Boiler Problems - Any Plumbers here?

mrgubby · 1 Feb 2006 at 17:16

If you are getting water through the system & there are no warning lights on then it sounds like the thermostat in the boiler has died . Should cost about £30 + fitting

Gimpymoo · 1 Feb 2006 at 17:40

Retsef said:
First one is that your losing water. This is usually from the central heating side, which is related to the drop in pressure. You have a leak

Is there nothing else which can cause a loss in pressure?

Gimpymoo · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:34

UPDATE:

Ive noticed an unusual high amount of water being omitted from the overflow pipe from the boiler going outside... any ideas what would cause this?

VIRII · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:46

Does your hot water system feed have a header tank somewhere ?
We have a header tank in the loft which feeds water to the boiler, it is fed by the mains and has a ballcock to prevent it overflowing.
It is possible that if the ballcock was only allowing a slow feed into the header tank that the header tank would drain when running a bath resulting in "gurgling" as air got sucked into the boiler.

VIRII · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:47

Gimpymoo said:
UPDATE:

Ive noticed an unusual high amount of water being omitted from the overflow pipe from the boiler going outside... any ideas what would cause this?

You've increased the feed pressure = more overflow ?

Gimpymoo · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:49

It has been increased... only to 1.5 bar though.

VeNT · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:53

the central heating part is not connected to the hot water part note,
so if your losing presure (mostly heating) then thats a leak there
and if you've got issues with hot water then its another problem, so I'd say dud boiler (researched LOADS on boilers cos m8 in a student flat had one that leeked above his room, lost 2bar pressure in 4 hours)
if presure reaches close to 0 then it COULD explode, and I'd REALY reccomend getting british gas out!

VeNT · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:54

VIRII said:
Does your hot water system feed have a header tank somewhere ?
We have a header tank in the loft which feeds water to the boiler, it is fed by the mains and has a ballcock to prevent it overflowing.
It is possible that if the ballcock was only allowing a slow feed into the header tank that the header tank would drain when running a bath resulting in "gurgling" as air got sucked into the boiler.

this ofcorse is posable with older boilers

from what I've seen of new ones, they all feed directly off the main (unless your in a REALY low pressure area)

PeterNem · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:57

We had a problem with our new boiler (a Worcester Heatslave Oil fired Combi). It was only fitted about a month ago and within a week we had no hot water and no end of water pouring out the overflow... not good when you're on a water meter. The other symptom was one of the pressure guagues inside the unit was pointing into the red at the top end.

We called out the guys that installed it and they adjusted the pressure and reset something or other in the boiler and all was fixed within minutes.

I'm not an expert by a very long stretch of the imagination, but could you have inadvertantly got the pressure massively wrong during the course of your fiddling?

PlacidCasual · 2 Feb 2006 at 23:09

Boiler regs, combi boilers, condensing boilers its all a scam to part us from our cash. It used to be boilers were simple and worked for years on end but were only moderately efficient. Then some bright spark realised you could get more energy out but the only problem was it introduced inherent design weaknesses. So you spend a fortune on a boiler that might save you £10-20 a year over a less efficient design and the bugger breaks down all the time because it has loads of valves and sensors and crap. Forget planned obsolesence go straight for forcing people to buy half arsed products in the name of efficiency. How much energy do you reckon is saved with a new boiler when you constantly have to make and fit new parts to keep it going over a longer life less efficient one?

Anyway now I've stopped frothing at the mouth. Yes you probably have a leak, and the heat exchanger is a likely spot if you aren't seeing any water. Get a technician in (engineers design boilers not fix them) and sign up to a plan.

phykell · 3 Feb 2006 at 00:22

PlacidCasual said:
Boiler regs, combi boilers, condensing boilers its all a scam to part us from our cash. It used to be boilers were simple and worked for years on end but were only moderately efficient. Then some bright spark realised you could get more energy out but the only problem was it introduced inherent design weaknesses. So you spend a fortune on a boiler that might save you £10-20 a year over a less efficient design and the bugger breaks down all the time because it has loads of valves and sensors and crap. Forget planned obsolesence go straight for forcing people to buy half arsed products in the name of efficiency. How much energy do you reckon is saved with a new boiler when you constantly have to make and fit new parts to keep it going over a longer life less efficient one?

