O/t boiler repairs

[dombanks]

Does anyone who fixes boilers live near Runcorn? The boiler went off on Monday night, British gas came out yesterday and got it going in the evening and now its off and wont start and they won't come out till Tuesday now! What a bunch of f*****s.

[mud]

what boiler is it and what is it doing (apart from not working)

[dombanks]

ill check in a mo on the make. its not a condensing one tho. its not particualy new either but its serviced every year and has been fine.

it does the heating and the hot water which goes into a tank in the house.

basically pilot light on and but no heating/water, also piolt light goes off easily. BG guy replaced gas valve and heating worked for a few hours. not nothing and pilot light wont even stay on.

the story:

we woke up on tuesday morning (6.30 ish) and it was freezing in the house which was odd as 1. it should have come on due to the program and 2. it should be on as its in the loft and has a frost thing which brings it on in cold weather, so its been on pretty much all the time recently.

there was no pilot light so i thought it might have blown out (although no wind) i got the light on after a couple of attempts and then went to work. no idea if the heating came on tho.

swmbo got in about 7pm and no heating, very cold house and no hot water the tank was stone cold which to me suggests the morining attempt was fruitless usually it satys warm for ages. i got in much later and the same no pilot light. this time it started first attempt about an hour later no heating had come on and it had gone out again. i got it going again and went to bed after spending hours on the phone to BG to book an appointment.

wed morn no heat/water but piolt light was on.

wed nigh no pilot light but BG coming so left it

thursday BG come late afternoon. the guy does his stuff and replaces the gas valve but he said he wasnt sure if the part was compatible so he tried it anyway as he had the old one off, the heating worked great. guy leaves ~6pm house gets loverly and warm. about 11.30 we think its getting cold in the house.

today, 6.30 it is cold no piolt light no heating diddley f**king squat. cant get it to stay on. nothing. so phone BG after 30mins on hold they say the best they can do is tuesday afternoon.

[dombanks]

im worried cos the boiler is supposed to be on when it hits 0C to stop it freezing up, it been below zero or just about 0C all week and today/ the weekend its getting colder. Usually as soon as it hits zero it comes on. im concerned that the system will freeze up and then some serious damage will be done.

[mud]

if you are already into changing gas valves then there isnt a lot that can be done without the correct parts.

[mud]

keep the heating switched on ie pump running circulating water and place an electric heater in front of a small radiator .

[dombanks]

im screwed till tuesday then, we cant even go to her mothers as she has swine flu!

its f*****n freezin even the cats have come under the covers in bed with me and swmbo!

thankfully im not an oap or someone who is ill and i can probably cope with the cold. it beggars belief tho i pay for this breakdown service.

i guess ill just have to go out today and get a whole bunch of elecy radiators so i dont frerze my nuts off till then lol.

if i wanted to be this screwed over it'd be cheaper to go and play STD roulet with the hookers in the uni at last i'd be moving about!

[dombanks]

keep the heating switched on ie pump running circulating water and place an electric heater in front of a small radiator .

cool  thanks for the advice.

[frubpato?]

Is it a balanced flu then (guess it is if it's in the loft)

Sounds a bit like a problem I had. The fan stopped working and so the pilot wouldn't open up the full burner. Two options. If it is the fan it's a complete replaceable unit and you can get them from Trade centres. Mine was the switchand so I hard wired the fan to run 24/7 till I got the new one.

If the fan doesn't come then it looks like the main valve has stopped actuating but I would have thought the BG bloke would have checked this

[Richgm]

See if you can find an online manual for it. When my dads boiler stopped working I found the manual for it on the manufacturers web site and it had a brilliant fault finding flow chart in it. Took us about half an hour to diagnose a faulty thermistor.

Edit* I'm quite happy with electrics but wouldn't have touched the gas side of things as I don't have any experience with gas.

[carpetstu]

You need one large hammer and a good swing with the right arm!

Not at the boliler but at the British Gas man's head  

I love their TV advert that promises emergency call out the same day. Disclaimer ---- as long as they aren't busy  

[blue_toaster]

See if you can find an online manual for it.

good advice. Mine packed up a couple of years ago and the fault finding diagram for the boiler pointed me quickly to a new motherboard being needed. That was bought at a local plumbers merchant though I had to travel a little to find one in stock. It was fixed by me same day.

You need a CORGI registered chappy to do anything affecting gas flow, like valves etc, but anything electrical, switches, timers, fan, water pump etc you can do yourself and you should be able to find a supplier with the part somewhere.

Is there a fault code or anything displayed that could help pinpoint the fault?

[Ravan]

Only a guess (& a bit late as shops are shut!) but could it be the thermo coupler? This could explain why the pilot light will not stay lit as it senses the flame and then triggers the gas supply. Or at least I think thats what happens?

[chazpowerslide]

We have just gone through the same thing here.

Boiler sprung a leak and then would not cut in or out, traced the fault/s and ordered a replacement bit for the bit that had sprung a leak and then was quoted £185+VAT for a new PCB.

It turned out that the leaking water had caused a relay to burn out on the PCB, with the help of Scruffy I got a new relay from RS Components and replaced the faulty one (£8.99 inc VAT and delivery)

After a bit of a faff finding the correct "O" ring set it all went back together and is working fine.

It may be worth while checking that the CH has the required pressure in the system (about +1 Bar) or that the header tank is full if the systen is unpressurised and that the pump is running (it should hum/vibrate) and that if you have any flow valves that start the boiler up for DHW and CH they are clean/crud free.

If a fan is fitted in the flue in must be working for the boiler to run (if the fan fails there is a saftey interlock that will prevent the boiler from lighting up and filling the house with CO gas)

There should also be instructions on how to bleed the CH and DHW of air as airlocks can cause hot sopts in the heat exchanger(s) and the excessive heat will trip out the boiler.

As you seem to have a pilot light but the boiler is not lighting up it may be a thermostat/thermistor problem in so far as the boiler "thinks" it's hot/up to temp already and therefore not cutting in.

It's also worth checking the stats/clocks to ensure that it has not been inadvertantly switched off.

I'm reasonably happy with what I did but would not touch the Gas side as it's illegal/unsafe to do so.

Chaz.

[dombanks]

thanks for the responces guys.

im a bit reluctant to start poking about, nothing looks out of place or wires off etc. so i assume something is b******d and prob i cant fix it anyway.

im mostly annoyed as i pay BG £28 a month so someone who knows will come and fix it and they basically saked me off till tuesday. i guess its cos of the double bank holiday etc and its just bad timing but i still feel like im wasting my money. the only saving grace is all parts are covered so if it is the pcb i dont pay anything. i didnt pay for the gas valve the otherday.

the theiving f*****s they got into trouble for that add and have changed it now subtly. if i had a gas/water leak they would be here within a few hours but i dont so they are not. ironically ive found a slight drip on a valve in the airing cupboard but its nothing a quick nip with the spanner wouln't fix so ill get them to do it on tuesday.

anyway thanks again. we stole a oil rad from the inlaws and the gas fire works so not all is cold ish ...