Re: CH/HW emergency - Help !!

Dave, You are a lifesaver ! If you live anywhere near Milton Keynes, I'll buy you a beer, or several ! I drained the system down again and, lo and behold, the header tank wasn't draining, so I disconnected the outlet pipe and jubilee'd a hosepipe to it as per your instructions. Turning on the hose led to a sudden bout of gurgling, then water started spurting out of the open valve of a downstairs radiator (which I took to be a good sign!). The system refilled perfectly, better in fact than it has ever done in the 4 years that I have been living here (and I've been through the draining/refilling routine more times than I care to remember). The smart new rad. works well and we won't have to have cold showers tomorrow morning ! Thanks again, Steve

So did you use the mains just to unblock, or have you filled the whole system via the hose pipe? (just thinking it wouldnt have any corrosion inhibitor or anything in if you did that?)

By far and away the most likely cause is an airlock. To cure this, you could try draining down again and re-filling, but this probably won't work. The easiest way is to drain down, then fill via the drain point using mains pressure water. You'll need someone watching the header tank and as soon as water starts rising in this, stop.

Glad it worked for you! Cheers Dave R

If the cylinder, pipework, radiators and boilers are all man enough to take it, then convert the gravity fed system to a sealed pressurised one. Then you just don't get these problems. The kit of parts to do so is very cheap and you could probably fit it in the time it takes to sort out your airlock!

Christian.

I never knew that was possible. Any pointers on where to go to find out the pros and cons, and how to do it? Cheers, Steve