Emptying a fully pumped gas central heating system
Emptying a fully pumped gas central heating system
At some time in the life of your fully pumped gas central heating system you will wish to empty it. To fit a thermostatic metal radiator valve or replace a broken metal radiator are two cases. Your heating engineer will normally be performing list has although some householders do have the confidence to try this themselves.
Whilst there can be a number of causes the most common is to flush the radiators. Before you do anything to the actual radiator you should turn off the gas fired boiler and any gas or electric that supplies the central heating boiler. To enable the system to totally clear you will need to guarantee that no water is coming in the heating system.
Your gas heating system is topped up with water via the expansion or header cystern. A common ball valve is used in the expansion cystern similar to that in a toilet. As the water level rises the ball floats on the surface and closes off the valve. Water is added to the gas heating system if the levels fall as the ball will drop on the water surface opening the valve. This process will need to be stopped if the heating system is to be fully emptied. Putting a small plank of wood across the water tank preventing the ballvalve from moving will check further water moving into the gas heating system.
When you are confident that you are prevented any further water entering the gas heating system you should attach a hose pipe to the outlet valve at the bottom of a radiator taking care to ensure the end of the hose pipe is in a clean outside your property. Water will now passage out of the metal radiator through the hosepipe into the external drain. To drain your whole gas central heating system you need to attach this hose pipe to one of the ground floor heating radiators, the lowest ones in the house. Before you begin any other work on this gas central heating system you must now ensure that all the water has emptied out and no other the water is entering into the metal radiators.
The process can be speeded up by opening the bleed valves in the top floor radiators. When all the water has flowed away you can now commence work on the system.