Time to test your central heating

Time for dennise to accuse you of only posting here to make money:-)

Bloody hell geoff, I've been 'testing' mine off-and-on since the middle of August - according to my old bones, its been the middle of winter since then! :-(

Cash

Now I've been meaning to, but I'm new to central heating. Is there an idiot's guide lurking somewhere that has a bit more detail?

#Paul

In message , Cash

No, it runs all year for the hot water

Ditto

Ah, that may be worth checking

Vented system! May be worth checking the F&E tank's ball-valve, though

Turn it on ... does it work

Yes - its OK

No - it's knackered

basically - do the radiators get hot when you have the boiler in heating mode - can you feel the water coursing through the pipes when the pump is turned on

Is the boiler noisy

can you adjust the temperature by the room stat or thermostatic valves?

Are the radiators hot top and bottom

what system pressure do you have , is it close to where the marker is on the dial?

Mainly common sense

There is prolly something about it in the diyfaq

Just wait there will be a idiot along to giveadvice

TOld you so!!!!!!!!

Been testing ours all "summer". There might have been a handful of 24 hour periods when the boiler didn'tcome on for CH. This is with the stat set for 18.5C during the day 20C evening and the rest of the time 15C. So not some sub-tropical temperature that some people have their homes at.

One thing that has been missed, excercise any gate valves. Fully close and open each one a couple of times. When leaving fully open close 'em 1/2 a turn so the they don't (less chance) of the seizing. Even with a regular excercise the damn things will probably still not fully shut off when you need them to.

Mine's been on for a week or two on occasion recently (in the frozen Norf (well OK I'm a big softy) and seems to be working fine, thank you.

When you get a chance... Replace gate valves with lever valves. Bloody gate valves- even when you can get them to work after being seized, they wait for you to pack away your tools, jump into the van, get your lips round that 3rd pint... And then they start leaking!

As for CH, even if it works ok... Whilst you can still survive without it for a day or two... Drain it down, flush it through and fill it back up adding inhibitor... If the water comes out black you'll be glad you did it. Common place for blockages is the feed pipe from the header tank, often upstream of the pump and where the neutral point of the circuit is.

Been working constantly for the hot water so no probs there.

Ditto.

The two that stick are still stuck as usual.

It's only dropped a little (0.2 bar), so hurrar! the valve stems seeping must have been causing the worst of that.

Not looking forward to having to put it on, with the gas price increases.

Phil

Yes and yes.

No, had it serviced in May.

Thermo valves are not seized up, but seem to be not very responsive to room temp.

Yes, yes.

What dial? I have a boiler (oil-fired), a pump, controls, copper pipes, a fibreglass tank and iron radiators, I think. No gauge anywhere.

Since the system has been probably untreated for several years, is it worth doing a Clean before flushing and adding Inhibitor? Or should I decide by seeing if I get black yuck out of a radiator vent valve? This is an old house, I have recently had a water softener installed to replace the old very dead one. In East Anglia, this is needed.

Just as well you aren't on oil then, just under 60p/l for ages now. That's about a 33% increase since last year, so a piddly 15% or so on gas is nothing. B-)

I thought it was MMs job to tell us how much oil is:-)?

Don't worry, this only applies to sealed systems. If you have a header tank then yours is vented.

It's best to check the water in the radiator. It's possible to get (nearly) clean water from the top of the rad when it's actually quite sludged up.

If your radiators have sludge in them I would recommend removing them and flushing through. You can use cleaning chemicals and add inhibitor afterwards. You can't use normal inhibitor if you have a primatic cylinder though.

Ok.

Thanks. Since moving into the house, I have been making a map of all services and locations of items. It looks as though I have some more work to do. So far, I have only poked my head up through both loft access hatches to look around, and I knew I would have to go up there sometime. But at least the hot water tank is easy to get at.