Rads Working but Hot water cylinder not!?

bjrog1

Hi all
Hope someone call help reassure me. I havent a clue about plumbing so any help in laymans terms would be great.

My heating system is oil boiler/burner. the heating system is around 7 years old.
In the past few days my rads are working and heating as normal but my hot water cylinder is not heating so i am getting no hot water from the heating.
my immersion is working so I am getting hot water from that.

not sure this would be anything to do with the problem-A few weeks back the timer for the heating system to turn it on and off broke and while waiting to get it fixed we managed to turn the heating system on using the switches at the fuseboard. the timer has since been fixed.

thanks guys

Dtp1979

bjrog1 wrote: »

Hi all
Hope someone call help reassure me. I havent a clue about plumbing so any help in laymans terms would be great.

My heating system is oil boiler/burner. the heating system is around 7 years old.
In the past few days my rads are working and heating as normal but my hot water cylinder is not heating so i am getting no hot water from the heating.
my immersion is working so I am getting hot water from that.

not sure this would be anything to do with the problem-A few weeks back the timer for the heating system to turn it on and off broke and while waiting to get it fixed we managed to turn the heating system on using the switches at the fuseboard. the timer has since been fixed.

thanks guys

Check your small tank in the attic. I'd say it's empty because the ballcock is stuck.

bjrog1

thanks a mil Dtp!...will check that tomorrow.not in house tonight...

any other tips from anyone in case it is not that..

Dtp1979

bjrog1 wrote: »

thanks a mil Dtp!...will check that tomorrow.not in house tonight...

any other tips from anyone in case it is not that..

If you have a zone valve on the water circuit it mightn't be opening. The balance valve could be closed too much and blocked with sludge

TheChizler

Have you checked the obvious things? Like making sure the new timer is set correctly? Can you set the cylinder to heat from the boiler manually like you did before?

bjrog1

Dtp1979 wrote: »

If you have a zone valve on the water circuit it mightn't be opening. The balance valve could be closed too much and blocked with sludge

Have no idea DTP..ill ask the plumber if i need to get one. in any case, is this an easy fix?

bjrog1

TheChizler wrote: »

Have you checked the obvious things? Like making sure the new timer is set correctly? Can you set the cylinder to heat from the boiler manually like you did before?

thanks Chizler...timer seems to be working..we switch it on and rads heat up as before..its just the cylinder doesnt

TheChizler

bjrog1 wrote: »

thanks Chizler...timer seems to be working..we switch it on and rads heat up as before..its just the cylinder doesnt

But does the timer control the cylinder as well? If it should and you can't get it working through the timer but you can manually that would give some indication of where the problem lies.

Dtp1979

bjrog1 wrote: »

Have no idea DTP..ill ask the plumber if i need to get one. in any case, is this an easy fix?

It's an easy fix if you know how . Log on here when your at the Hotpress and somebody will help you along

bjrog1

TheChizler wrote: »

But does the timer control the cylinder as well? If it should and you can't get it working through the timer but you can manually that would give some indication of where the problem lies.

ah ok get ya..yeh only one timer controls the lot..ill try the manual way tomoro and see if that helps..thanks!

bjrog1

Dtp1979 wrote: »

It's an easy fix if you know how . Log on here when your at the Hotpress and somebody will help you along

haha you can be guaranteed i wont have clue...so i will leave it to a professional...even the word plumbing sends me into a sweat..we have had bad luck with leaks etc...!

Dtp1979

bjrog1 wrote: »

haha you can be guaranteed i wont have clue...so i will leave it to a professional...even the word plumbing sends me into a sweat..we have had bad luck with leaks etc...!

Fair enough. Let us know how you get on anyway

bjrog1

Hey lads just to give an update... Got a plumber out and typical the hot water cylinder seemed to be working fine. The boiler was on and there was flow in and out of the cylinder And I had hot water. We checked the small tank in attic and this had water in it. So the plumber just thought we may have overused hot over Xmas period as there were visitors in the house.

However today I have same problem. Boiler has been on for 2 hours..rads are piping hot but no hot water. The pipe at top of hot water cylinder appears hot but the one at the bottom us cold .

I get hot water if I use immersion

Any further suggestions?

RJF

The balance valve on the coil circuit needs to be checked/adjusted as suggested earlier by Dtp1979. Suggest opening it (anticlockwise) by 1/2 turn and seeing if any improvement. The system worked when the plumber called so it is probably close to where it should be.

bjrog1

Thanks rjf, do this balance valves exist on all systems? I have an older gravity feed type system?

RJF

By gravity feed type system do you mean an open system with a small header tank or is the hot water cylinder operating without a circulating pump independent of the heating system? Is the cylinder a direct cylinder (no coil) or indirect? Is the hot water heated by a stove or cooker or by the oil boiler? If it is the oil boiler there should be a balancing valve. A picture would be helpful.

bjrog1

Update..got the plumber out and he got air out of the hot water cylinder and system and it seemed to work for a week or so. Same thing back again now...driving me mad...rads heating..piping hot but no hot water..

Its an open system with a header tank.it is an oil boiler heating the system. I have a wood burning stove with pump that i believe is just a backup to the rads.

Appears air keeps getting into cylinder or something. Wonder why?