My central heating makes a bit of a racket - not banging, more like a steam train chugging. The boiler is 20+ years old (Glow-worm spacesaver) and has recently had a powerflush, which doesn't seem to have made any difference, and a new pump (the old one was apparently gunged up).
I'm reluctant to fork out for an expensive, complicated and potentially unreliable new boiler - particularly if it doesn't solve the problem.
Any suggestions?
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Keep it, we have the same boiler from 1984 and apart from it needing a new pump nothing has gone wrong with it all.
No idea what the noise is.
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Difficult to say without hearing it first-hand, but it sounds like you've done the most obvious things. Has it been making the noise for long?
Last edited by: Dave_TD {P} on Mon 7 Feb 11 at 22:34
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>> as it been making the noise for long?
>>
Well, it's been noisy for about a year, I think. I'd be quite happy to hang onto it, though I'm sure it's terribly inefficient, but the noise is a real nuisance.
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>> it's been noisy for about a year, I think
I would think, even though the system's been powerflushed, there's still some restriction somewhere in the system. Not necessarily in the boiler, it could be in the 3-way valve for example.
If it had been making the noise since installation I would have put it down to poor pipework design creating an airlock, obviously that's not the case though.
If it still does its job then I'd be inclined to leave well alone. You might find more detailed answers on one of the plumbing forums.
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Possibly "kettling". Dose the system with descaler if you're up to it (a "powerflush" won't do anything alone to fix it). Fernox "Heavy Duty Restorer" (F5)/DS40, with inhibitor after.
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I had this problem. The system I inherited had a 'semi-syphonic' hot water cylinder (IIRC). That meant the water in the heating system couldn't be separated from the hot water system, which meant I couldn't add inhibitors.
I had a new hot water cylinder (with heating coil) and top-up tank fitted. I removed all the radiators and flushed them out. I gave the boiler a de-scale. It was quiet for almost a whole year. Further investigation showed a cracked boiler heat exchanger, I replaced it
My new boiler's showing the same characteristics. ;>(
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Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll see if I can find a local heating engineer who recognises the symptoms and can offer a fix that doesn't involve a whole new boiler....
Pete
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I have an 11 year old Glowworm hideaway running 10 rads, I recently flushed the system after adding some Sentinel X400 and finally adding some Sentinel X100 inhibitor.
The boiler now makes a noise like the one you describe, which it didn't before :)
The rad furthest from the boiler is cold (ish) at the bottom so it'll havta come orf to be flushed through with the hose, so - there is obviously some black sludge (magnetite) still lurking about and as Turbot Dave says - there is likely to be some in the boiler but - it'll have to stay there as far as I'm concerned b'cos a more thorough (severe) flushing chemical could do more harm than good.
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I had an old cast iron boiler. It used to kettle. Simple old thing, It will never go wrong I said, I will never change it. Don't want a new fangled thing.
The old kettle finally sprung a leak, as they always do. I bought a new condensing boiler. Its cut my gas bill in half.
Your kettling boiler? Its knackered. Get a new one. I shall recoup the cost of mine in 4 years.
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>> I had an old cast iron boiler. It used to kettle. Simple old thing, It
>> will never go wrong I said, I will never change it. Don't want a new
>> fangled thing.
>>
>> The old kettle finally sprung a leak, as they always do. I bought a new
>> condensing boiler. Its cut my gas bill in half.
>>
>>
>> Your kettling boiler? Its knackered. Get a new one. I shall recoup the cost of
>> mine in 4 years.
>>
Agreed. I got a brand new top of the range Powermax in my flat for free after the engineer spectacularly broke the old boiler as he tried to repair it. The place is toasty; the gas bill tiny; and the hot water comes through instantly.
It's a clever thing, the boiler and hot water cylinder are integrated.
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So ... after having previously used Sentinel X400 and thoroughly flushing my central heating system, there is one radiator that stubbonly refuses to heat up at the bottom.
I just drained the critter and the water was crystal clear, when it had finished draining, I removed it from the wall and up-ended it into a bowl ... loadsa black gunge!
The moral of this story? power flushing is 'the way to go'.
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And ... I removed rad, carried the flippin thing outside, flushed it through from both sides - even upside down, stuck it back on the wall, connected it up ... still the same :)
Next job - obvious now though = faulty TRV.
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Give it time, my little feral friend.
I believe that's the way radiators work. The hot water goes in and rises to the top. It eventually displaces all the cold.
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>>I believe that's the way radiators work. The hot water goes in and rises to the top. It eventually displaces all the cold<<
I'll see how it goes then over the next few days, it was interesting (to me, anyway) that all the water I drained out of the rad was crystal clear, and the small amount of magnatite I did manage to get out, only came out after I up-ended the critter, so, there must be be some sludge in the bot of all rads, which doesn't actually circulate, so doesn't do any harm.
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Noisy Boiler - RattleandSmoke
