Hot water not working but heating is

Gringo180

Hi all,

My hot water wont work when I have the heating on, I have a switchboard beside the combi boiler and it has hot water on, one side and heating on the other side, when i turn on my combi boiler i switch hot water and heating on, on continious, now the rads heat up fine but the water wont heat up at all, we only recently got the heating installed and the hot water has never worked
Anyone who has any ideas what could be the problem would be greatly appreciated to hear them

PS when i switch on the immersion the on bath works fine (heats the immersion up) but the on sink doesnt work (wont heat the immersion up) could this be a hint to what the problem with the hot water is??

Thanks in advance

ART6

Gringo180 wrote: »

Hi all,

My hot water wont work when I have the heating on, I have a switchboard beside the combi boiler and it has hot water on, one side and heating on the other side, when i turn on my combi boiler i switch hot water and heating on, on continious, now the rads heat up fine but the water wont heat up at all, we only recently got the heating installed and the hot water has never worked
Anyone who has any ideas what could be the problem would be greatly appreciated to hear them

PS when i switch on the immersion the on bath works fine (heats the immersion up) but the on sink doesnt work (wont heat the immersion up) could this be a hint to what the problem with the hot water is??

Thanks in advance

The immersion heater has nothing to do with the boiler, so there is a problem there that is not boiler related. Immersers normally have a "sink" and a "bath" selecting switch, and it sound like the "sink" connection is not made properly or at all.

Where the boiler problem is concerned, it might be simply that the valves to the heating coil in the hot water cylinder are closed or the bypass is fully open. The valves to the cylinder would normally be on pipes in its side, about a third of the way up from the bottom and a third of the way down from the top. They need to be open, but not so much that all of the hot water from the boiler flows through the cylinder and none through the radiators -- it's a case of balancing the system.

In any case, if you have recently paid to have the system installed and yet the water heating has never worked, surely you should be getting the installer back and giving him or her a flea in the ear?

Sounds like a bad installation job on the face of it.

Gringo180

ART6 wrote: »

The immersion heater has nothing to do with the boiler, so there is a problem there that is not boiler related. Immersers normally have a "sink" and a "bath" selecting switch, and it sound like the "sink" connection is not made properly or at all.

Where the boiler problem is concerned, it might be simply that the valves to the heating coil in the hot water cylinder are closed or the bypass is fully open. The valves to the cylinder would normally be on pipes in its side, about a third of the way up from the bottom and a third of the way down from the top. They need to be open, but not so much that all of the hot water from the boiler flows through the cylinder and none through the radiators -- it's a case of balancing the system.

In any case, if you have recently paid to have the system installed and yet the water heating has never worked, surely you should be getting the installer back and giving him or her a flea in the ear?

Sounds like a bad installation job on the face of it.

Hi thanks for the reply, found the valve 3 quarters way down as you described, and the nossle was turned fully so it was tight, so ive twisted it to open it up slighty and there was a sisssing sound for a second or so, would you say that was the problem?cant check if its fixed now as the water is already hot from the immersion being on..

Thanks again art

ART6

Gringo180 wrote: »

Hi thanks for the reply, found the valve 3 quarters way down as you described, and the nossle was turned fully so it was tight, so ive twisted it to open it up slighty and there was a sisssing sound for a second or so, would you say that was the problem?cant check if its fixed now as the water is already hot from the immersion being on..

Thanks again art

If you've found the right valve, and it was fully closed, then I would expect that the be the hot water problem. How much open it needs to be depends upon your system -- it needs to be open enough to heat the water in the hot tank, but not so much that it takes all the heat away from the radiators.

That still leaves the issue of the immersion heater, where it sounds to me like the sink connection is not made properly. You could check that by opening the switch cover and looking to see if there's a connection to the upper (sink) terminals. If there is, check that the terminal screws are not pinching the insulation of the wires rather than the bare copper. If that's OK then take the cover off the immerser and see if the wires are all connected there. If you want to have a go at it yourself, it's easy enough to do but PLEASE make sure you turn the power off at the mains, not just at the switch. Mind you, I still think you should be giving the installer some stick instead of having to fix it yourself.

Hope part of your problem at least is solved.:)