Hi,
I need help to discover whether my boiler has been messed up by a botched job or if it's a case of one thing happens, then something else goes.
Here's the situation. I moved into my first flat in April. Soon found a radiator leak which was repaired. That guy was excellent and explained everything. He found that the last people had repaired a lot of stuff with silicon and had left the water flowing constantly through the system to keep the pressure up. He fixed the leak, got me a new radiator and all was well.
Then, he wasn't available when i noticed the pressure was down so I called another firm. This time, the slow leak was repaired - the emergency valve was siliconed so that was replaced.
Over that same weekend, the pressure was down more and water was dripping. They came back (for free) and said I needed new isolation valves on flow and returns. I thought that was reasonable because there was a lot of silicon on one.
So, for two weeks, I filled it once every other day to keep pressure up & kept a bowl to collect the dripping water, as advised. They returned & fitted the valves Wednesday. That guy said they had also 'fixed a kink' in a pipe. I said I was worried b/c the fillpoint screwhead is soft. The advice was not to worry because you normally only use it once a year and just get a check up every autumn.
5 hours later, I went to turn the heat on and it didn't work. There was no hot water. The pressure was up to 3. I checked, and it appeared he'd left the water running in slightly, so I turned the screw some more to close it. I used the emergency valve to decrease the pressure back to 1 bar. I returned almost 5 more hours later and it was back up to 3 bars. And no heat or hot water. I turned it to continuous heat to see if that did anything (I'd turned it off thinking that was safer).
I rang them the next day and they sent someone while I was at work. When I returned, there was no note, no phone call, nothing (as promised). There was water soaking the receipts and the history I'd left. And still no heat or hot water. And the pressure was up to 2.
This morning, I phoned again and they are saying I need a new circuitboard. Is this randomly breaking at the same time? Or does it have to do with the pressure blowing it or something? They haven't mentioned the fact that water must still be getting in from somewhere if the pressure is rising even when the heat is off. I'm still waiting for the return phone call that was meant to come over 30 minutes ago.
When I turn on the hot water, it may work for 30 seconds or less and the boiler makes noises - like a fan that's grinding.
The joint with a kink that the one guy said he fixed has a bit of water around the knobs. That happens to be going to one of the valves he put in, which goes to a big green thing that may be a motor. That had a bit of water too.
So now I'm out £250, still waiting to hear back on how much the circuitboard is, and my trusted engineer can come back on Monday morning. I want to get the trusted engineer in, regardless, on Monday.
What I don't know is whether this is normal or if I'm being taken for a ride. On one hand, I think they've not done any of this properly and have actually broken it themselves. On the other hand, is it plausible for this all to occur? I do understand it's an old boiler but have been told,even by two of these engineers, that it'll work another few years.
Advice appreciated.
Kind regards,
Lisa
I need help to discover whether my boiler has been messed up by a botched job or if it's a case of one thing happens, then something else goes.
Here's the situation. I moved into my first flat in April. Soon found a radiator leak which was repaired. That guy was excellent and explained everything. He found that the last people had repaired a lot of stuff with silicon and had left the water flowing constantly through the system to keep the pressure up. He fixed the leak, got me a new radiator and all was well.
Then, he wasn't available when i noticed the pressure was down so I called another firm. This time, the slow leak was repaired - the emergency valve was siliconed so that was replaced.
Over that same weekend, the pressure was down more and water was dripping. They came back (for free) and said I needed new isolation valves on flow and returns. I thought that was reasonable because there was a lot of silicon on one.
So, for two weeks, I filled it once every other day to keep pressure up & kept a bowl to collect the dripping water, as advised. They returned & fitted the valves Wednesday. That guy said they had also 'fixed a kink' in a pipe. I said I was worried b/c the fillpoint screwhead is soft. The advice was not to worry because you normally only use it once a year and just get a check up every autumn.
5 hours later, I went to turn the heat on and it didn't work. There was no hot water. The pressure was up to 3. I checked, and it appeared he'd left the water running in slightly, so I turned the screw some more to close it. I used the emergency valve to decrease the pressure back to 1 bar. I returned almost 5 more hours later and it was back up to 3 bars. And no heat or hot water. I turned it to continuous heat to see if that did anything (I'd turned it off thinking that was safer).
I rang them the next day and they sent someone while I was at work. When I returned, there was no note, no phone call, nothing (as promised). There was water soaking the receipts and the history I'd left. And still no heat or hot water. And the pressure was up to 2.
This morning, I phoned again and they are saying I need a new circuitboard. Is this randomly breaking at the same time? Or does it have to do with the pressure blowing it or something? They haven't mentioned the fact that water must still be getting in from somewhere if the pressure is rising even when the heat is off. I'm still waiting for the return phone call that was meant to come over 30 minutes ago.
When I turn on the hot water, it may work for 30 seconds or less and the boiler makes noises - like a fan that's grinding.
The joint with a kink that the one guy said he fixed has a bit of water around the knobs. That happens to be going to one of the valves he put in, which goes to a big green thing that may be a motor. That had a bit of water too.
So now I'm out £250, still waiting to hear back on how much the circuitboard is, and my trusted engineer can come back on Monday morning. I want to get the trusted engineer in, regardless, on Monday.
What I don't know is whether this is normal or if I'm being taken for a ride. On one hand, I think they've not done any of this properly and have actually broken it themselves. On the other hand, is it plausible for this all to occur? I do understand it's an old boiler but have been told,even by two of these engineers, that it'll work another few years.
Advice appreciated.
Kind regards,
Lisa