biasi s24 1999 not firing up.

[imp75]

good evening

heres hoping you can help me avoid getting ripped off.

last week the boiler packed up completely.

until 3 months ago the system worked as it should. 3 months ago the hot water wouldnt come through without the ch being on, not a major issue so we left it. although the overflow (to the ouitside) started to have a contant dribble.

On friday even the central heating refused to work and therefore we have now got no radiators nor water. coincidently the overflow dribble stopped on friday too.

The gas tap is on, the water pressure is now steady at 1.5bar, the 'on' light is contant steady green, the red lamp on right is NOT illuminated. The boiler doesnt fire up when switched from 'off' to either the timer or constant, whether the setting is on winter or summer settings.

Have home emergency insurance, so thought this would be fixed for free. Wrong!

I rang homeserve who sent out an engineer, he took the front off and i heard him somehow manage to make it fire up. but then it stopped! He checked the pump, which worked slowly and looked at the heat exchanger. Turns out theyre sludged up. he recommedned a powerflush.

Powerflush has been done today and still doesnt work. Now that the powerflush has been done the pump and exchangers should be a bit cleaner and work better i guess.

As the boiler fired up when the engineer was in, im hoping this is due to a relay or something. i am totally inexperienced with this kinda thing and dont want to be ripped off by unscrupulous engineer selling me a new pump, pcb, heat exchangers etc when it may be just a simple cleaning/ maintennance job. The homeserve engineer has already 'offered' to replace the pump for £344!!!

Can anyone suggest easy/cheap fix.

Many thanks iain

 

[jackecole]

can you hear anything run or trying to run ie pump / fan when boiler is operated ??

 

[compheat]

if the boiler fires up when the combustion cover is removed but will not fire up when it is in position, then its a problem with the air pressure switch or venturi tubes ect.
Agile will tell you, he likes these boilers.

 

[DP]

Can you hear the fan running?
Is the power to the boiler switched on?
This is a combi boiler, how was it power flushed?
While the chemicals (if these were used) would clean out the system, boiler pump unlikely to be cleaned as it would not be subjected to water flow (if boiler powerflushed)

 

[imp75]

can you hear anything run or trying to run ie pump / fan when boiler is operated ??

sounds like the fan may be running when switched on as there is a gentle hum from behind the boiler casing. its just not firing up!

 

[imp75]

if the boiler fires up when the combustion cover is removed but will not fire up when it is in position, then its a problem with the air pressure switch or venturi tubes ect.
Agile will tell you, he likes these boilers.

im not sureif the combustion cover was removed as i wasnt in the room but it def fired up for a short while. hopefully Agile will shed some light on this problem - seen a few posts when looking for a solution and he does indeed sound very knowledgable.

 

[imp75]

Can you hear the fan running?
Is the power to the boiler switched on?
This is a combi boiler, how was it power flushed?
While the chemicals (if these were used) would clean out the system, boiler pump unlikely to be cleaned as it would not be subjected to water flow (if boiler powerflushed)

power is on, sorry, not sure how it was flushed but the unit used looked like a little daleck, lol, there were two lots of chem used - a cleaner and inhibitor - bottle are in my wheelie bin. the plumber did say that he flushed the rads and finally did the boiler separately. all in, it took three hours. there are 7 rads in the house.

 

[Agile]

I dont know what arrangement you had with the person doing the power flushing but if it had been me I would have told him that I wanted the system and boiler cleaned AND the boiler left working.

I really dont understand how anyone can get paid for power flushing and walk away leaving the boiler not working.

I dont know why its not working. I have not seen it!

The pump may not be turning but it does need to be properly diagnosed. The Homeserve engineer should be reported to his employers for wanting to charge over £344. The pump probably costs about £150 ( less for head ) and many are available as a generic pump for about £75 or any generic 1" pump can be used at about £85. As the pump takes about 30 min to change thats a real rip off. I doubt he is allowed to offer that rip off!

Very unfortunately all these problems and expense have arisen because you ignored the obvious fault of the PRV dripping constantly.

Tony

 

[DP]

OP, now go stand in the corner. And no sniggering else you will be sent to your room.

Talk to friends and relatives and see if you can get someone who knows what they are doing instead of changing parts.

 

[imp75]

I dont know what arrangement you had with the person doing the power flushing but if it had been me I would have told him that I wanted the system and boiler cleaned AND the boiler left working.........


.......Very unfortunately all these problems and expense have arisen because you ignored the obvious fault of the PRV dripping constantly.

Tony

i was told by homeserve to get it flushed and then they would return to do the boiler - i wasnt bothered about the plumber fixing the boiler cos homeserve were supposed to return to fix it. when i informed the insurance company that the flush had been done they then countered that the pump is not covered cos its not working due to being left to sludge up! if they had told me that in the first place then i wouldve gotten someone out to powerflush the system and to fix the boiler as well. BAS**RDS.

as for cost of pump - i thought that was TOO EXPENSIVE so thank you for confirming that.

procrastination always costs more than time

 

[imp75]

OP, now go stand in the corner. And no sniggering else you will be sent to your room.

Talk to friends and relatives and see if you can get someone who knows what they are doing instead of changing parts.

i just put my dunce hat on!!

 

[Agile]

If you want to have a fiddle yourself then look at FAQ about spinning the pump.

Tony