Hot water works, Heating doesn't

[HW95J]

I thought I'd ask to see if there's an obvious solution before calling someone out to deal with this. We have an iflo control panel for the heating and hot water. For the last week or so the heating won't come on either timed or through turning it on manually. The only way has been to turn on the hot water, wait until it's fired up, then turn the heating on and the hot water off again. As of today however that's not working any more. So we can't get any heating (not ideal in this weather!) though hot water as before is still fine. This began before the cold weather and I don't think that's affected it, especially as they've both been on quite a bit. 

Is there an obvious solution to this, or is it time to get someone in?

Thanks in advance, hope to be able to check thread again this afternoon.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

It sounds like one of the two way valves is not operating correctly.

Edited March 6, 2018 by TIGHTCHOKE

[Blackpowder]

HW take note of Tightchoke 's photo above.  Move the manual lever on the valve along to the right and lock it up in the slot.  Make sure all thermostats and timers are calling for heat and see what happens.  There should be some resistance from the lever and it needs to be held yup to the slot when you release hold.

 

Blackpowder

[Vince Green]

Is the pump running or trying to run is another question worth checking. Once the heating comes on I presume it stays on? 

Edited March 6, 2018 by Vince Green

[jonno 357]

is it a 2 way or 3 way divertor  valve  ?

[HW95J]

Thanks for the replies. It does indeed seem to be a valve issue. See pictures below. Normally the black switch on the top moves from right to left automatically which is followed by the switch on the side going slowly up from A to B. I haven't been able to manipulate these manually- unless there's another lever hiding somewhere. Bit of a  pain to access because it's behind the washing machine.

Any thoughts?

[JohnfromUK]

This shows how to manually override it and how to repair it

Edited March 6, 2018 by JohnfromUK

[stumfelter]

Disconnect the actuator from the motorised valve and see if you can manually move the valve spindle. If so the actuator is at fault and you can usually buy just that.

[HW95J]

Right, thanks again for getting back to me. That video was very helpful, with an understanding of how it works I was able to manually override it. The issue is that when locked into the notch (as I tried before) it doesn't maintain enough pressure. If pushed all the way then the heating will fire up just fine. However much I like a challenge, I'm not sitting there keeping the thing pressed in! Have contacted letting agent to see if anyone can come out. Might be able to put some sort of buffer in to extend the notch and keep enough pressure to have heating (if they can't send someone today).

I'll keep you posted. I would have a crack at it myself as I think the motor just needs replacing but this should be covered by the letting agent. Might have to wait a good while at the moment before a replacement part turns up for a DIY effort.

 

[Winston72]

Synchron motor, 2 wires and 15 quid in any heating spares supplier

[HW95J]

Boiler is also now leaking (slow drip) from one of the taps/valves underneath it. I've been told that's fine so long as it's containable, which it is. Someone should be sent tomorrow to fix the issue. Maintenance like that is covered in the contract so no cost to us. No heating overnight is a minor inconvenience in the scale of things, cold though it is at the moment. 

Advice has been much appreciated, lots of useful knowledge on the forum 

 

[Flyboy1950]

35 minutes ago, Winston72 said:

Synchron motor, 2 wires and 15 quid in any heating spares supplier

+1 easy to fit replacement, keep a spare.

[Brodie]

Am I missing something?

You say the leaking boiler valves are covered on a maintainance contract so surely the zone valves are.

[HW95J]

Ended up taking two (cold) days until someone came to fix it. Turned out to be a fault with the control unit which wasn't sending power to the heating valve actuator. Unit replaced and all fine now aside from the leak which is to be sorted at a later date. 

[Pistol p]

 Could be a water scale problem. I had it witha combi boiler where the  hard water caused scale build up on the domestic hot water diaphragm causing it to stick and not return to heating after use. Cheap fix, but could have been expensive as it pointed to half a dozen issues. 

 Change your water inlet filter regularly and that helps.

[Winston72]

On 3/6/2018 at 18:54, Brodie said:

Am I missing something?

You say the leaking boiler valves are covered on a maintainance contract so surely the zone valves are.

depends on level of cover external valves wouldn't be covered on boiler care as its part of the system not the boiler.