[Andrew Gabriel]

Geoff usually posts a reminder about now to make sure your heating is
working ready for the winter. However, since I did mine yesterday and
it's fresh on my mind, I thought I'd post a reminder.

Mine's a sealed system, installed over 7 years ago, but never yet
flushed or had the inhibitor changed. Should normally do this about
every 5 years for a sealed system, but it depends how often you have
to top up the pressure, and this system has only needed topping up
2 or 3 times in the 7 years, so I stretched it out on that basis.

Firstly, I drained the whole system. This is quite easy because I
designed it with all the pipework sloping down towards the drain
points, so it doesn't get left with any pockets of water left inside
(except possibly a little in the bottom of each radiator).
Also noted position of all the radiator stop valves (how many turns
to close), befaore opening them all fully. The drained water was
clean although it ponged a bit, but no black sludge so there was
still enough inhibitor remaining to protect the system.

Then I refilled it with cold water and used the filling loop, drain
valves, and radiator and other isolation valves to force the water
through all parts of the system to flush out the remaining old water
(and the pong went).

Next, I closed off the drain cocks, bled everything, and cranked the
pressure up to about 2.2 bar (higher than it normally gets when hot,
but not enough to risk the over pressure valve letting by) and left it
for a couple of hours. Now I can go around and check for any leaks,
and since the system is cold, the evidence doesn't dry up before I
see it. I found two radiator stop valves were weeping on their shaft
seals, but more anoyingly, the two full bore isolation valves for
the upstairs circuit were also leaking at the shaft seals. Drained
down and replaced the radiator stop valves, but didn't have any
spare 22mm full bore valves (and I recall they were a real bugger
to install in the space available in the first place), so I tightened
down the stuffing boxes and hoped for the best -- and fortunately
that worked. One of them doesn't turn anymore anyway, at least, not
with the limited force I'm prepared to try without having a spare
one to hand;-)

Finally, refilled with fresh inhibitor, bled everything and left the
pump running for a while until sounds of bubbles in pipework dimished,
and then bled again. Reset the radiator stop valves to their original
settings, and let boiler fire up and make sure it's working and the
mid position valve operates correctly. At some point, I'll check the
balancing of the radiators (the two new stop valves may have different
flow from the originals), but that's a job for when the heating needs
to be on anyway, and not now.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

[Tim Lamb[_2_]]

In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
Geoff usually posts a reminder about now to make sure your heating is
working ready for the winter. However, since I did mine yesterday and
it's fresh on my mind, I thought I'd post a reminder.
snip

Finally, refilled with fresh inhibitor, bled everything and left the
pump running for a while until sounds of bubbles in pipework dimished,
and then bled again. Reset the radiator stop valves to their original
settings, and let boiler fire up and make sure it's working and the
mid position valve operates correctly. At some point, I'll check the
balancing of the radiators (the two new stop valves may have different
flow from the originals), but that's a job for when the heating needs
to be on anyway, and not now.

And all this would cost how much if done by the Yellow pages
professional?

Thanks for the reminder. I plan to fit a modulating pump this time
round.

regards


--
Tim Lamb

[Davey]

Tim Lamb wrote:
In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
Geoff usually posts a reminder about now to make sure your heating is
working ready for the winter. However, since I did mine yesterday and
it's fresh on my mind, I thought I'd post a reminder.
snip

Finally, refilled with fresh inhibitor, bled everything and left the
pump running for a while until sounds of bubbles in pipework
dimished, and then bled again. Reset the radiator stop valves to
their original settings, and let boiler fire up and make sure it's
working and the mid position valve operates correctly. At some
point, I'll check the balancing of the radiators (the two new stop
valves may have different flow from the originals), but that's a job
for when the heating needs to be on anyway, and not now.

And all this would cost how much if done by the Yellow pages
professional?

Thanks for the reminder. I plan to fit a modulating pump this time
round.

I fitted a Grundfos Aplha2 modulating pump last year and was really pleased
with how quiet the heating became. Took a week to "learn" our heating system
and haven't touched it since.

Energy savings means it should pay for itself during it's useful lifetime.

D

[Dave Liquorice[_2_]]

On Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:42:51 +0000 (UTC), Andrew Gabriel wrote:

Geoff usually posts a reminder about now to make sure your heating is
working ready for the winter.

Eh? Our heating is already kicking in to keep the place warm!

"BBQ summer" my foot. Most overnight mins in August have been about
10C and the daytime maxes for the last fortnight not much above 15C.
July was much the same same. June was better but we did get down to
3C on the 5th with snow falling to below 2,000'.

http://www.howhill.com/weather/view....2009&m=06&d=05

--
Cheers
Dave.

[David]

On 31 Aug, 11:42, (Andrew Gabriel) wrote:
Geoff usually posts a reminder about now to make sure your heating is
working ready for the winter. However, since I did mine yesterday and
it's fresh on my mind, I thought I'd post a reminder.

Mine's a sealed system, installed over 7 years ago, but never yet
flushed or had the inhibitor changed. Should normally do this about
every 5 years for a sealed system, but it depends how often you have
to top up the pressure, and this system has only needed topping up
2 or 3 times in the 7 years, so I stretched it out on that basis.

Firstly, I drained the whole system. This is quite easy because I
designed it with all the pipework sloping down towards the drain
points, so it doesn't get left with any pockets of water left inside
(except possibly a little in the bottom of each radiator).
Also noted position of all the radiator stop valves (how many turns
to close), befaore opening them all fully. *The drained water was
clean although it ponged a bit, but no black sludge so there was
still enough inhibitor remaining to protect the system.

Then I refilled it with cold water and used the filling loop, drain
valves, and radiator and other isolation valves to force the water
through all parts of the system to flush out the remaining old water
(and the pong went).

Next, I closed off the drain cocks, bled everything, and cranked the
pressure up to about 2.2 bar (higher than it normally gets when hot,
but not enough to risk the over pressure valve letting by) and left it
for a couple of hours. Now I can go around and check for any leaks,
and since the system is cold, the evidence doesn't dry up before I
see it. I found two radiator stop valves were weeping on their shaft
seals, but more anoyingly, the two full bore isolation valves for
the upstairs circuit were also leaking at the shaft seals. Drained
down and replaced the radiator stop valves, but didn't have any
spare 22mm full bore valves (and I recall they were a real bugger
to install in the space available in the first place), so I tightened
down the stuffing boxes and hoped for the best -- and fortunately
that worked. One of them doesn't turn anymore anyway, at least, not
with the limited force I'm prepared to try without having a spare
one to hand;-)

Finally, refilled with fresh inhibitor, bled everything and left the
pump running for a while until sounds of bubbles in pipework dimished,
and then bled again. Reset the radiator stop valves to their original
settings, and let boiler fire up and make sure it's working and the
mid position valve operates correctly. At some point, I'll check the
balancing of the radiators (the two new stop valves may have different
flow from the originals), but that's a job for when the heating needs
to be on anyway, and not now.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

I done something similar to our system, although it was cleaned by the
installers when it was installed I wasn't impressed with the way they
cleaned it, so X800 was used to flush the system and a lot of crap was
removed, while the X800 was circulating in each radiator I checked for
leaks etc. Once cleaning, draining and flushing was complete X100 was
added and the system was filled, bleeding was easy because there is a
purging program on my boiler which you run and it helps to bleed the
system. System was re-balanced and tested and everything works fine.
The system is currently working at a 9C-10C differential and the
radiators and pipes are woefully undersized, the boiler needs to be
working at 65C+ most of the year which is a shame as it's a condensing
boiler.

[Tim Lamb[_2_]]

In message m, Davey
writes

Thanks for the reminder. I plan to fit a modulating pump this time
round.

I fitted a Grundfos Aplha2 modulating pump last year and was really pleased
with how quiet the heating became. Took a week to "learn" our heating system
and haven't touched it since.

That's the one. Still sitting on the office floor beside me. Could you
enlarge a little on your experience?

