Heatline C24 Heat exchanger unable to remove

[bromleybob]

Hi,
I have a 6 year old Heatline C24 boiler. It has developed a problem with DHW going hot then cold then hot. Central heating is OK. Gas engineer came to fix it and after various tests felt it was HE plate/Secondary heat exchanger. He tried to remove it, but one of the bolts was stuck, after a lot of trying and no luck, bolt is now worn smooth.

His prognosis was that to remove it and clean it will now take several hours, as he needs to remove pump and various other parts to remove HE and he would charge £300-£400! As boiler is 6 years old he suggested better to replace at cost of £1,400+.

Is it possible to clean the HE insitu, or other suggestions on how to remove it and expected cost?

Many thanks for any advice

We are in East London.

 

[ljrgas]

i had the same problem once i managed to drill it out

did tell the customer to sign a disclamer though

 

[petit_pablo]

So he rouned off the bolt and now he wants to charge you more to fix it Brilliant

 

[Whitespirit66]

Plenty of sockets out there designed for removing rounded nuts and bolts. Use one of the undamaged bolts to get the correctly sized tool. Lot cheaper than £1400.

Eg.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Irwin-Bolt-Grip-Remover-394001/dp/B0000CCXVZ

 

[neiltheplumber]

Easy to remove plate hex on theses boilers, ten min job - apart from bolt issue! I use sulphampic acid to clean, leave to fizz for ten mins!

 

[Happyplumber]

open the hot and cold pipe and connect the descaling pump straight in,there is not need to mess about with the plate heat exchanger at all

 

[Agile]

With the right drill the bolt can be drilled out!

I would be charging more like £190 though!

Tony

 

[bromleybob]

Thanks for all the replies.

I have tried phoning a few local heating engineers. Most don't seem to want to take on the problem, those that do want to change the heat exchanger at a cost of £120 for part, plus labour (non committal on how long, as do not know how hard it will be to get bolt out).

Problem is it is HE is behind the pump, so hard to get a drill in without taking parts out and risking leaks.

I like the sound of the flushing idea, but people I have rung didn't seem to want to know. They felt it may not clean it efficiently enough. More opinions on this gratefully received. How much should this cost?

This hot, cold, hot problem seems common on C24 and sometimes changing HE doesn't seem to cure it. So concerned I have to shell out £200+ to get this thing changed and then I still have problem.

Boiler has been quite reliable (only diverter changed in 6 years), so would like to get it repaired, but unless there is a cheap solution feel I may just be throwing money away and have to bite bullet on £1,400

Plumber also said system did not have inhibitor in (probably since the diverter was changed 2 years ago!).

Thanks again Bob

 

[Agile]

I would normally clean the plate out of the boiler and usually for £136 when it comes out normally.

Extra £54 is for complication of drilling it out. Removing the pump and veloute is not a big problem although always when reassembling there is always a slight risk of something leaking but that's fairly rare when the seals are properly cleaned.

Its a not an uncommon boiler repair for an engineer but you mentioned plumbers whose skills and interest are often limited!

Tony

 

[Whitespirit66]

Its a not an uncommon boiler repair for an engineer but you mentioned plumbers whose skills and interest are often limited!

I've also met plenty of alleged 'engineers' over the years who have definitely been lacking in the skills and interest departments. Vice versa with the plumbers - more than a few highly skilled, dedicated ones.

No one discipline has the monopoly on competence. Not sure everyone can be 'tarred'.