Boiler won’t turn on unless hot water is turned on

MichelleSinead

Hi
I’ve just had the Hive dual receiver installed, I previously had the single receiver as I bought the wrong one, the single one worked fine.
Since changing it out to the dual receiver the boiler won’t turn on unless the hot water is also turned on. The light will come on the but the boiler doesn’t fire up.
I’ve had hive check it and they say all is working correctly on their side and they believe it could be a valve that is not functioning correctly.
I’ve spoke to my plumber and he’s to get back to me but has anyone any experience with this? Does it sound like it could be the issue? It’s no problem having the hot water on with it for now but I’d like the option to just put heating on.
I have a separate hot water tank so it is the correct hive unit for the set up I have.

Appreciate any advice.

DGOBS

What timer did you have before you had Hive installed? Did it have operate heating and hot water timer/switch?

Who installed the Hive for you? Was it your plumber?

Sorry for all the questions, just information needed is not part of your post.
It does sound like its not wired up correctly, but does depend on what controls were already on your system before the Hive was installed.

MichelleSinead

DGOBS wrote: »

What timer did you have before you had Hive installed? Did it have operate heating and hot water timer/switch?

Who installed the Hive for you? Was it your plumber?

Sorry for all the questions, just information needed is not part of your post.
It does sound like its not wired up correctly, but does depend on what controls were already on your system before the Hive was installed.

No please ask any questions at all. Before hand it was just a standard 7 day programmer for the heating. The hot water could be heated separate by the immerison only. An electrician fitted it for me.

DGOBS

Ok, so really if you didn't have the separate hot water control from your old timer, replacing it with a dual channel timer isn't going to give you both, as the motorised valves to control this separation are most likely not on your system to begin with (and Hive doesn't control the immersion)

Did you previously have any way of heating your water without having your central heating on, by using your gas boiler?

Regarding the dual hive now only fires up the boiler when you call for hot water is because the wiring behind it isn't right, as the pervious single channel hive you had fitted uses channel 3 to fire up the central heating, but the dual channel uses channel 4 for central heating and channel 3 for hot water, so I am assuming your installer didn't change the wiring when changing the unit.

Really the single receiver was the right choice for you in the first place by the information you have given me.
If you wanted dual control you would need a plumber to install some motorised valves, a cylinder stat and wire all this back to Hive dual receiver for you to be able to do both.

MichelleSinead

Thank you DGOBS I really appreciate you taking the time to explain that to me. There was no way to heat water using the boiler beforehand no, so the single system was correct, now to question the plumber who suggested the dual unit! Luckily I still have the single receiver here, was getting it ready to send back on Monday but now I’ll have it swapped back.

Thank you again, really appreciate your replies.

DGOBS

You can leave the dual receiver in position, just get him to change the switch wire from ch3 to ch4, and then if you do ever put the extra controls in, you will have ch3 free for hot water control.