Rayburn 355M no hot water after powercut - Help!

[fedge58]

Hi!

two days ago we had a power cut for about 24 hours, unfortunately my son used hot water during this time so that there was no hot water left in the tank. our water (for taps and central heating) is heated by solid fuel rayburn 355m. the water in the radiators is hot, but there is a lot of air in the central heating system which we have been releasing with the radiator key. however the water that is coming out of the hot tap is still cold than cold and does not seem to be heating up at all.

the hot water system seems to be gravity fed whereas the central heating has a pump.

would be great if someone could shed some light.

many thanks,

mandy

 

[lame plumber]

Re: Please Help! No hot water after power cut - Rayburn 355m.

sf rayburn will have gravity feeds to HW cyl as standard normally and pump for CH, did your son empty the cyl of hw or actually empty the feed tank to the hw cyl inder (assuming you may have private/pumped water supply) in which case you have airlock in your coil that needs clearing. easiest way to do that is drain down sysrem and refill using a hose attached to the drain off cock on the 28mm gravitiy flow/return by the rayburn to push the air up and out

 

[lame plumber]

Re: Help! No hot water after a power cut - solid fuel rayburn 355m

did your son use up hw in cyl or actually empty cold feed tank to hw cyl? assuming you may be on a pumped /private cold main!

If so you have probably got an airlock in your cyl coil. easiest option to clear this would be to drain down and refill sytem via the doc on the 28mm flow/return coming off the rayburn gravity feeds. pushes air up and out. watch tank in loft doesnt over flow.

 

[ManchesterGas]

Re: Help! No hot water after a power cut - solid fuel rayburn 355m

Or try venting the top pipe on the hot water circs on the cylinder if it has a vent, if not, slacken the top nut off and release the air.

 

[lame plumber]

Re: Help! No hot water after a power cut - solid fuel rayburn 355m

Or try venting the top pipe on the hot water circs on the cylinder if it has a vent, if not, slacken the top nut off and release the air.

If you arent a plumber, my method is a safer option to try first, much less risk of flood if the cyl typical of most sf setups!!

 

[fedge58]

Re: Please Help! No hot water after power cut - Rayburn 355m.

thank you very much for your reply. yes i do have a private pumped water supply.
I have located a valve coming from the rayburn, when this is turned black-ish water comes out that makes me think its the central heating pipe. is this correct? pls see attached picture. and is this the correct valve i need to drain and then refill?

 

[lame plumber]

Re: Please Help! No hot water after power cut - Rayburn 355m.

that is a pressure relief valve, unusual to find on what should be on open vent sytem! you want a drain off cock, a small valve with a hose attachment, one off a rad would suffice if the rayburn feeds dont have one.

 

[lame plumber]

Re: Help! No hot water after a power cut - solid fuel rayburn 355m

for future reference, its better to only put out one post, then simpletons like me dont respond twice, wondered what happened to my first post! just found it again

 

[lame plumber]

this is your 3rd post on here about this! Ive answered the other two for you.

 

[MRDrip]

Re: Please Help! No hot water after power cut - Rayburn 355m.

sf rayburn will have gravity feeds to HW cyl as standard normally and pump for CH, did your son empty the cyl of hw or actually empty the feed tank to the hw cyl inder (assuming you may have private/pumped water supply) in which case you have airlock in your coil that needs clearing. easiest way to do that is drain down sysrem and refill using a hose attached to the drain off cock on the 28mm gravitiy flow/return by the rayburn to push the air up and out

Is this not an indirect cylinder.

I am confused about "in which case you have airlock in your coil"

Or is it a Primatic cylinder.. ?

 

[lame plumber]

Re: Please Help! No hot water after power cut - Rayburn 355m.

could be either, Im assuming its more modern!! but you never know as you often find direct cyls on old rayburns with ch!

 

[SimonG]

Re: Please Help! No hot water after power cut - Rayburn 355m.

Did you have the rayburn on during the power cut.

 

[lame plumber]

Re: Please Help! No hot water after power cut - Rayburn 355m.

I bet it was very noisy if they did

 

[SimonG]

Re: Please Help! No hot water after power cut - Rayburn 355m.

I would expect it to be off, just struggling to figure out why a power cut would airlock the cylinder?

More like poor installation and not able to establish a gravity circulation from cold.

 

[fedge58]

[FONT=arial, sans-serif]And I thank you very much for your help.

[/FONT]

 

[lame plumber]

Pleasures all mine

 

[lame plumber]

Re: Please Help! No hot water after power cut - Rayburn 355m.

read my first post for a clue on that, I made an assumption which turned out to be correct, being a smart assed country bumkin who works on these quite often.

 

[SimonG]

Re: Please Help! No hot water after power cut - Rayburn 355m.

read my first post for a clue on that, I made an assumption which turned out to be correct, being a smart assed country bumkin who works on these quite often.

So enlighten me on how he managed to empty the hot water cylinder?

 

[fedge58]

Re: Please Help! No hot water after power cut - Rayburn 355m.

I actually live in Ireland, and yes the rayburn was lit when we had a thunderstorm which caused the power cut at around 1.00am. The electricity was reinstated around 10.30 the next morning. There was an airlock in the hot water system, which I cleared, but now experiencing no water being heated in the hot water cylinder. The central heating is initiated by a thermostat therefore as it was not working properly then there was no noise, and this is the current situation.

