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maarten · Joined: 16 Sep 2003 Posts: 4 Location: Essex

I have just bought my first house and am having a bit of trouble with the central heating. When the heating is turned on there is a sound of running water inside the radiaters which I thought meant there must be air in the system. When I try to bleed the upstairs rads there doesn't seem to be any pressure in them to push out any air and the water only drips very slowly. The downstairs rads seem to have quite alot of pressure in them and the water will squirt out quite fast, because of this I tried to turn off all rads except one upstairs but it still has no pressure in it.

Has anyone got any ideas that could help? Thanks

thescruff · Moderator Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 4483 Location: Bath

If you can hear water then you are correct, you have air in the system.

Will need to know the type of system, open vented or sealed, if its an open vented system check the ball valve in the header tank has water and not stuck, if sealed what does the pressure read on the boiler and what make/ model is it.

scruff. Cool

maarten · Joined: 16 Sep 2003 Posts: 4 Location: Essex

Hi Scruff, thanks for the reply. It is an open vented system. I have checked in the loft and pushed the ball valve down in the header tank and water flows freely out of there (there was water in the tank already). I haven't a clue what to try next.

AlanE · Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2003 5:52 pm Post subject:

I assume you have two tanks in loft. One quite small? This one should have water in it.

Sounds if you have a blockage in feed pipe from header tank to actual heating system.

Alan

maarten · Joined: 16 Sep 2003 Posts: 4 Location: Essex

Hi Alan, you are right, I do have 2 tanks in the loft and it was the small one I checked. If the feed pipe is blocked is there a chemical or something I can put into the system to clear the block or is it a case of manually removing the pipe until I find the block? As you can probably tell I am totally clueless when it comes to heating/plumbing

thescruff · Moderator Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 4483 Location: Bath

Is the pump/boiler turned off when you try to vent the radiator as if not air could be draw in.

Are all the valves open.

Is there an auto or manual vent by the cylinder.

scruff

AlanE · Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2003 9:19 pm Post subject:

If pipe is blocked then probably near where it joins main system pipework. There are 'funny' currents at work here and that is often where they get blocked.

Alan

maarten · Joined: 16 Sep 2003 Posts: 4 Location: Essex

Hi Alan and Scruff

I think I might be getting a bit out of my own depth with the heating so I have got a plumber coming to visit on Monday, hopefully he will turn up as we have been hearing of lots of people who are being let down. Thanks for your help.

Maarten