r/askaplumberUK

Hi,

I have nasty sewer-like smell, coming only from kitchen sink and washing machine. Can someone help me to at least get an idea what this could be ? I am looking for a professional plumber but still want to understand what it might be and how much it would potentially cost.

It was fine before, then all of a sudden it started to smell. I tried putting some drain cleaner down, didn't help.

I don't think it's the trap as I took it apart and cleaned it.

Thanks.

By the way if you're a plumber in Lincoln, and available at some point next week please let me know.

We recently had our boiler serviced and condensate drainage upgrade and waste clear out. Everything has been working fine for several months, but when we’ve tried to use our heating something is going wrong. The boiler registers it as on, and the pipe coming out of the boiler heats up, but it isn’t reaching any of the radiators. Pressure is fine, hot water is still working fine and radiators have all been bled. Wondering if a valve has been left in the wrong position or it’s something I can fix, or whether we need to call the plumber?

Pics attached of the valves and pipes, plus front of the boiler. It’s fitted with a thermostat controlled via Tado, which also showed the heating as on, but we don’t have smart radiator devices or anything.

Edit: problem solved thanks everyone for your help! 🙏🏻🙏🏻

i just posted about my heaters not working and people are asking me to turn on the filling loop, can you please help locating it? thank you!!

Hello we’ve got a baxi boiler and when we have a shower the temperature is good for about 30 seconds then it drops to Luke warm and then it goes hot again and it carries on doing this and we keep having to turn the temperature up on the Thermo static shower all the time just asked our Plumber who said it could be a blockage and it would be £208 to fix all in. Does this sound about right? The radiators are not coming on randomly like they were before and we had to have something cleaned out and some sort of bag thing replaced any help or advice would
Be welcome

I watched a YouTube video which said that there would be a nut at the base of the plastic rod but it doesn't look like there is.

And something which doesn't show in the pic is that the edges of the circular piece alongside the pipes are about 8mm deep. Thanks in advance.

I have the following setup:

• Glow-worm 30R regular boiler
• Hot water cylinder with cylinder thermostat
• British Gas UP2 programmer (Invensys)
• Honeywell T6360B1028 mechanical room thermostat
• Drayton MA1 3-port motorised valve

The problem:

System was fine before summer. No work was done. Now, central heating isn’t working. With heating ON at the UP2 and the room thermostat turned up to 30°C, the MA1 actuator remains at W (hot water position). No movement, motor noise, pump activity or boiler ignition

Hot water works, but behaves strangely:

• If heating is already ON at the UP2, the boiler won’t initially ignite for HW if it is switched from off to on, even with the cylinder thermostat calling.
• Switching heating OFF allows the boiler to ignite and heat the cylinder for HW on.
• Once the boiler has ignited for hot water, I can toggle heating ON/OFF without interrupting it.

What I’ve checked:

1. Replaced the MA1 actuator head with a second-hand unit — identical symptoms.
2. Tested both actuator heads detached from the brass valve body but electrically connected — neither moves, ruling out a seized valve spindle as the cause of no movement.
3. Honeywell room thermostat clicks normally.
4. Continuity between thermostat terminals 1 and 3 is present only when the thermostat is turned up (tested with wiring still connected).
5. UP2 heating and hot water indicator lights operate normally.
6. Confirmed UP2 terminal 4 (CH ON) has a red wire connected.
7. System worked perfectly last winter. No wiring or controls have been changed over summer.

Current suspicion:
Possibly a failed UP2 heating output, a wiring/connection fault, or missing heating demand reaching the MA1 white wire.
I have a multimeter but haven’t yet measured the live control outputs. And it's only CAT2 up to 300V, apparently I need a CAT 3?
Questions:
Does this sound like a faulty UP2 programmer or something else in the Y-plan control circuit? Could the unusual hot water behaviour be related to the missing heating demand?
Any advice on narrowing down the fault would be appreciated before I start replacing more parts or just call an electrician/plumber.

Could someone help me decifier the attched. My main uncertainty is around what the 3 taps below the pump are for? Which ones should be open or closed etc. or only partially open etc? I'm told one is a bypass and should only be open a 1/4 turn?? What about the others? Where are the pipes A - I coming from / going to?

Can anyone explain what this noise is?

Following some building work during my which all of the radiators were removed and refitted, the main HE got blocked and was power flushed . This seemed to fix the problem at the time.

A few weeks later and these noises have started, and the boiler seems to be short cycling.

Can anyone give any advice on whether I should try to get it fixed or just buy a new boiler instead?

Boiler is a 2013 Vaillant ecotec plus 630. Ground floor 3 bed flat 1200sq/ft max.

New to reddit- Posted to another group but I think this one is more relevant.

The on off tap for our shower has started leaking when it's turned on. I presume it is an internal failed o-ring or the cartridge. Is this easy to fix myself? I'm relatively handy but haven't dealt with internal plumbing issues before. So i don't want to go taking the current thing apart if I'm going to royally screw it forever.

I want to do everything possible to not have to rip the tiles out as that would then require a whole new shower refit and re-tile which I do not want to get into cost wise.

The other side of the wall is an high up an internal staircase (shower is the en suite in our 2nd floor loft extension).

I've no idea of the make of shower unit as it was here when we bought the house.

My questions are:

Are cartridges universal/specific?

How do I even get in to undo the bolt, as it looks too deep in for a normal socket wrench or pliers etc?

Is this an easy fix for a competent plumber?

I have removed the grub screw and any bits I can seem to screw off. But the front still isn’t budging? Any advice?

I moved into this house where there is a horrid red carpet throughout, including the main bathroom and en-suite.

I’d like replace this with vinyl, but while I’m at it I’m wondering how feasible it would be to replace the toilets as they are pretty ancient and easily clogged (I’ve been known to drop a bunker buster from time to time).

The issue is that the water supply pipe to the cistern comes out of this tiled ledge you can see in the pictures - if a new cistern doesn’t line up with this, I’m not sure how to adapt it as there doesn’t seem to be much space between the ledge and cistern for a flexible pipe or something like that.

Can anyone here tell me whether replacing the toilet looks feasible WITHOUT removing the ledge?

Thank you 🙏