I'm only getting a very occasional flow of hot water for bathing & washing dishes from my gas central heating,approx once every month for about 2-3 hours only.When the water does eventually flow it flows fine like normal.
The radiators seem to be fine & I had the boiler serviced in January this year,it's a Glow Worm back boiler not a combi boiler.As usual the plumber didn't want to hang around to sort the hot water out for me then & he told me it's probably a faulty valve which I could probably sort myself.Is the valve he's on about the diverter valve?(thanks STEVELUP).If so,where can it be located,what does it look like & how can I tell whether it's faulty or not?
Any constructive ideas,comments,recommendations or links to related informative sites would be very welcomed.

p.s is RADON'S post below a reflection of his sarcastic personality?HAHA

kjhi98 wrote:
I'm only getting a very occasional flow of hot water for bathing &
washing dishes from my gas central heating,approx once every month for
about 2-3 hours only.When the water does eventually flow it flows fine
like normal.

Hi

When you run your hot water does the boiler light?

If it doesn't then the fault is probably with the flow sensor.

If it does light, can you check and see if the radiator pipes become
warm. If they do, that suggests the fault is with your diverter valve.

Regards,

Steve

kjhi98 wrote:
hi there all,winter's on it's way and I need to get this sorted
otherwise the Mrs will be on my back constantly giving me ear ache!

I'm only getting a very occasional flow of hot water for bathing &
washing dishes from my gas central heating,approx once every month for
about 2-3 hours only.When the water does eventually flow it flows fine
like normal.

The radiators seem to be fine & I had the boiler serviced in January
this year.As usual the plumber didn't want to hang around to sort the
hot water out for me then & he told me it's probably a faulty valve
which I could probably sort myself.

Could anyone out there enlighten me with their wisdom as I've no
knowledge whatsoever of central heating systems and can't afford to get
one of these guys in to sort it for me.

I'm curious as to how the almost total lack of hot water is only a
problem in winter ?

That aside, presumably you have a combi boiler - one that is supposed
to provide instant hot water on demand - and not a stored system with a
hot water cylinder ? As has been suggested, the flow sensor could be
faulty (causing the boiler not to light or the fan not to come on), or
the diverter valve may be stuck (causing the heated water to be
circulated through the radiators rather than the internal heat
exchanger which actually heats the cold mains water). You should be
able to diagnose what is or isn't working and report back.

Oh, and you should probably sack your plumber. To "service" a boiler
(which is doing virtually nothing[1] on most appliances other than
taking the cover off and looking busy while drinking any profferred
cups of tea) and then airily dismiss a genuine fault as something you
could do yourself[2], is rank amateurism. He just wants an easy life.

[1] Apologies to any resident specialists. I used to "service" my own
boiler. A quick clean up in the combustion chamber with a soft brush
was about it - if it'd not been burning properly, that would've been
fairly obvious. Spent far longer fixing actual faults which would
never have shown up in a service.

[2] Replacing a faulty valve is certainly do-able, but it's not a
trivial task.

HTH.

--
"Familiarity breeds children."

wrote:
kjhi98 wrote:
hi there all,winter's on it's way and I need to get this sorted
otherwise the Mrs will be on my back constantly giving me ear ache!

I'm only getting a very occasional flow of hot water for bathing &
washing dishes from my gas central heating,approx once every month for
about 2-3 hours only.When the water does eventually flow it flows fine
like normal.

The radiators seem to be fine & I had the boiler serviced in January
this year.As usual the plumber didn't want to hang around to sort the
hot water out for me then & he told me it's probably a faulty valve
which I could probably sort myself.

Could anyone out there enlighten me with their wisdom as I've no
knowledge whatsoever of central heating systems and can't afford to get
one of these guys in to sort it for me.

I'm curious as to how the almost total lack of hot water is only a
problem in winter ?

