We have had nothing but trouble with our solar heating since it was installed in August 2009.
It has already cost us £165 to have the system pumped through to get rid of airlocks and now the water pump has packed up.
My OH has taken a photo of the pump and to us it doesn't look as if it was new when fitted. It is an Orkli make type number ST20/6-3P No. 4518073.
Does anyone know how I could find out how old it is please?
(http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x311/7stephenson/P6090203.jpg)
Sorry I can't be help for you...but....I would try to contact the manufacturer and see if they can come any answers with the serial number.
I'm no expert but that pump is older than 3 years. Get in touch with whoever put it in and tell them.
(http://inlinethumb37.webshots.com/50916/2499965790062644071S500x500Q85.jpg) (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2499965790062644071pEujig)
Turn the centre slot with a large flathead screwdriver to see if it the rotor is stuck in sludge and purge the pump to get rid of the sludge. It worked for me once, you could be lucky and just have the same problem as me. Turn off the leccy before you do anything.
The engineer from Ideal Solar Energy has already had it apart ACE. He said it looked very clean and hardly used inside. He has turned everything off at the moment so we don't want to interfere.
He offered to replace it for £165 charging only for the pump and not their labour. However, I was a bit unhappy about it having paid out £165 12 months ago to get rid of an air lock. There is gunge coming out of the pipework everywhere too. I am not surprised that we had air in the system as it doesn't look as though it was ever put together properly.
(http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x311/7stephenson/pipes.jpg)
(http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x311/7stephenson/pipe2-1.jpg)
Goodlife, thanks for your suggestion. I have emailed the company.
Just an update. The company have now offered to replace the pump for £56, labour free, so we have accepted that and will be having it fitted tomorrow. Let us hope it keeps going this time. ::)
Hope you get it sorted out PaulineS. It annoys me when I hear of people struggling to get stuff fixed when it looks as though a poor job was done in the first place.
Paulines7, we had solar hot water for 8 years now and needed a new pump a couple of years ago. Just like with central heating, the pumps seem to go from time to time and need replacing. Other than that, our system has been working very well. OH changes pumps himself fortunately and installed a Grundfos pump, which according to him is the best money can buy.
The cost of the pump was similar to what you are being charged. Sorry you had so much aggro with your system. We don't have gunge like that coming out either. I would ask them about it when they come to do the pump.
They say that they are part of REAL consumer protection
http://www.idealsolarenergy.co.uk/about.asp
http://www.realassurance.org.uk/
maybe the time has come or will come soon to send these photos to REAL so that you will end up with a decent system.