I would just like to say

brianp38dse said:

All new are supposed to be energy A rated, to do this the electronics in the pump knows how much power it required to move x amount water as the thermo valves on the rads shut of this puts a restriction on the water flow causing the to be under more load so it backs the power of as its not needed, all very good on new systems but on an old one that may be a bit clogged up it dont push it through with much omph, if you can get an older style three speed pump that may be better but will require changing the whole unit.
the wiring is just L N E to all of them nowt fancy.
Lynx pumps are identical to the old Grundfos three speed.

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Serious thank yous to you for all your help.
I will now be able to discuss it all with a bit more knowledge.

"thermo valves on the rads" I had to laugh at this, not your fault, but we have precisely one in the whole house! On the new rad in the kitchen and we leave it fully open all the time! (It has to heat both the kitchen and the utility.)

Turktowner said:

Grundfos is the brand, UPM3 the model.
Under Floor Heating.

I'd try that first. We found that many seized over the summer through lack of exercise and untreated water.

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We don't have underfloor heating in the UK. That is in Frogland and it isn't liquid, it is electrical elements buried in the fancy scree.
In the UK we have trad rads.
In the nano second that I could see the back of the pump I could tell that there was black stuff there so I am still confident that if "someone" can get it out it may be possible to clean the gunk out of the impellor and make it spin and pump as it was doing up until this all kicked off. It is very weird that it has gone from absolutely fine to "rubbish" in one day.
Still not 100% convinced it is the problem which is why I am now calling in a pro.
But again thanks for all your help.
I might try to read the model numbers and letters of the pump, if I can find them. I may need a mirror and a light as the front of the pump is turned away from me and not easy to read.
Or, shock horror, I may get all modern and use my camera on my "phone" to try and take a pic.
I understand that that is what a lot of you youngsters do!!

DanClarke said:

Morning All.
Not raining, and not too cold either.
Apparently we are using our new loft ladders today to go up there and do a major tidy-up in the cold.
Of course this means that all the expensive heat we have put into the house will just vanish up and out.
Have a marvelous Monday.

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Its a scam Mrs C wants to find the Xmas tree and decs .

You could just send her up there and shut the hatch. Give her a coat though

J

Stanleysteamer said:

Well reverse lights are supposed to be switched by the gear lever, in one way or another, or you can have an independent switch but it has to have a warning light too. But then you'd know that.

I once bought an old skool Mini which had two reversing lights fitted to the boot, not big ones like I mentioned afore but nevertheless. I drove it home soon after I bought it and parked up outside our place, (Dum and Mad's) to be greeted by the plod who had followed me more or less all the way from Bath to Keynsham. I had switched the reversing lights off just before I got out, having somehow remembered I'd put them on earlier, before I even saw the plod.
They said stuff like, "We've been following you for X miles with the reversing lights on!" etc etc. I claimed to have no knowledge of them as I had only just bought the car, which I could prove if I had to. They tried to get them to come on again, gear lever, ignition on, off, lights on, off. nothing worked. (TBH I didn't understand it either!) So they scratched their heads and said "OK, you've just bought it, get it sorted." then they looked all over the car and noticed stuff like, no front bumper, just the knife-dge like seam where you would attach one. They had a go at me about that and how dangerous it was but then mellowed and talked about taking a piece of garden hose, splitting it and sliding it over the seam. So I pointed to my old Mini sitting to one side of the drive and told them that I was going to be stripping a lot of stuff off it and putting it on the new one before scrapping it. They brightened up and that grinned at me and told me just to take care. Decent plod. I have a few stories along those lines but I'll save them for later!!!

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On reverse switch oh how silly big blinding light for tailgates light is handy for loading trailers ect.

Afternoon all yup its all frozen here, nice n warm in the machine though.

Cucumber sandwiches.

kevstar said:

On reverse switch oh how silly big blinding light for tailgates light is handy for loading trailers ect.

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I was thinking particularly of a narrow village we sometimes have to drive through at night. You can get caught there if you are in a "single vehicle only " stretch and some eejit who doesn't know the road comes in from the far end once you are already engaged on it. This happened to us once and the eejit was joined by another behind him, so of course they thought they had priority. I had to reverse but couldn't see where the heck I was going. Didn't have a torch nor nuffin. In the end W had to get out and guide me back. The bloke from the oncoming car got out and simply kept saying "I don't know this road, I've never come this way before." etc etc. Blazing, great reversing lights would have helped there.

