No central heating downstairs

[DS1970]

Hello

I recently removed a surplus radiator from a downstairs room and it was so old that the valves were quite seized up and as a result lost a significant amount of water in the process before managing to fully close the valves.

For a few days after removing the radiator the central heating in the rest of the house worked as normal but now there is no heating downstairs at all. Heating upstairs works fine. Hot water is also working as normal.

I originally suspected that the system would have lost water pressure and this was the reason but the boiler is not a combi boiler, it is a Potterton 50e, and there is no obvious way of topping up the water pressure as you would with a combi boiler. I presume this should happen automatically with this type of system but obviously something is up as there is no downstairs heating. I have bled the downstairs radiators but again to no avail. What can I do?

My regular plumber is away and if possible I want to fix this myself unless there is a fault with the boiler. There must be other things I can try before going down that route.

The boiler is set to 'sealed system' as opposed to 'gravity'. There is a header tank in the loft but I presume this is just for the hot water.

Any advice would be most appreciated. Many thanks.

 

[Riley]

If it's a sealed system there will be a filling loop somewhere as well as an expansion vessel and a pressure relief valve. Have you done all the basics such as bleeding all the radiators bleeding to the highest point etc

 

[Last Plumber]

Need to know a bit more:-
What type of system ?

It could be an air lock, a faulty pump, or a number of other things.

Give us more information please, or if you can't identify it yourself, some photos of system. ( tanks, cylinder, boiler etc),

 

[SimonG]

Airlock. Or pump knackered.

 

[DS1970]

Hello
Sorry for my late reply and thank you for your suggestions. Basically I have bled the radiators and have been keeping an eye on the heating patterns but cannot work out what is happening.

The central heating timer is set to come on twice a day. The upstairs heating comes on (and the indicator lights come on etc..) in the evening as programmed, but NOT the downstairs radiators. This may point to an airlock or silt or some other problem with the pipes downstairs. However, I have just discovered after getting back at 11:30am this morning that both the downstairs and upstairs radiators were hot so both floors' radiators had been on while I was out of the house. The timer indicator lights were off at the point of getting back. By 12 noon all radiators were cooling off. The heating was timed to go off at 8:30am when I left the house this morning so all radiators should have been cold.

If the the timer control is faulty it's odd that the upstairs heating seems to work as programmed.

Other maybe possible helpful info is I have a thermostat in the downstairs hallway and a Froststat in the downstairs WC (which is unheated) next to the (non-combi) boiler). The timer control for central heating and hot water is next to the immersion heater which is situated upstairs.

 

[SimonG]

Do you have a thermostat for upstairs and downstairs?

 

[DS1970]

No thermostat upstairs. Only the two I mentioned downstairs. Incidentally have just returned to the house after an hour out and the heating is on throughout once again. Timer indicates it should be off.

 

[unguided1]

No heating down stairs but heating upstairs.
When you were buggering around with the radiator and valves originally did you turn off the the heating at the main isolator?
The symptoms you are describing are that of a knackered pump

 

[DS1970]

It was before I started using the central heating this year, just before the autumn. I didn't turn anything off.

Regarding the pump, why should the heating work upstairs and selectively not downstairs? And more to the point if the pump is faulty why should the heating sometimes be working properly all throughout the house as shown today?

 

[unguided1]

If you didn't turn anything off, and you lost a lot of water outa the system and the pump was still running, there is a strong chance the pump is knackered!
The reason the upstairs rads work, but the downstairs don't is the system could be gravitating, best to get a plumber in to check bud

 

[DS1970]

Can you explain what you mean by gravitating?

 

[unguided1]

I am assuming the boiler is downstairs, so when it fires up the water in theory will gravitate on the least line of resistance, upstairs! I may be wrong but that is what I would assume if I were turning up at your place blind, and where I would start from

 

[DS1970]

I just put the heating on constant. The boiler fired up and all radiators have come on. Does that behaviour correspond to that of a faulty boiler?

 

[unguided1]

If the boiler is functioning then no, but I have never said the boiler is at fault! If all the rads are working, you must ave fixed the fault!

 

[Stoney Ground]

I just put the heating on constant. The boiler fired up and all radiators have come on. Does that behaviour correspond to that of a faulty boiler?

The boiler is not faulty if it turns on and off when asked.

If it works when programmer is in constant then it may be a programmer problem, not switching electronically.

You need to get some one to look at it, when is your plumber(hopefully heating engineer) back he should be able to help.

The boiler needs various controls to agree it can fire.

Programmer, Thermostat (Room or Cylinder), Zone Valve then Bingo boiler can do its thing.

But it needs 1,2,3 if one says no it won't try to fire. Then there are various things that the boiler has to satisfy, before it will fire or continue to run.

 

[Riley]

Heat rises is what he's getting

 

[SavageW]

Possibly sounds like originally it was airlocked (causing the problem of downstairs rads not working, which may have cleared itself through time) the issue with the heating now staying on past it's programmed times, more than likely a zone valve issue. Could be 3port or 2 port passing round the central heating from the hot water demand or the valve is seized. Again would be simpler to get your guy round when you can to double check, as I'm only going buy what I find more common an your explanation.