Hi, I was woken up about half an hour ago by a strange noise coming from my
airing cupboard.

The hot water is set to come on in the morning,which does normally make a
bit of noise, but today I heard what sounded like drilling. When I had a
look in the airing cupboard, it sounded more like a washing machine

The noise was coming from what I think is a pump, big brown thing with a
pipe coming in, and one going out. It has a small black box on the side
witha knob you can turn to marks 1, 2 and 3. This was set to 3. I turned it
down to 2 and the noise was less, but still that kind of scraping noise.
I've now set it to 1 and it sounds perfectly normal.

What is this thing?
I assume it's about time it was replaced.
Roughly how much would they cost to get replaced? are we talking £50ish,
£100 ish, or £200ish, or more

Thanks for any advice, and sorry for the poor description, I should still be
in bed

J

J wrote:
Hi, I was woken up about half an hour ago by a strange noise coming from my
airing cupboard.

Badgers?


The hot water is set to come on in the morning,which does normally make a
bit of noise, but today I heard what sounded like drilling. When I had a
look in the airing cupboard, it sounded more like a washing machine

The noise was coming from what I think is a pump, big brown thing with a
pipe coming in, and one going out. It has a small black box on the side
witha knob you can turn to marks 1, 2 and 3. This was set to 3. I turned it
down to 2 and the noise was less, but still that kind of scraping noise.
I've now set it to 1 and it sounds perfectly normal.

Yup, that's the pump.


What is this thing?
I assume it's about time it was replaced.

Yes, it's starting to fail, and should be replaced.


Roughly how much would they cost to get replaced? are we talking £50ish,
£100 ish, or £200ish, or more

A new pump is ~£30-£35.
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?cId=102027&ts=62487&id=67174

It should take no more than half an hour to replace, assuming nothing
bad happens (like the pump valves refuse to close, or they start leaking).


Thanks for any advice, and sorry for the poor description, I should still be
in bed

The description was fine.


--
Grunff

Wow, thanks for the quick reply, very helpful.
Time to dig out that plumber's number

Grunff wrote:

J wrote:
Hi, I was woken up about half an hour ago by a strange noise coming from
my airing cupboard.

The hot water is set to come on in the morning,which does normally make a
bit of noise, but today I heard what sounded like drilling. When I had a
look in the airing cupboard, it sounded more like a washing machine

The noise was coming from what I think is a pump, big brown thing with a
pipe coming in, and one going out. It has a small black box on the side
witha knob you can turn to marks 1, 2 and 3. This was set to 3. I turned
it down to 2 and the noise was less, but still that kind of scraping
noise. I've now set it to 1 and it sounds perfectly normal.

Yup, that's the pump.


What is this thing?
I assume it's about time it was replaced.

Yes, it's starting to fail, and should be replaced.

Probably, but another cause is a blockage between the header tank (the
smaller tank in the attic) and the system resulting in the system
gradually losing water throiugh evaporation to the point where there's no
longer water in the pump which then makes a dreadful racket.

If you open a bleed valve on an upstairs radiator does water come out
(possibly preceded by air) or do you get nothing?

Roughly how much would they cost to get replaced? are we talking £50ish,
£100 ish, or £200ish, or more

A new pump is ~£30-£35.
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?cId=102027&ts=62487&id=67174

It should take no more than half an hour to replace, assuming nothing
bad happens (like the pump valves refuse to close, or they start leaking).

Depends on the pipe layout - they can be a pig to get out if their isn't
much space around to get spanners or grips in, and as Grunff says the
valves may be knackered as well.

"Grunff" wrote:
A new pump is ~£30-£35.
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?cId=102027&ts=62487&id=67174

It should take no more than half an hour to replace, assuming nothing bad
happens (like the pump valves refuse to close, or they start leaking).

If you go down the "call a plumber" route there will be labour as well of
course!
Guess £100 total depending on location

Phil

On Fri, 07 Oct 2005 06:24:51 +0100, Grunff wrote:

It should take no more than half an hour to replace, assuming
nothing bad happens (like the pump valves refuse to close, or they
start leaking).

Bad assumption in my experience. I've done three or four pumps in
various properties of mine and none have been "shut the valves, undo
the pump nuts, slide out pump, slide in new, do up nuts, open valves,
job done". The worst case required the whole pump and valves to be
removed as lump, with sections of pipe each side. Not enough free
movement in the pipe work to spring the pipes out of the compression
joints on the valves.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

Or =A3250 if you call BGas!

In message .com, Alan
writes
Or £250 if you call BGas!

£208.78 - in the flyer which arrived yesterday

.... and £247 to replace the PCB

I think I'll stick to DIY


--
geoff

In article ,
Grunff wrote:
It should take no more than half an hour to replace, assuming nothing
bad happens (like the pump valves refuse to close, or they start
leaking).

That's what I thought. Turned off the valves and set about it. The brass
cap nuts on the valves which connected to the cast iron pump were so
corroded in the threads I couldn't move them with two 36" Stilsons. So had
to cut them off. Then, of course, discovered the valves hadn't actually
shut off completely so had to do a panic drain down. Bought some new
valves only to discover they and the new pump didn't 'quite' have the same
centres relative to the olives on the pipes. By just enough to require
extending one pipe, since there was no 'give' in my system.

What should have been a ten minute job took most of the day. The pump
replacement was the same make.

--
*Gargling is a good way to see if your throat leaks.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article om,
Dave Liquorice wrote:
Not enough free
movement in the pipe work to spring the pipes out of the compression
joints on the valves.

But they're not compression joints but 'butt' joints with washers - or are
on my Grunfros pump. So assuming you can undo the cap nuts they should go
back enough to give clearance to simply slide the pump out.

--
*Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.