Amazingly I managed to persuade my phone to take pics so I now know all there is to know from the plate.
Grundfos Selectric 98-5484 (these numbers were upside down below the above.)
UPS 15-50 No. U316.
There is a grid with all sorts of stuff on it, which I will not bore you with.

All of which of course will only mean something to a pump type person.

Stanleysteamer said:

n the nano second that I could see the back of the pump I could tell that there was black stuff there so I am still confident that if "someone" can get it out it may be possible to clean the gunk out of the impellor and make it spin and pump as it was doing up until this all kicked off. It is very weird that it has gone from absolutely fine to "rubbish" in one day.
Still not 100% convinced it is the problem which is why I am now calling in a pro.

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If there's "black stuff" it could well be a clogged impellor. I did ask about the last time inhibitor was put it but cant remember the answer as to how old it is.

You could just drain the system down a bit enable you to have another look. Shut the supply at your heating header tank in the loft you would probably only drain a bucketful at the boiler to empty enough.
Some gate valves respond to being open/closed a few times just at the last bit of closure, also "jamming them shut sometimes doesn't help. I just had a look on screwfix and see they do the pump valves as ball valves now, Gonna have some of them next time I visit the UK .
We have 3 pumps in our system, it works for us they don't all run at once, only the underfloor heating which pretty much runs continuously even in the summer.

Our impellor was clogged and it just wasn't doing as well as it should. so it may not be fine to rubbish in a day its a gradual process till the pump just cant do it anymore that's when you notice, and as yours is not used for long periods the rubbish settles.

What speed is your pump set on? try turning it to 3 see how it goes, maybe it will clear some crud.

J

Hippo said:

Cucumber sandwiches.

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Are you asking for a recipe?

J

marjon said:

If there's "black stuff" it could well be a clogged impellor. I did ask about the last time inhibitor was put it but cant remember the answer as to how old it is.

You could just drain the system down a bit enable you to have another look. Shut the supply at your heating header tank in the loft you would probably only drain a bucketful at the boiler to empty enough.
Some gate valves respond to being open/closed a few times just at the last bit of closure, also "jamming them shut sometimes doesn't help. I just had a look on screwfix and see they do the pump valves as ball valves now, Gonna have some of them next time I visit the UK .
We have 3 pumps in our system, it works for us they don't all run at once, only the underfloor heating which pretty much runs continuously even in the summer.

Our impellor was clogged and it just wasn't doing as well as it should. so it may not be fine to rubbish in a day its a gradual process till the pump just cant do it anymore that's when you notice, and as yours is not used for long periods the rubbish settles.

What speed is your pump set on? try turning it to 3 see how it goes, maybe it will clear some crud.

J

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Ideally I would like to remove and clean out the impellor, that was my goal for today, But just too fed up now and daren't even try anything else at the mo as W would go spare.
Draining at the boiler would really be sticking my neck out. The boiler sits on the wall in the utility and to my knowledge has never been drained down in its life. The silly little drain plug thing is identical to the one under the rads and they stick in for a pastime. It is actually above the boiler as the pipes both go up into the roof of the utility which isn't accessible at all as it is an attachment to the house. You'll remember that we are on a slab/float thing with no pipes under the ground floor.
It might be easier to turn all the rads bar one off at both valves then drain some watter out via a more recently played with rad downstairs, like the noo one in the kitchen. I entirely agree that fiddling around with the gate valves might eventually make them work and of course they spend nearly all their time fully open. To my knowledge I am the first person, beyond the plumber who actually fitted them, to have tried to use them. But there is no way of knowing if they are working or not without doing what I did and if they still aren't I'll be back with my finger in the dyke.
Inhibitor has been put in but I cannot remember how long ago.
The pump only has two speeds or three positions, off, 1, 2. And it is on 2 all the time, you may remember the plumber some time ago pointing out that the pump may well be too weak for the system, but that was when we used the whole system, now we only use half.
I am saying this, I am 99.9% sure it hasn't got a "3" but I'll nip upstairs and see if it will go to one further position.
Just checked, no there isn't.
At least the landing light is now back to normal.

Thanks again for all your thoughts.
J