Solid fuel heating problem

nadiahealy

I currently have a stove with a back boiler, the top pipe of stove is rising on up and across about 3metres to hotpress, it is then going up to attic to the small tank and then on to radiators from hotpress.
Whenever the stove is lit it seems to be circulating round the small tank in attic and acting as a radiator, i had a plumber look at it and he says to link the cold feed from tank and expansion pipe together as this would stop circulation,
Would this be dangerous as it is the main blow off pipe for back boiler?

aujopimur

Combining the cold feed and expansion is not the technically correct thing to do, but lots do it, and it will cure the pitching problem you have.
To do it correctly' the cold feed should be piped unrestricted to the stove and fed into the return in front of the pump.

nadiahealy

Thanks, will try that.
The feed coming from expansion tank has a valve on it, i turned it off to stop the circulation and it worked but a short while later the expansion pipe kept dribbling water (a small amount) constantly when stove signalled pump to turn on. The expansion pipe is rising to the top of roof in attic and cant put it any higher, what needs to be done to resolve this?

aujopimur

Do NOT close the valve on the cold feed, if the heating runs dry you could have an explosion.
As a precaution I suggest you open the valve and saw off the spindle so that it cant be closed.

Billy Bunting

nadiahealy wrote: »

The feed coming from expansion tank has a valve on it,

Shouldn't have a valve. :eek:

arteta10

hiya just wondering wat temp is ur pipe stat at

nadiahealy

thanks for letting me know,i turned off valve as temporary measure to stop it circulating in tank, until i get cold feed to proper side of pump,still it is slightly dribbling water into tank.

nadiahealy

arteta10 wrote: »

hiya just wondering wat temp is ur pipe stat at

hi.pump is operated by a switch i turn it on when stove is lit

nadiahealy

hi,i was also wondering if i could have both solid fuel and oil heating on at one time.i have just moved in to a new house with these systems installed,i know a little bout plumbing but would not be familiar with solid fuel.thanks for your info so far

Billy Bunting

In normally situations you should be able to run both oil and solid fuel together, unfortunetly in your case i would suggest you have the system checked over first, any plumber who fits a gate vale on a cold feed could well of made further system mystakes.

Did you turn your gate valve back on ?? are you sure its on

nadiahealy

yea i put cold feed in front of pump to stop circulation in small tank and opened the valve again,i also took your advice and took off valve head,did not light stove yet,fingers crossed no water will go to tank in attic.thanks for reply.

Billy Bunting

Unfortunetly with crappy old gate valves the problem you have is when you turn them off quite often you only think you've turned them back on. :eek:

nadiahealy

yea i have come across that problem before but in this case it was a lever valve, i would have more faith in that type of valve.