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My central heating seems to be slowly dying. Everything looks & sounds right, but only half of the radiators seem to get any heat. If they are all switched on, I only get heat upstairs, so thinking there might be an air bubble I switched them all off forcing the heat to the downstairs ones which then worked fine. Switch the upstairs back on and the downstairs go off.

Does this mean the pump is not strong enough/working properly ? Or there isn't enough hot water to go round ? Or any other ideas ?

Desperately trying to put off calling a plumber cos they charge a bloody fortune. >:(

Try bleeding them, could be trappe air. You should have a little key type spanner, open the valves enough to let air out and have something ready to catch any drips once all the air is out.

tried that already, one or two of the valves are totally fucked (they are now more round than square so the key or even a spanner wont shift them) but when they do heat up, they heat all the way - if they need bleeding, isn't the top colder than the bottom ?

Sounds like your pump is struggling. I had a new pump fitted a while back - cost about £80 in total.

Have a listen to it, you should be able to tell if it is having a hard time.

Check your water pressure on the boiler is ok (if you can)

How do you do this ?

Depends on your boiler type. I have a Worcester bosch with a gauge on the front, if you have one the dial will show you what your pressure is.

Think my old boiler is about 20 years old (cue the wife jokes......). Theres no gauges on it at all

If it is a worcester, get out a worcester engineer. Very good, fair, trustworthy, reasonable prices etc.
Avoid yellow pages emergency plumbers like the plague. Whatever the problem is they will replace the Circuit board for about £700.

It depends on what type of boiler you have,If you have a hot water tank in the bedroom or a tank in what was called an airing cupboard,you'll find there is a release valve that you can gently unscrew,this will clear the air bubble.A word warning be careful tho as this pipe where the valve is can be bloody hot.

I doubt this is an air bubble tho as you usually get the pipes banging or making some kind of noise when you have trapped air and i doubt every radiator needs bleeding,that would be very unusual.

It all depends on what boiler you have at the end of the day.

sign upto british gas boiler care. roughly £20pm which covers everything like this and you wont pay a penny for anything which needs fixing.

i had it once where one of my radiators wasn't being heated (like yourself) and it was a new pump/circuit board which cost hundreds and i paid nothing.

well worth it

What if the problem is with the radiators or pipes themselves? Is this still covered? If so, I'm getting it!

You've done well, although probably time to get the wallet dusted as the normal life expectancy is 10-12 years.

Thanks for the advice so far, I've also phoned a plumber at random from google, he reckons the pumps gone too.

Just out of interest, has anyone had a new boiler installed recently ? How much is this likely to set me back ?

£43.68

Ho ho, I jest. I have no idea

Had mine replaced 2 years ago, got quoted 2.4k by British gas, used their spec, bought one myself and got a local plumber cost me £1700. You can go cheaper but you get what you pay for, even at cheapest end expect to pay £1200 +

Yes, cant remember exaclty but seem to recall it was around 1600 to 1800....I can recommend a decent plumber if you are near oxford..

everything you need to know is here

http://www.britishgas.co.uk/products-and-services/maintenance-and-repair.html

also this looks like the one you need with no fixed repair @ £22.50pm

http://www.britishgas.co.uk/products-and-services/maintenance-and-repair/boilers-and-heating/boiler-and-heating-cover/homecare/homecare-300.html

i think the british gas scheme over time costs you more than just paying as and when.i take my chance but can see why people use the scheme.

as for the problem it could be as simple as the radiators needing balancing which is a minor cheap job.i had the same fault and it turned out to be just that.
then again it could be down to many things.
if you are in swindon or near area i reccomend using gv hall(number in all the phone books)i've used them since i've owned a home and they always do a great job.

I'm in the BG one, & was paying £18 per month. That includes a service every year which with gas is important. They have so far replaced by circuit board, pump, & thermostst so I'm quids in. Recently wanted to cut costs so I am now on there flexible scheme which is £13 per month. That still includes the service but any repairs I pay the first £50.

If you need a boiler isn't there a boiler scrappage scheme now ?

My brother is an Ex British Gas service engineer, will PM you the number

Be a bit careful - we had a situation where the pump was gone and we had it replaced....then it went again in a couple of months.

It was because there was a massive build up of shite in the pipes - limescale and sludge etc...

Something called a Powerflush seemed to solve it - got rid of all the crap in the system and allows the pump to work again properly....But they can be around £500 !!

I can give you a rough idea. My boiler needs replacing fairly soon. Had a number of quotes ranging from £2400 to £4900 (yes, you guessed it, British Gas was the most expensive.....). This does include a fair bit of re-plumbing as I want the boiler relocated in my airing cupboard upstairs as opposed to its current location in the kitchen and also the inlet feed pipe is not man enough to feed the boiler.

Get the Yellow Pages and get a shed load of quotes (I've got about 9). Ask lots of questions.