That aside, presumably you have a combi boiler -

For those of you new to plumbing, that is a boiler that only fires up
when the house is too cold, or when you turn a hot tap on. It then
delivers a thin trickle of hot water to maybe one tap if you are lucky. ;-)

Forgot to mention it's a back boiler not a combi boiler.Radiators all work absolutely fine too.

could it be the diverter valve mentioned above then?do you know where it will be located, what it looks like & how to tell if it's not working properly?

thanks again for the replies & anymore coming

In message , kjhi98
writes

Forgot to mention it's a back boiler not a combi boiler.Radiators all
work absolutely fine too.

You didn't tell us what colour it is

Might just be important - just like make and model

Diybanter numpties, dontya just love them ?



--
geoff

*******************************

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
wrote:
kjhi98 wrote:
hi there all,winter's on it's way and I need to get this sorted
otherwise the Mrs will be on my back constantly giving me ear ache!

I'm only getting a very occasional flow of hot water for bathing &
washing dishes from my gas central heating,approx once every month for
about 2-3 hours only.When the water does eventually flow it flows fine
like normal.

The radiators seem to be fine & I had the boiler serviced in January
this year.As usual the plumber didn't want to hang around to sort the
hot water out for me then & he told me it's probably a faulty valve
which I could probably sort myself.

Could anyone out there enlighten me with their wisdom as I've no
knowledge whatsoever of central heating systems and can't afford to get
one of these guys in to sort it for me.

I'm curious as to how the almost total lack of hot water is only a
problem in winter ?

That aside, presumably you have a combi boiler -

For those of you new to plumbing, that is a boiler that only fires up
when the house is too cold, or when you turn a hot tap on. It then
delivers a thin trickle of hot water to maybe one tap if you are lucky. ;-)

Sadly, I've just moved house and that's what I have to put up with now.
The idea of not having storage does actually accord quite well with
the house inhabitants and their residency patterns, but sadly the
reality of a combi boiler is having to wait ages for anything. They're
hardly compatible with the idea of saving water.

Cue Drivel and his usual suggestion of doshing out enormous amounts to
replace one functional boiler for another with heat store...

--
"Never shove your granny while she's shaving."

wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
wrote:
kjhi98 wrote:
hi there all,winter's on it's way and I need to get this sorted
otherwise the Mrs will be on my back constantly giving me ear ache!

I'm only getting a very occasional flow of hot water for bathing &
washing dishes from my gas central heating,approx once every month for
about 2-3 hours only.When the water does eventually flow it flows fine
like normal.

The radiators seem to be fine & I had the boiler serviced in January
this year.As usual the plumber didn't want to hang around to sort the
hot water out for me then & he told me it's probably a faulty valve
which I could probably sort myself.

Could anyone out there enlighten me with their wisdom as I've no
knowledge whatsoever of central heating systems and can't afford to get
one of these guys in to sort it for me.
I'm curious as to how the almost total lack of hot water is only a
problem in winter ?

That aside, presumably you have a combi boiler -
For those of you new to plumbing, that is a boiler that only fires up
when the house is too cold, or when you turn a hot tap on. It then
delivers a thin trickle of hot water to maybe one tap if you are lucky. ;-)

Sadly, I've just moved house and that's what I have to put up with now.
The idea of not having storage does actually accord quite well with
the house inhabitants and their residency patterns, but sadly the
reality of a combi boiler is having to wait ages for anything. They're
hardly compatible with the idea of saving water.

Cue Drivel and his usual suggestion of doshing out enormous amounts to
replace one functional boiler for another with heat store...

My sister had a combi in a medium sized 4 bed house in Germany. It was
the size of a small car. I believe there was about 10,000 liters of oil
tank as well in the basement. At that size for 4 people it worked
well..lord KNOWS what the peak output was..guessing around 70KW.

This house here is twice the size and we do nicely on 13KW of stored hot
water sysem boiler.

On Thu, 05 Oct 2006 22:35:52 +0100, kjhi98 wrote:


Forgot to mention it's a back boiler not a combi boiler.Radiators all
work absolutely fine too.

You must therefore have a HW cylinder somewhere.
The first question to ask when someone says they have no hot water is
"Do you have cold water or no water from the hot taps?"
The next question will probably be something like what type of programmer
or time switch do you have?


--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html
Choosing a Boiler FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/BoilerChoice.html
Gas Fitting Standards Docs he http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFittingStandards