Stove not heating radiators, water

ireland.man

I've just moved into a home with a wood-burning stove but the problem is that it should be heating up the radiators and the water in the bathroom but I’m lucky if it makes two of the radiators just luke-warm. And this is after hours upon hours of good quality wood being burnt (when I put on the oil for an hour the rads have no problem getting up to a decent temperature).

There’s an Imit thermostat on the pipe leading out of the stove and I’ve set this to 60 degrees. It will come on every 30 minutes or so (the pump will vibrate and the pipes start rumbling) for a few seconds and then goes quiet again.

Are there some troubleshooting steps I can go through myself to check the stove and pipes? Or is it a job for the plumber?

Dtp1979

ireland.man wrote: »

I've just moved into a home with a wood-burning stove but the problem is that it should be heating up the radiators and the water in the bathroom but I’m lucky if it makes two of the radiators just luke-warm. And this is after hours upon hours of good quality wood being burnt (when I put on the oil for an hour the rads have no problem getting up to a decent temperature).

There’s an Imit thermostat on the pipe leading out of the stove and I’ve set this to 60 degrees. It will come on every 30 minutes or so (the pump will vibrate and the pipes start rumbling) for a few seconds and then goes quiet again.

Are there some troubleshooting steps I can go through myself to check the stove and pipes? Or is it a job for the plumber?

Your probably better off calling a plumber. It could be that your pump is fecked, but saying that, if shouldn't stop your hog water heating up. Could be piped arseways either, which nowadays you see alot with solid fuel. Next time you light the stove, touch the top pipe coming from your oil boiler after an hour. Is it warm?

ireland.man

Dtp1979 wrote: »

Your probably better off calling a plumber. It could be that your pump is fecked, but saying that, if shouldn't stop your hog water heating up. Could be piped arseways either, which nowadays you see alot with solid fuel. Next time you light the stove, touch the top pipe coming from your oil boiler after an hour. Is it warm?

Wouldn't be surprised if it is badly fitted- we've had a few other plumbing issues here.

About the top pipe coming from the stove, ir's heating up well, too hot to touch.

Dtp1979

ireland.man wrote: »

Wouldn't be surprised if it is badly fitted- we've had a few other plumbing issues here.

About the top pipe coming from the stove, ir's heating up well, too hot to touch.

Sorry I meant the top pipe at your oil boiler. I want to see if that is hot, only when the stove is on, not the oil

ireland.man

Dtp1979 wrote: »

Sorry I meant the top pipe at your oil boiler. I want to see if that is hot, only when the stove is on, not the oil

I can't see the pipes in the back of the oil boiler (maybe the way it was put against the wall or the fact that it's pitch black out!).

Dtp1979

ireland.man wrote: »

I can't see the pipes in the back of the oil boiler (maybe the way it was put against the wall or the fact that it's pitch black out!).

Can you put your Hand in and feel any of the fittings?

ireland.man

Dtp1979 wrote: »

Can you put your Hand in and feel any of the fittings?

I can't seem to now- I'll try and take a proper look tomorrow. How important is it to know if that pipe is heating up?

Dtp1979

ireland.man wrote: »

I can't seem to now- I'll try and take a proper look tomorrow. How important is it to know if that pipe is heating up?

If you oil boiler is heating from your stove or vice versa then its swallowing up all the heat from your stove. Basically robbing heat from the rads. If piped correctly this should never happen. Take a few pics of your hot press

dugger

Dtp1979 wrote: »

If you oil boiler is heating from your stove or vice versa then its swallowing up all the heat from your stove. Basically robbing heat from the rads. If piped correctly this should never happen. Take a few pics of your hot press

As I have posted before the most common problem is boilers out there with no internal baffles so there is only a fraction of the heat coming out of the boiler 9 times out of 10 if there is any heat getting to any of the rads then the system is mostly set up right just there not enough heat coming from the boiler, the water comes into the boiler and returns out the top taking the shortest route possible as opposed to being baffled around the boiler to get the max heat, In my option stick to Irish built boilers as the guys doing them here have been doing them for donkeys years with no major issues, but nowadays so many products on the market with huge problems, due to the fact that they are being made here, there and everywhere and everybody convincing themselves that 1 company is better then the next driven mostly by price, pay the 10-15% extra to buy Irish and you avoid the risk of a dodgy boiler.

Dante79

I had the same problem with my stove and the problem was the circulating pump was installed backwards so the hot water from the stove was being pumped back down again!!! once this was rectified the radiators started heating up fine

Crazy Eye

thinking of getting a boiler stove installed for 9 rads in the near future .
do you need a roaring fire going for the stove to even heat the rads to luke warm ?

ireland.man

Dante79 wrote: »

I had the same problem with my stove and the problem was the circulating pump was installed backwards so the hot water from the stove was being pumped back down again!!! once this was rectified the radiators started heating up fine

I think it's time to get the landlord to call in the plumber! I'll go ahead and do that since the days are getting colder- I can't take using this much fuel and barely getting the chill out of the bedrooms. I'll let people now what they say if they manage to rectify things.