You are absolutely right and it's now as bad with the new electricity regulations...

LoadsaMoney · 3 Feb 2006 at 00:31

I was thinking deja vu here. :eek:

magpie · 3 Feb 2006 at 07:18

Is it a sealed system or open system (do you have an expansion tank in the attic).

The reason there is water going outside is because the preassure release valve has opened, this you can replace yourself if your handy with a spanner.

When the heating is on does the preassure stay around 2- 2.5 or does it keep rising, I suspect it keeps rising hence the reason the preassure release opened.

If it's a sealed system the reason for this would be that the preassure vessel has failed. Not to expensive to get replaced.

Go to the link Snash gave, the peep's there will sort you out

lordedmond · 3 Feb 2006 at 07:49

the flexecon expansion tank has gone its itternal to the boiler useualy fitted at the back and red you wil have a smaller one grapefruit size on the hot water

they are a tanl with a diaphram one side has about 2 bar nitrogen the other has the water the nitogen acts like a spring

Gimpymoo · 3 Feb 2006 at 08:07

magpie said:
Is it a sealed system or open system

The reason there is water going outside is because the preassure release valve has opened, this you can replace yourself if your handy with a spanner.

When the heating is on does the preassure stay around 2- 2.5 or does it keep rising, I suspect it keeps rising hence the reason the preassure release opened.

If it's a sealed system the reason for this would be that the preassure vessel has failed. Not to expensive to get replaced.

Go to the link Snash gave, the peep's there will sort you out

Thanks for the help. It is a sealed system.

If the pressure vessel had failed, could this explain the constant loss of pressure, assuming there are no leaks?

lordedmond said:
The flexecon expansion tank has gone its itternal to the boiler useualy fitted at the back and red you wil have a smaller one grapefruit size on the hot water.

They are a tanl with a diaphram one side has about 2 bar nitrogen the other has the water the nitogen acts like a spring.

Thanks for the above... A great help.

Will post back if more info needed. Will keep thread updated. Many Thanks.

Gimpymoo · 5 Feb 2006 at 20:01

Well.. Decided to go with British Gas.

£25 a month for a year.. £300 total.

They will repair the initial fault and any faults which occure after that.

£300 doesnt seem too bad.. not having to pay all in one go is a bonus as well.

Thanks for everyones help.

VIRII · 5 Feb 2006 at 20:23

Gimpymoo said:
Well.. Decided to go with British Gas.

£25 a month for a year.. £300 total.

They will repair the initial fault and any faults which occure after that.

£300 doesnt seem too bad.. not having to pay all in one go is a bonus as well.

Thanks for everyones help.

Why is it £25 a year ?
Mine is £15 a year, have you taken additional insurances eg electric, drainage etc?

Gimpymoo · 5 Feb 2006 at 21:10

Naah, not sure if theyve changed policies, but because its allready broken, they said the premium is higher.. which makes sense.

The Plumber was booked on the same call and didnt have to wait 24 hours.

Will get the contracts and see what im covered for.

They could send an engineer TOMORROW if I needed.. EXCELLENT service.

Snash · 6 Feb 2006 at 13:28

Gimpymoo said:
Well.. Decided to go with British Gas.

£25 a month for a year.. £300 total.

They will repair the initial fault and any faults which occure after that.

£300 doesnt seem too bad.. not having to pay all in one go is a bonus as well.

Thanks for everyones help.

Similar to the deal I got from Potterton when my bloier had the failed PCB - £259 including parts, labour, warranty to fix the existing problem - didn't matter if it was a £5 valve or a £200 PCB - plus I got a year's cover for anything else going wrong with the boiler.

So it looks like Gimpymoo gets his boiler fixed for £120 and then gets the year's normal cover for the remaining £180 (£15/month). Seems alright on the assumption that the cost of fixing the problem is more than £100 (which it probably will be).