Heating Horrors

The central heating packed up last week. Thinking back we had plenty of warning but, because it came on gradually, we didn’t notice it. Last week it changed from some radiators being a bit cold to none of the downstairs ones working at all.

My first thought was that the pump had packed up. I consulted my next door neighbour Albert, who used to be a plumber and, not only did he agree with my diagnosis, he gave me a brand new pump! Unfortunately fitting it made no difference.

So the system is sludged up. Off to town for a £25 bottle of sludge remover and stick it in. It was left running for about three days but the pipes continued to cool.

There are people who will come round with a pump and pump the sludge out of your system but they want £300 for the job. So yesterday I took the afternoon off, went to the hire shop and rented a pump for £35. It took about five hours to connect pump and restore the system to operation but it seems to have done it! It was actually quite good fun although I’m knackered today. Not actually much physical strain – the pump does all the hard work - but a lot of bending down, spannering and adjusting that my body isn’t used to.

I’ll put the anti- corrosion stuff in on the weekend and that’ll be it for another fifteen years.