Need some plumbing/heating help. Hot water not getting to upstairs shower.

[souljacker]

Hopefully, there might be an Urban plumbing mob who can help me with this.

We had a loft conversion last year and also, around the same time, had a new boiler and thermostat put in (we've lived here for 18 years and the boiler was fucked when we moved in!). The 'old' part of the house heats up nicely and there is usually piping hot water to the shower/bath/taps everywhere but it doesn't seem to make it to the top floor (the new bathroom in the loft). The rads up there get nice and hot but the hot water doesn't unless you turn off all the heating. Even then it takes forever to get hot in the taps.

I'm guessing it's some sort of pressure problem somewhere but plumbing is a dark art to me so I don't know where to even begin. Anyone know or can offer some advice?

Cheers

 

[High Voltage]

Combination boiler (ie heats water as you need it)

Or a hot water tank system

If the latter I'd hazard a guess at lack of header pressure - the hot water tank is probably not that much higher than shower

Usual I'm not a plumber but have similar where we are

 

[souljacker]

Combination boiler (ie heats water as you need it)

Or a hot water tank system

If the latter I'd hazard a guess at lack of header pressure - the hot water tank is probably not that much higher than shower

Usual I'm not a plumber but have similar where we are

Tank system. We have a copper cylinder on 1st floor and a tiny little tank up in the loft (as opposed to the massive plastic bucket we had before). We were told that we'd need to keep an eye on the pressure on the tank in the loft but that is generally staying around the 2.5bar mark that it should be at.

 

[Sprocket.]

Do you have a three way diverter valve in your system perhaps or can you see two pumps?

 

[Sprocket.]

If you have a diverter valve problem one common fault is a small hole in the diaphragm, this causes the condition when you struggle to get hot water when the central heating is operational. If you open your hot tap fully you should hear the burner on the boiler kick in.
It sounds from your description to be along this path.

 

[souljacker]

Do you have a three way diverter valve in your system perhaps or can you see two pumps?

Yeah, we've got this although it was replaced when we did the work last winter. I think there is a problem there though.

Would the boiler always go on when you turn the hot? I always assumed that the hot comes from the cylinder.

 

[Sprocket.]

It depends on how the boiler is set up. We have a 155 litre tank on our system but the burner starts up after the shower has run over five minutes or so.
The diaphragm only needs a pinhole in it to cause problems.

 

[Sprocket.]

Any boiler progress souljacker?