? If so, why do you have a tank feeding the system? or does the pipe serve a different purpose?

Can you take a bigger pic of the pipework that's there please?

If its closed, then you will need to have the system topped up.

If you can give more info, we can help further.

kkelly77

Fingers McGee wrote: »

With regards the heating system, is it a closed system? If so, why do you have a tank feeding the system? or does the pipe serve a different purpose?

Can you take a bigger pic of the pipework that's there please?

If its closed, then you will need to have the system topped up.

If you can give more info, we can help further.

It's a vented system I believe (header tank in attic) I've no idea why that crimped pipe was there in the first place.

A few extra photos attached. Water pump with a bottle vent above it, boiler with thermostat, drain valve with expansion vessel beside it and water pressure gauge attached to the boiler. There are two pipes that feed from the boiler into the house into the hot press which is located in the kitchen and into the hot water tank.

Buford T Justice

The first one is an automatic air vent

Second one is the circulating pump

Third one is the fire valve for the oil line, and there is an expansion vessel there too, so its a sealed system

Last one is a pressure relief valve with a pressure gauge fitted to it.

Where is you're filling loop?

kkelly77

Fingers McGee wrote: »

Where is you're filling loop?

You've got me there :rolleyes:

I'm relatively new to the plumbing DIY game. I've had to bite the bullet and call a plumber out to take a look at the system this afternoon. I'll post what the outcome is.

thatsme

Our water was off for 12 hours yesterday turned on the cold tap in the bathroom and noting came out of it tank in attic did not refill when water came back on Pressure is light but has been like this before and we have had no problems. Think there might be an airlock in the inlet pipe, when I was filling the tank in the attic could hear gurgling and air but no water came out Does anyone know how I can check if it is airlocked and how to remove it

kkelly77

Fingers McGee wrote: »

The first one is an automatic air vent

Second one is the circulating pump

Third one is the fire valve for the oil line, and there is an expansion vessel there too, so its a sealed system

Last one is a pressure relief valve with a pressure gauge fitted to it.

Where is you're filling loop?

Just to update, the heating is finally working again!!!!

Having said that though, the plumber didn't have to do much considering I had most of the hard work done. Apparently there was a very small amount of ice still in the boiler so just turning on the heating and leaving it on sorted it out :rolleyes:

I was wary of doing this as the pressure relief valve was at zero and normally reads ~1bar and thought it may burn out the pump if I let it run with no water in it. Also, checked with the plumber it is a semi sealed system I have and I don't have a filling loop.

Buford T Justice

thatsme wrote: »

Our water was off for 12 hours yesterday turned on the cold tap in the bathroom and noting came out of it tank in attic did not refill when water came back on Pressure is light but has been like this before and we have had no problems. Think there might be an airlock in the inlet pipe, when I was filling the tank in the attic could hear gurgling and air but no water came out Does anyone know how I can check if it is airlocked and how to remove it

If its a tank fed tap, and the tank is full, then its most likely an airlock. Check around this forum, there are many threads about eradicating an airlock like this.