Plumber / Plumbers / Plumbing - Show us your pipes

Had to cut the thread off one end of the connector but all good. Paper towel in the bucket remains dry... so far

Excellent result, didn’t need to add any extra pipe? Is that a reducer?

That looks like a gas supply to me rather than water.

The bare copper picture, not the plastic one.

The plastic might well be the condensate drain from a combi boiler. Not the greatest installation admittedly.

Oh man, I had to teach myself plumbing 101 today. Had to cut and join copper water pipes and sort all this sink nonsense out.

I need help:

The boiler stopped working yesterday - no Central Heating or Hot Water.

As expected, it was a low pressure issue, so I recharged it, a bit too much, so drained out from a radiator, til I had it at a nice 1.3 bar. All good.

Now CH seems to work but no Hot Water.

I have two zone valves under the boiler. The one with "Hot Water" scrawled in it shows absolutely no resistance when I move the manual lever. No matter whether I have. Hot water tap running or not.

I think the valve must be borked, so it is permanently open and is therefore diverting hot water away from the taps and shower heads. Does that make sense?

What should I do?

I had the same issue before, diverter valve was knackered. Seems it is a very common problem. I got someone in to replace it.

OK. Seems like my diagnostic is maybe accurate.

I wonder if I can replace it myself?

If it's just a two way or three way valve on compression joints then it's pretty simple to do.

Yeah, I think it should be easy enough. As long as the mechanical valve is sound and just the electrical header needs replacing.

BUT, I am still not sure I totally understand the system. So I am not 100% on the diagnosis.
The setup is as follows:

We have a combi boiler, and a backup immersion heater in a big tank that I can turn on if the boiler fails. (I have turned it on, so at least we have hot water right now.)

The valve that seems to be permanently "open" is one that (I think) is between the boiler and the immersion tank.

So, I THINK, that the way it is supposed to work is for the valve to be (somehow) triggered to close when I want direct hot water and NOT use the immersion tank.

This is where my understanding fails. I'm not sure the above is correct. I'm also not sure how the valve would "know" how to fill the immersion tank or not.

Anyone have any wisdom to share?

Can you post a photo of the valve in question?

Ok. Here goes.

This is an overview pic. Yes the system is in the loft. Which is a pain

The boiler is at the end, on the right, behind the bright light.

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We have a combi boiler, and a backup immersion heater

That doesn't sound like a combi boiler then. You may have a Y Plan heating system.

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Here are some closer pics.

The valve that I am worried about is the lower one. It had "Hot Water" scrawled on it. The manual lever on it shows no resistance, even when a hot water tap / shower head is running.

The other valve says "heating" on it.

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And finally, a picture of the underneath of the boiler.

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Yep. That's a Y Plan system.

That doesn't sound like a combi boiler then. You may have a Y Plan heating system.

It is a combi.

Most of the time (always, apart from when something is fucked) the immersion is turned off. As in all electrically turned off by hand.

So, for 99.999% of the time it is definitely my boiler that is heating the hot water.

Are you talking about that red lever? That's just a isolator valve, there will be no 'resistance' when you shut it off.

Combi boilers don't have immersion heaters. Hence the name.

No. The two motorised valves in the silver boxes.

Blimey, that water tank looks massive!!

OK.

When you're done with me, I think Grandma needs some egg sucking tips!

I have a combi boiler setup. It works as a combi all of the time. UNTIL it breaks. At which point I have the option of turning on a great big immersion tank, so that I can wash my hairy balls until such time as a heating engineer fixes my boiler.

Blimey, that water tank looks massive!!

Yep. It takes up most of the loft.

I have no idea why the previous owners installed a massive redundant backup immersion heater.

Anyone else know how all of this is supposed to fit together and whether the lower motorised valve being stuck in the open position would mean that my combi hot water system would be broken?

Mate. That's not a Combi Boiler system.

You don't have immersion systems with them.

It's a Y-Plan system. The silver boxes are three way valves. One for radiators the other for hot water.