We have rather an awkward system in that all the radiators (except two
in the bathrooms) are on TRVs. As originally installed. we had a lot of
noise from the pump as the house reached temperature. This was overcome
by fitting a thermostat but is still prone to noise when not much heat
is required. I am hoping the Alpha 2 will be quieter:-)

Energy savings means it should pay for itself during it's useful lifetime.

regards

--
Tim Lamb

[geoff]

In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
Geoff usually posts a reminder about now to make sure your heating is
working ready for the winter. However, since I did mine yesterday and
it's fresh on my mind, I thought I'd post a reminder.


I actually thought about that late on Saturday night as I staggered
along the streets of Shrewsbury in a VERY drunken stupor



--
geoff

[Andrew Gabriel]

In article ,
Owain writes:
On 31 Aug, 12:26, Tim Lamb wrote:
And all this would cost how much if done by the Yellow pages
professional?
A Yellow Pages professional would charge £275 for a new pump. Plus
parts. Plus VAT. Plus sitting-in-the-cafe time. And would probably

You forgot the £400 power flush (even though the existing
system is spotlessly clean inside).

have left pawprints over the wallpaper and peed in the loft tank.
Even if you don't do all the drain-down palaver well worth switching
the heating on occasionally just so the pump and valves don't stick.

My boiler says it runs the pump every 24 hours if not overwise used.
I used to also do that with the mid-position valve from my heating
controller, but I needed the extra input and output that used up for
something else, so it doesn't happen anymore.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

[Andrew Gabriel]

In article ,
(Andrew Gabriel) writes:

My boiler says it runs the pump every 24 hours if not overwise used.

s/overwise/otherwise/

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

[Davey]

Tim Lamb wrote:
In message m, Davey
writes

Thanks for the reminder. I plan to fit a modulating pump this time
round.

I fitted a Grundfos Aplha2 modulating pump last year and was really
pleased with how quiet the heating became. Took a week to "learn"
our heating system and haven't touched it since.

That's the one. Still sitting on the office floor beside me. Could you
enlarge a little on your experience?

Our relatively young house (10yrs) only had TRV's in the bedrooms upstairs,
so I fitted a load more about this time last year.

When we used the heating proper in the winter there was quite a bit of noise
when the valves were shutting off rads due to excessive pressure in the
(vented) system. The heating had never really been looked after and I
wouldn't be suprised if it'd ever has so much as a sniff of inhibitor. The
existing pump also made the heating quite noisy anyway, so I decided to
solve the problems with an Alpha2 pump.

I thought it a bit excessive spending £100 on a pump, so hesitated. But when
I fitted one, and it settled down (it took about a week to learn our system
and run optimally), you'd never know the heating was on if it wasn't for the
bearings in the flue fan being a bit noisy, but you have to listen hard to
hear that.

With the display on the pump, you can see it ramping down as the house gets
warm and the TRV's are shutting off rads.

Overall, £100 well spent in my (and missus) opinion. I am not in any way
affiliated with Grundfos.

D

[Tim Lamb[_2_]]

In message m, Davey
writes
Tim Lamb wrote:
In message m, Davey
writes

Thanks for the reminder. I plan to fit a modulating pump this time
round.

I fitted a Grundfos Aplha2 modulating pump last year and was really
pleased with how quiet the heating became. Took a week to "learn"
our heating system and haven't touched it since.

That's the one. Still sitting on the office floor beside me. Could you
enlarge a little on your experience?

Our relatively young house (10yrs) only had TRV's in the bedrooms upstairs,
so I fitted a load more about this time last year.

When we used the heating proper in the winter there was quite a bit of noise
when the valves were shutting off rads due to excessive pressure in the
(vented) system. The heating had never really been looked after and I
wouldn't be suprised if it'd ever has so much as a sniff of inhibitor. The
existing pump also made the heating quite noisy anyway, so I decided to
solve the problems with an Alpha2 pump.

I thought it a bit excessive spending £100 on a pump, so hesitated. But when
I fitted one, and it settled down (it took about a week to learn our system
and run optimally), you'd never know the heating was on if it wasn't for the
bearings in the flue fan being a bit noisy, but you have to listen hard to
hear that.

With the display on the pump, you can see it ramping down as the house gets
warm and the TRV's are shutting off rads.

Overall, £100 well spent in my (and missus) opinion. I am not in any way
affiliated with Grundfos.

Good to hear.

regards
--
Tim Lamb