alpha cb50 boiler

[ifihadahammer]

hi ive got an alpha cb50 boile and my heating and hot water keeps going off it will relight for anywhere between 10 mins and an hour then cut out again

i did the right thing and called a plumber because as you will be able to tell i know nothing about boilers (or any diy for that matter) the guy is a vallient specialist and seems to know his stuff. He has also rung alpha helpline for advice

and so far he has changed the diverter valve the primary heat themestat the heat sensor (the one to the left and underneth of the primary) also the main board (cb board ithink its called) also checked the water in the system which is clean as a whistle and had inhibitor in it but he has put some flush through stuff in the system anyway just in case of any blockages but still no joy. the trouble is it seems everytime he fits something it fires up and seems to be ok but 30mins later it starts playing up. So far ive spent £500 and am no better off i am deserate to get this fixed as i have 4 kids and its no joke playing whos gona be lucky enough to get a shower this morning game. this has go on for over 3 weeks now.

can someone with alpha experience please advise it would be mush appreciated

ps the boiler is about 6 years old if this helps

regards john

 

[Agile]

i did the right thing and called a plumber because as you will be able to tell i know nothing about boilers (or any diy for that matter) the guy is a vallient specialist and seems to know his stuff. He has also rung alpha helpline for advice

and so far he has changed the diverter valve the primary heat themestat the heat sensor (the one to the left and underneth of the primary) also the main board (cb board ithink its called) also checked the water in the system which is clean as a whistle and had inhibitor in it but he has put some flush through stuff in the system anyway just in case of any blockages but still no joy. the trouble is it seems everytime he fits something it fires up and seems to be ok but 30mins later it starts playing up. So far ive spent £500 and am no better off

I cannot see how someone can "know his stuff" yet still need to call the manufacturers and then just blindly change parts.

In my view he is totally incompetent at fixing boilers. To do that you need to understand how they work and by doing tests thence diagnose the fault.

Merely changing parts is not fault finding and you should not have to pay for parts which are not required to fix the boiler. I dont understand how he can get away with it.

BG will do a fixed price repair for under £200 if the boiler is reasonably modern and correctly installed!

Tony

 

[Gasman77]

another helpful tony post

 

[ifihadahammer]

another helpful tony post

thanks for your reply and i might even give BG a call and cut my loses but im not being funny its alpha that has gone through the fault finding procedure with him and told him what to change so if they dont understand their own boilers you guys dont have a chance but its hard to see what BG can do thats different.

 

[Ray84]

fixed price BG repair is definitly the best option.
what they can do thats diffrent is come out, check what the fault is and what could possibly be the cause. order up as many parts as they want, come back the next day and see what parts required and send the rest back.The repair will also come with a warrenty. In Scotland they even do the repair at £100 so long as you take a minimum contract for the year which works out a wee bit more than £250 but least for the next year your covered.

i dont find alphas very reliable but striaght foward enough to work .
id have steam comming from my ears if id just threw £500 at a boiler to no avail and definitly wouldnt be backing up the engineer that made me spend that amount of money for nothing.

Ray

 

[ifihadahammer]

fixed price BG repair is definitly the best option.
what they can do thats diffrent is come out, check what the fault is and what could possibly be the cause. order up as many parts as they want, come back the next day and see what parts required and send the rest back.The repair will also come with a warrenty. In Scotland they even do the repair at £100 so long as you take a minimum contract for the year which works out a wee bit more than £250 but least for the next year your covered.

i dont find alphas very reliable but striaght foward enough to work .
id have steam comming from my ears if id just threw £500 at a boiler to no avail and definitly wouldnt be backing up the engineer that made me spend that amount of money for nothing.

Ray

thanks for your advice ray

i know what your saying about the £500 but i seem to attract faluts that cant be solved it happens to every car i buy lol ................................ang on or am i just a mug (probally)

anyway you learn by your mistakes as they say so ill give BG a ring on monday and see if they can get to the bottom of it.

 

[simond]

We just like the idea of BG getting all the easy jobs, all for a fixed fee

 

[ifihadahammer]

fixed price BG repair is definitly the best option.
what they can do thats diffrent is come out, check what the fault is and what could possibly be the cause. order up as many parts as they want, come back the next day and see what parts required and send the rest back.The repair will also come with a warrenty. In Scotland they even do the repair at £100 so long as you take a minimum contract for the year which works out a wee bit more than £250 but least for the next year your covered.

i dont find alphas very reliable but striaght foward enough to work .
id have steam comming from my ears if id just threw £500 at a boiler to no avail and definitly wouldnt be backing up the engineer that made me spend that amount of money for nothing.

Ray

thanks for your advice ray

i know what your saying about the £500 but i seem to attract faluts that cant be solved it happens to every car i buy lol ................................ang on or am i just a mug (probally)

anyway you learn by your mistakes as they say so ill give BG a ring on monday and see if they can get to the bottom of it.

he was back today and after some advice from alpha and some poking with a screwdriver he thinks it maybe the pump and he has a universal pump head which hes going to put on and see if it works and i don't have to pay for it unless it works.......................so 1 up for the little guy i know its cost alot but the bloke has been back to my house about 10 times and is not charging me anymore now cos hes as ****ed as i am with it he just wants to solve it now..................what i find mind numbing is that so called alpha technicians cant solve this problem which is what im most fed up with they all say different things (except for today they both said flow problems) but the water is as clean as tap water so now they think the pump is the problem does this sound feasable to you guys?

 

[Ray84]

it could be feasable but to be honest i dont think it will be, a blocked or restricted main heat exchangers probably more likely going to cause a flow/circulation problem but its worth trying.
I wouldnt have any confidence in the engineer though, i know hes trying his best and feels embaressed taking anymore money off you but if it is a faulty pump do you know why he doubted the diverter valve and why alpha said the main pcb could be faulty? at least he was kind of on the right lines when he put in a cleanser, let him try the pump. if it does no good tell him you'll leave it a few days before you contact him making it look like your giving it a chance but in the meanwhile get BG out, if its not fixed they wont take money from you before you phone the engineer back

Ray

 

[ifihadahammer]

it could be feasable but to be honest i dont think it will be, a blocked or restricted main heat exchangers probably more likely going to cause a flow/circulation problem but its worth trying.
I wouldnt have any confidence in the engineer though, i know hes trying his best and feels embaressed taking anymore money off you but if it is a faulty pump do you know why he doubted the diverter valve and why alpha said the main pcb could be faulty? at least he was kind of on the right lines when he put in a cleanser, let him try the pump. if it does no good tell him you'll leave it a few days before you contact him making it look like your giving it a chance but in the meanwhile get BG out, if its not fixed they wont take money from you before you phone the engineer back

Ray

he changed the pump and cleaned the flame supervision sensor/electrode and it has been working fine (ive got a horrible feeling it was the sensor all along ) but yesterday it went off and the green light was flashing (it always been red before) but when i put it on the 24hours it fired up straight away and has stayed on all night

can anyone tell me what a flashing green light indicates?