GAS BOILER NOT HEATING WATER

SPARTAN33

We moved into a property about a month ago, it has a Vokera Mynute 16E gas boiler it seems to heating the Radiators okay, but its not heating the water to the taps, its controled by by your typical on off switchs for the Rads BUT dont know why its not heating the water to the taps, its a pain because we have to put on the immersion heater to heat the water for a bath and wash up dishes etc, should this boiler be heating the water to the taps or is it just for the Rads?. Any help on this is greatly appreciated.

copper12

Look in the hot press two pipes going into the side of the hot tank; one of them should have a gate valve
This valve is used to balance the system; check and see if this valve is closed
Turn it clockwise to closed, then turn it ante clockwise to open; until you feel hot water flow true the pipes don’t open it to much’ just enough’ to heat the tank without loosing to much heat to the central heating

ART6

SPARTAN33 wrote: »

We moved into a property about a month ago, it has a Vokera Mynute 16E gas boiler it seems to heating the Radiators okay, but its not heating the water to the taps, its controled by by your typical on off switchs for the Rads BUT dont know why its not heating the water to the taps, its a pain because we have to put on the immersion heater to heat the water for a bath and wash up dishes etc, should this boiler be heating the water to the taps or is it just for the Rads?. Any help on this is greatly appreciated.

It would be pretty unusual for the boiler to only be intended to heat the rads. Generally there is a separate circuit that supplies hot water from the boiler to the indirect coil inside the hot water cylinder (the one with the immerser in it). That circuit is not pumped and it works by thermal lift, at least on atmospheric systems.

The supply to the cylinder coil from the boiler is usually on the side of the cylinder, about a third of the way up from the bottom and a third down from the top. There will probably be a valve on each pipe, and there may be a futher valve in a short piece of pipe that connects them. This is a bypass valve and should be closed. The other two should be open.

copper12

ART6 wrote: »

. This is a bypass valve and should be closed. The other two should be open.

you sure about this art6

SPARTAN33

Hi huys thanks for your advice, but when i looked in the hot press there loads of gate valves by the immersion, i dont which one to turn, and i dont want to turn the wrong one in case i might banjax something. there are gate valves on each pipe and also a dial like a switch on a radiator with different numbers on it. hope someone can help me on this,

copper12

Take a picture of the pipes; maybe we can guide you true it

SPARTAN33

copper 12 can you private message me i need to ask you abou this problem,

SPARTAN33

the hot press there is also like thin metal wire coming from the dial and going into the hotwater cylinder

SPARTAN33

i dont have a digital camera at the moment to take a picture of the pipes, and the valves, can anyone talk me through which valve i need to turn

James Forde

is it externally controlled, by a thermostat or anything like that?

SPARTAN33

there is a thing like what you get on end of the pipe servicing teh radiator with numbers on it currently it is at 4, it then has a thin like wire going from that into the hot water cylinder.

ART6

SPARTAN33 wrote: »

Hi huys thanks for your advice, but when i looked in the hot press there loads of gate valves by the immersion, i dont which one to turn, and i dont want to turn the wrong one in case i might banjax something. there are gate valves on each pipe and also a dial like a switch on a radiator with different numbers on it. hope someone can help me on this,

Much of this will depend on whether you have an atmospheric or pressurised system, and whether the cylinder is a direct or an indirect one. If it's pressurised there will be at least one largish bowl shaped vessel in the pipework, with a pressure gauge on top of it. That maintains the system pressure. If it's an atmospheric system there will be a vent pipe to a cold water tank in the attic and no bowl shaped vessel.

Older atmospheric systems relied on natural thermal lift to circulate the cylinder coil, but more modern ones often have a pump for that purpose, or use a take-off from the radiator circulating pump. There are variations on the theme!

In a pressurised system there may well be a pump that pushes water through the coil in the hot water cylinder, and in that case there may be a balancing valve to regulate the proportion of flow through the coil and the radiators.

Going by your comment about lots of valves, it sounds like you have either a pressurised or atmospheric indirect system. In that case as I said before, there should be four pipes going into the cylinder. Then it gets a bit more complicated. In a pressurised system there will probably be two pipes in the top of the cylinder, and possibly another connecting to the top one of the side pipes with a valve on it for refilling the system from the mains. There should be two in the side, about a third of the height up from the bottom and about a third down from the top. These are the ones you are interested in since they connect to the coil inside the cylinder, and any valves on them should be open. If there's a valve connecting the two pipes, close it until you get hot water from taps.

If you have an atmospheric system there will again be two pipes into the side of the cylinder, and one in the top centre and one in the very bottom on one side. Again the two pipes you want that are in the side, down from the top and up from the bottom, usually both on the same side. The valves on them should be open and any bypass valve should either be closed or partly so.

The trouble is that over the years installers have tended to either not fit enough valves, or to fit them all over the place without labelling any, so working out what each one does can be a bit of a puzzle especially if they are not near the cylinder.

The dial like switch you refer to sounds like a temperature switch, and if it's fitted to a radiator (you sure about that?) then I can only guess that it's intended to turn off the heating when the rad reaches a set temperature. Why that should only be on one rad I can't imagine since it would only do anything if that rad was turned on. The dial will be calibrated in (probably) degrees Centigrade, and turning it up or down will vary the temperature of the system. It would make more sense to me if the thin wire you mention was connected to the cylinder, since then the switch could be controlling a pump that circulates the coil. In that case that could be why you're not getting any hot water -- the switch is turned down too low so that the circulating pump never starts. Try turning it anti-clockwise to a higher number and see if that does it.

All of this is a "best guess" I'm afraid, based on your description. The only thing I would say is don't turn off any valves on the top of the cylinder of the extreme bottom.

copper12

SPARTAN33 wrote: »

the hot press there is also like thin metal wire coming from the dial and going into the hotwater cylinder

This is a thermostat control valve it’s purpose it to turn off the hot water going to the hot tank; it operates in a similar fashion to a thermostat radiator valve; fully close’ then fully open this valve’ make sure the bulb at the end of the thin wire’ is in contact with the side of the tank
There should be symbols on the valve; to indicate whether it is open or closed; usually when heating systems are set up; they seldom need any other adjustments
Is there any hot water, any where near this valve’ when the heating is on; it could just be the case that this valve is stuck’ in the closed position’ give it a little gently persuasion’ open and close it a few times’ when it’s open’ gently tap the metal parts’ this might loosen the valve seating

SPARTAN33

ART6 HAVE YOU GOT A LANDLINE CONTACT NUMBER, THANKS FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE, I DONT WANT LIKE I SAID BEFORE TO BALLS SOMETHING UP BY TURING WRONG VALVE OR SWITCH

yop

Turn off your caps mate in both your titles and posts, its brutal hard to read and against the charter to boot.