>> Why break the habit of a decade?
I wasnt going to, but I will, and its Duncans fault.
For the last 6 months, C/H pump has been getting noisier, but working.
Synchronous motor in three way valve failed, - replaced.
Then the low flow boiler lockouts started, just once every few days. Turned up pump speed, knowing pump was failing - to nurse into into spring when major choices* could be made.
Then the lockouts happened daily, moving to multiple times per day.
Sighed and had to lash out premature* money on a new pump from good old screwfix.
Last time I changed a pump, the isolation valve nuts were grimly hanging onto the pump body, and I had to chop the pipe off to get the pump out. So last time pump installed I put coppaslip on them - What a bright boy, pump changed in less than thirty minutes, with minimum agro. Old pump choked with hard sludge.
Fired it all up, pump spins - lockouts - no flow. Bottle vents are welded shut with scale, cant vent system.
Get new Bottle vents, (good old screwfix) start to drain down system
Wont drain at lowest drain point. check water in header, full but going nowhere.
Decide I will drain via pump isolation valves, water comes out at drip speed.
Stuff some thin wire in pipe towards boiler - goes 5 inches to where header feed pipe joins and stops. Blocked with hard sludge.
So much scratching of head, I fabricates a device out of thick stiff wire coathanger, heat up and make a corkscrew on the end, stuff it in the drill chuck, and start to drill along the pipe to feed join. Voila! water floods out, frantically remove new drilling device and shut isolator before bucket becomes overwhelmed with what looks and feels like crude oil.
Pump refitted, System filled with descaler and pump jury rigged to mains, bypassing boiler control, and circulated for several hours.
System drained and refilled (this is a 3 hour job each time due to lots of air traps) and now heating working better than it ever has. A full weekends work, aided by a screwfix less that 4 miles away open nearly all the time.
*Boiler is eleven years old, Domestic hot water flow to main bathroom has been pants for years,
called plumber, cant have a Kombi, poor mains water flow, so whole lot is going to be ripped out and replaced with an indirect pump assisted system - waiting for the quote.
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