So, we have this archaic oil boiler/stove system, a bit like a rayburn.
The stove itself is pretty and nice to cook on, especially oven cooking.
The heating system . . .
Traditional hot water tank upstairs, plus two header tanks.
Problem number one: The hot water tank heating coil is on the central heating circuit. No Y valve switching between two; there is only the option to heat water and radiators (in the 'heat' of summer we switch the system off and use immersion heater).
Problem number two: The system is filling with air from somewhere. I've bled, filled (from external drain pipe with a hose); within a couple of days it is full of air again.
Problem number three: bleeding radiators means hooking up the hose to the external drain. Which brings us to Problem number four.
Problem number four: The heating circuit doesn't use the header tanks. It is just a circuit of copper with a goose-neck overflow into one of the header tanks. Two problems with that; one is that there is no pressure in the system. Just a 'head' of a metre. If I bleed a load of air from radiators, the level drops so low that the whole system is sucking air from the top.
Problem number five: The radiators are on a mixed serial/parallel connection. None of them have thermostatic valves (even the ones plumbed to the out and return), few even have a control/shut off valve.
I know how it should be changed (install Y valve, parallel plumb rads, header tank on heating circuit).
Just a big job, particularly tracing all of the rats nest of copper. The radiators are old, so I don't want to risk undoing them to add valves (plus the pipework isn't lined up for valves).
