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Hi
I've been trying to balance my Central heating system to solve a long running issue with 3 down stairs radiators taking a long time to get hot. The system is an open vented system with 12 Rads ( 4 upstairs and 8 down) At the same time, in our living room we have one of these heaters ( Pls see attachment, not sure what type its called ) that blows warm air from Central heating pipes. I'm pretty sure that it is Tee'd from the main 22mm flow and return pipes before the 3 radiators that are taking a long time to heat up. These 3 Rads are the last in line. I've had all 3 rads off and flushed them out, but there was not a lot of crud in them. Whilst I had each radiator off, I checked the flow coming from the Locksheilds by connecting a hose to them and seeing what flow I got into a bucket and it appeared a good steady flow. Ditto for the TRV connections, so I don't think the problem can be a blockage. I dose up the system every year with inhibitor, and there's a Magnaclean fitted just before boiler on the return so I think the system is pretty clean. The water from the radiators was crystal clear anyway. All upstairs radiators and the ones that heat up quickly downstairs presently have the locksheilds open 1/2 turn and seem to heat up ok.

Back to this heater. the pipes running into the back look like 8 or 10mm, and they are getting hot very quickly, so my question is, could this heater be robbing the flow from the last 3 radiators. I don't see any way of throttling back the flow on the pipes. If there is no means of doing this, what's my best option to try and reduce the flow to this. Just to add, normally we only have one Radiator on upstairs, and 5 on down stairs. With all Radiators turned off except the ones that take a while to warm up, they still take quite a while.
I Tried turning the Pump speed up to 3 ( Grundfoss Selectic 15-50) but it made little difference . The boiler is a Firebird Popular 90.
any Ideas ??

20181104_083109.jpg


20181104_083044.jpg
 
Normally there's no way to balance them other than to install a gate valve on the return
 
Thks for the reply. Guess Ill have to do a crawl under the house and see if there's some sort of Valve fitted on the pipes. If not, will a normal run of the mill gate valve be ok for a CH system. Boiler thermostat is set at 77 degrees
 
Due to the cramped space where the 10mm pipes come up through the floor and the heater, looks like any Valve fitted is going to have to go under the floor. There is no Valve fitted on this heaters pipework. what does an inline locksheild V/V look like ??
 
Hi
I've been trying to balance my Central heating system to solve a long running issue with 3 down stairs radiators taking a long time to get hot. The system is an open vented system with 12 Rads ( 4 upstairs and 8 down) At the same time, in our living room we have one of these heaters ( Pls see attachment, not sure what type its called ) that blows warm air from Central heating pipes. I'm pretty sure that it is Tee'd from the main 22mm flow and return pipes before the 3 radiators that are taking a long time to heat up. These 3 Rads are the last in line. I've had all 3 rads off and flushed them out, but there was not a lot of crud in them. Whilst I had each radiator off, I checked the flow coming from the Locksheilds by connecting a hose to them and seeing what flow I got into a bucket and it appeared a good steady flow. Ditto for the TRV connections, so I don't think the problem can be a blockage. I dose up the system every year with inhibitor, and there's a Magnaclean fitted just before boiler on the return so I think the system is pretty clean. The water from the radiators was crystal clear anyway. All upstairs radiators and the ones that heat up quickly downstairs presently have the locksheilds open 1/2 turn and seem to heat up ok.

Back to this heater. the pipes running into the back look like 8 or 10mm, and they are getting hot very quickly, so my question is, could this heater be robbing the flow from the last 3 radiators. I don't see any way of throttling back the flow on the pipes. If there is no means of doing this, what's my best option to try and reduce the flow to this. Just to add, normally we only have one Radiator on upstairs, and 5 on down stairs. With all Radiators turned off except the ones that take a while to warm up, they still take quite a while.
I Tried turning the Pump speed up to 3 ( Grundfoss Selectic 15-50) but it made little difference . The boiler is a Firebird Popular 90.
any Ideas ??

View attachment 35298

View attachment 35299
I would move the elephants, their weight will crush the pipes and restrict flow. Rob Foster aka centralheatking
 
Yep, no space me thinks. Those inline Valves look nice but expensive to be going under the floor out of sight. I think the first and cheapest idea I'll try is fitting 15mm gate valves on both flow and returns just before the reduction to 10mm. This will at least give me Isolation on this heater if I ever require to take it out. I'll leave the flow fully open and mess around throttling back on the return to see if I can get the other 3 Rads to heat up quicker
 
Hi
I've been trying to balance my Central heating system to solve a long running issue with 3 down stairs radiators taking a long time to get hot. The system is an open vented system with 12 Rads ( 4 upstairs and 8 down) At the same time, in our living room we have one of these heaters ( Pls see attachment, not sure what type its called ) that blows warm air from Central heating pipes. I'm pretty sure that it is Tee'd from the main 22mm flow and return pipes before the 3 radiators that are taking a long time to heat up. These 3 Rads are the last in line. I've had all 3 rads off and flushed them out, but there was not a lot of crud in them. Whilst I had each radiator off, I checked the flow coming from the Locksheilds by connecting a hose to them and seeing what flow I got into a bucket and it appeared a good steady flow. Ditto for the TRV connections, so I don't think the problem can be a blockage. I dose up the system every year with inhibitor, and there's a Magnaclean fitted just before boiler on the return so I think the system is pretty clean. The water from the radiators was crystal clear anyway. All upstairs radiators and the ones that heat up quickly downstairs presently have the locksheilds open 1/2 turn and seem to heat up ok.

Back to this heater. the pipes running into the back look like 8 or 10mm, and they are getting hot very quickly, so my question is, could this heater be robbing the flow from the last 3 radiators. I don't see any way of throttling back the flow on the pipes. If there is no means of doing this, what's my best option to try and reduce the flow to this. Just to add, normally we only have one Radiator on upstairs, and 5 on down stairs. With all Radiators turned off except the ones that take a while to warm up, they still take quite a while.
I Tried turning the Pump speed up to 3 ( Grundfoss Selectic 15-50) but it made little difference . The boiler is a Firebird Popular 90.
any Ideas ??

View attachment 35298

View attachment 35299
12 rads on this system , what kw is that boiler ? It may be like feeding the 5000 ..not enough heat to share out whatever speed the pump is and no matter how high boiler is set
Rob Foster aka centralheatking
 
12 radiators could be close to the limit of your boiler output, although I suppose some of the rads could be small?
Do you also have a hot water cylinder?
It will totally rob the flow from pump if being heated as one circuit with rads.
Also check if there is a bypass valve and if it isn’t continually bypassing.
If all else fails it could be your pump is faulty or not up to the job. Often easy to test by replacing the pump. I generally only use 6m pumps for most average size homes.
 

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