F and E system - is the cold feed pipe in the wrong place?
Help!
I bought a house that had a new boiler, f& e tank, pump, rads etc about 10 years ago.
The house itself needs ripping back to brick for other reasons, at which point we will replace it all, but we need to make what we have last for 2 more winters, which given the age of the installation, we thought we could eek out.
Unfortunately - it doesn't seem to be wanting to last that long.
When the boiler heats hot water, it forces air into the central heating loop, to an extent that I'm bleeding the lowest radiator in the house daily. I've checked, and the vent pipe sucks air intime with the pump running when the HW demand is on. I assume the air is then being forced through the y valve, as the lowest radiator also heats up If left on for a while.
The corrosion is insane, I assume because of this - I've had a pinhole leak appear on the lowest radiator already that I'm replacing tomorrow.
Attached is a diagram of the system as Ibest as I can work out. The tomkat instructions on pump installation suggests the feed pipe should be installed after the vent pipe but before the pump. It appears mine is installed on the HW return pipe immediately next to the cylinder.
https://youtu.be/wP5EDVNuV5Q?is=BMWWnFtHYdv5-ako
Would I be right in thinking
- Is the source of the problem the cold feed pipe location?
- should be a relatively easy fix for a heating engineer to do? Room is tight around the pump/vent pipe so the vent pay need moving to accomdate it.
My DIY skills end at soldering pipework unfortunately.
We're weighing up just using the immersion for hot water for the next two winters (will cost about a pound a day more - as we're on LPG which isn't cheap) and limiting the heating (log burners do the heavy lifting anyway), but if it's an easy ish fix - I.e. Half a day-full day for a heating engineer to swap the pipe over it might be worth it.
Appreciate any thoughts and prayers.