 

[lame plumber]

Re: Please Help! No hot water after power cut - Rayburn 355m.

private water supply , pumped to cold water storage tank in attic, no elec = no cold water to hot water cyl and if thats dry the rad system may overheat esp if pump turned off to central heating boiling feeds from rayburn and eventually sucking air back into ch/hw system pipework. normally a bit noisy so owners reduce rayburn heat output but by then its all gone a bit ott and air sucked into system, iaw their post. so now they are bleeding the rads and trying to get the gravity feed to hw working again. seen it before, took me a while to comprehend!

beaten to it, but does that make sense

 

[SimonG]

Re: Please Help! No hot water after power cut - Rayburn 355m.

Yep can understand the airlock in the hot water side due to emptying the cwcs supplying the hot water cylinder.

Only thing I can think of then is that it's over heated and expanded into f and e tank and out the overflow and no water to top it back up at the time and then the air is lodges in the cylinder coil.

Towels and a spanner to the top connection to the coil on the cylinder.

 

[SimonG]

Re: Please Help! No hot water after power cut - Rayburn 355m.

Snap.

Normally the cust wil 'douse' the stove down to stop it overheating.

To the op I take it that there's no heat leak radiator?

 

[lame plumber]

Re: Please Help! No hot water after power cut - Rayburn 355m.

Yep can understand the airlock in the hot water side due to emptying the cwcs supplying the hot water cylinder.

Only thing I can think of then is that it's over heated and expanded into f and e tank and out the overflow and no water to top it back up at the time and then the air is lodges in the cylinder coil.

I said that as well

Towels and a spanner to the top connection to the coil on the cylinder.

Theres another post running on this as well, and as I mentioned in that one to the op try doc method first as old cylinders on rayburns normally dont respond well to interference! esp if its a private water supply, one hates to think of the state of the cyl

 

[fedge58]

Re: Please Help! No hot water after power cut - Rayburn 355m.

i have no idea if he did actually empty the cylinder as he rang me at work saying that there was no water coming out of the tap. I have not much of an idea about plumbing, as you can see, and just using my collins DIY book and the internet, which is no doubt pretty evident. Many thanks for the replies, much appreciated. Mandy

 

[lame plumber]

Re: Please Help! No hot water after power cut - Rayburn 355m.

our pleasure, go easy with the spanners

 

[SimonG]

Re: Please Help! No hot water after power cut - Rayburn 355m.

Theres another post running on this as well, and as I mentioned in that one to the op try doc method first as old cylinders on rayburns normally dont respond well to interference! esp if its a private water supply, one hates to think of the state of the cyl

Looks like the doc is that prv in the picture. Must have been a hike to the merchants.

 

[lame plumber]

Re: Please Help! No hot water after power cut - Rayburn 355m.

must be what evers in the van or a nervous plumber lol

 

[PlumbBobBob]

this is your 3rd post on here about this! Ive answered the other two for you.

for future reference, its better to only put out one post, then simpletons like me dont respond twice, wondered what happened to my first post! just found it again

all three threads now merged into this one

 

[lame plumber]

all three threads now merged into this one

mod magic, but makes me look like an echo echo echo

 

[AndySussex]

mod magic, but makes me look like an echo echo echo

Help - I may be in a similarish situation
I have a solid fuel Rayburn burning anthracite. My wife filled a bath taking the water from our hot water cylinder which is gravity fed from the Rayburn - the radiators in the house are all pumped from the Rayburn.
On running the bath the water ran out, which indicated that the water had stopped - I checked and all the taps were the same - hot and cold.
I checked with the water company and they are looking into the issue in the area.

My questions are
1.) I've closed down the Rayburn as much as I can, but is the heat from that into a now empty cylinder doing any damage?
2.) When the water comes back on and I guess the cylinder refills, are there any issues I may face?

Thanks

Andy

 

[SimonG]

1. Cylinders not empty, the tank feeding it is. The heat shouldn't damage the cylinder as long as it's a correctly installed system. You can always kepp the radiators going.
2. Your taps may be airlocked, but cross that bridge when you get to it.

 

[AndySussex]

Sorry, isn't the cylinder fed straight from a mains cold feed? If the bath is now full and the cylinder hasn't been refilled, how does that work?
What should I look forward to on the airlock front?

Thanks Simon!

 

[SimonG]

Sorry, isn't the cylinder fed straight from a mains cold feed? If the bath is now full and the cylinder hasn't been refilled, how does that work?
What should I look forward to on the airlock front?

Thanks Simon!

Hope not as it would be an unvented cylinder or a thermal store. Water from cylinder is in the bath, water from tank in loft is in the cylinder. Once the loft tank is empty it stops driving water through the cylinder.

I wouldn't worry about an airlock until you get one.

 

[AndySussex]

Cool, so just calm the Rayburn down as much as possible and wait for the water to come back over night and with any luck it will peacefully fill the loft tank up..
Let's see how tomorrow looks.
Thanks again!

 

[AndySussex]

Cool, so just calm the Rayburn down as much as possible and wait for the water to come back over night and with any luck it will peacefully fill the loft tank up..
Let's see how tomorrow looks.
Thanks again!

Water back on at noon today and all seems ok. Thanks for the reassurance Simon!