Can old circulating pump be replaced?

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hi

thanks everyone for their advice and fair play Mick for identifying that model of pump!!

Anyway I'm going to try to find some sort of flange adapter. I'm going to visit all the local plumbing suppliers to see what I can find.

(If I knew anyone who could fabricate one I'd get them to make one but I don't)

The space between the flanges is 130mm same as a standard circulating pump so I'm hoping to fit a new pump in the gap with some sort of adapter that will go over the input/output connectors on the pump, which I think are 1-1/2"(?)

if I can bodge something in that would work short term I'll do it and then do a proper replacement job when I'm not freezing!

mickuhaha

Keep us informed how you get on.

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Ok so no luck so far with the adapters, but I haven’t given up yet. one guy said that he’d contact his grundfoss rep to see if he could get one of their sets ordered in. Might take him up on that.

I did manage to pick up a new set of valves that fit my gb pipes and will connect to new pump fittings. Obviously that would mean draining the system but at least I have a fallback option (assuming they do fit!!)

Will keep you updated

Dtp1979

RandomAvatar wrote: »

Ok so no luck so far with the adapters, but I haven’t given up yet. one guy said that he’d contact his grundfoss rep to see if he could get one of their sets ordered in. Might take him up on that.

I did manage to pick up a new set of valves that fit my gb pipes and will connect to new pump fittings. Obviously that would mean draining the system but at least I have a fallback option (assuming they do fit!!)

Will keep you updated

If they’re the screwdriver slot type then you’d be better off not fitting them. Only fit the gate valve type ones

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So I now have heating.

I never managed to get the flange adapters, but I did get a replacement circulating pump and managed to fit it in with a lot a help!

It wasn’t easy - firstly the gap was a good 7mm narrower than I thought (123mm) so I had to move the boiler back to give room. It weighed a ton and I was barely able to shift it. But luckily the chimney pipe had enough flex...

Once I had room I used 2 long bolts (160mm) to go from each bolt hole in each valve to the opposite hole in the other valve to hold the new pump in place.

However the front of the pump protrudes out and it was hitting the front bolt - i.e. the presence of the bolt meant that the pump would not align.

So I tried grinding down the bolt in the middle section to create room to allow the pump to sit further down, but still couldn’t get it to align.

So I put an extension on one side of each end to effectively widen the valve front and allow the bolt to move out to connect to a piece of metal attached to each valve which gave enough room for the pump to sit down in properly and allowed it align the input/output hole with the holes in the flanges.

It was very tricky because the rubber washers didn’t leave much room for misalignment and there was a recess for a large washer or O ring on the face of the valves which we couldn’t use because it was a larger size than the face of the pump connections. So it took a few goes before it all came together.

During this I discovered that one of the pipes moved slightly when it was first disconnected from the pump, so it had to be pulled back in line.

So got it connected and have been using it successfully. It is not leaking. I have a little bit of seepage from the top of the valves and I’ll keep an eye on it. ( Yaay I have heating!!)

Overall it is a bodge and may not last very long. But I have heating.

I’ll pm a link to a picture or two if ye are interested?

Anyway I am going to order in the adapter flanges so that I don’t ever have to do this again! I’ll look to get someone in over the summer to fix things up but I don't know whether I should connect a new boiler & pump to old GB pipes? would be interested in what you think? Obviously I would like to change the pipes too but thats a much bigger and very intrusive job.

One thing that bothered me is that the return pipe and input pipe into the boiler are very close to the ground, so I don’t know how the valves were originally fitted - there is not enough clearance to turn/screw on the valves onto the pipes and they are designed to screw on.

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Photos

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Photos

Close up

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RandomAvatar wrote: »

Close up

Valve to pump connection

mickuhaha

Glad you have heat. I am going to assume this is outside and not in your house and secondly if you system is open vent close off the feed to the cistern or else if it fails it will continue to flood the area . Just monitor the cistern and top up as required.

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mickuhaha wrote: »

Glad you have heat. I am going to assume this is outside and not in your house and secondly if you system is open vent close off the feed to the cistern or else if it fails it will continue to flood the area . Just monitor the cistern and top up as required.

Yep its in the garage so if it does spring a leak there isn’t much to be damaged. Good idea about the cistern, I’ll tie up the ball to stop it refilling automatically.