Hi
In November I moved home and become the (not so proud) owner of a Thorn EMI Apollo 30/50B. It seems as if the boiler may have been fitted when the house was built (c 1995). I have no idea whether the boiler was serviced previously.
The boiler seemed to work, but generally the level of heat output was poor with some of the the radiators being tepid to the touch when the room thermostat was set at 25. I suspected sludge as some of the radiators were cold at the bottom.
I transferred my BG HomeCare 200 agreement to the new property and got an inspection on the boiler in December. The engineer advised sludge in the system and said that as a result of this the level of cover provided would be downgraded to HomeCare 100 until the system was flushed. He also mentioned that the flue should be higher up the wall than it is according to current regulations.
Without his "BG hat on" he told me that he would recommend I cancel my policy because HomeCare 100 wouldn't cover me for the heat exchanger and if anything was to go on the boiler it would be that. He suggested I get the system flushed and then apply for HomeService 200 again.
With his hat back on we went through the usual "have you thought about changing your system?" and did the obligatory calls to BG Sales who quoted £7,000 for combi, rads, pipework and shower. (It's a 3-bed detached with 7 radiators.) I'd like a combi in the future but having just moved I can't afford to change the system for a couple of years.
I duly cancelled the HomeCare 100 and got a plumber (not CORGI) coming to flush the system manually the week after next. No CORGI plumbers locally were interested in just doing a flush. They were only interested if they were doing it as part of fitting a combi.
Since the high winds have started (which was after BG's visit) the pilot light keeps going out. Sometimes I'm lighting it a dozen times a day. Once lit, it stays on whilst the boiler fires up and gets the house to temperature (or at least what it thinks is temperature) and then goes out. I've never had this problem with previous boilers when it was windy. Is this something that is easily remedied or am I looking at a new boiler?
The boiler has episodes of rather noisy kettling and sometimes you can hear water falling back down the pipes when temperature is reached.
I've tried to give as good a description of the system and its problems as I can. Any advice appreciated. Thanks.
In November I moved home and become the (not so proud) owner of a Thorn EMI Apollo 30/50B. It seems as if the boiler may have been fitted when the house was built (c 1995). I have no idea whether the boiler was serviced previously.
The boiler seemed to work, but generally the level of heat output was poor with some of the the radiators being tepid to the touch when the room thermostat was set at 25. I suspected sludge as some of the radiators were cold at the bottom.
I transferred my BG HomeCare 200 agreement to the new property and got an inspection on the boiler in December. The engineer advised sludge in the system and said that as a result of this the level of cover provided would be downgraded to HomeCare 100 until the system was flushed. He also mentioned that the flue should be higher up the wall than it is according to current regulations.
Without his "BG hat on" he told me that he would recommend I cancel my policy because HomeCare 100 wouldn't cover me for the heat exchanger and if anything was to go on the boiler it would be that. He suggested I get the system flushed and then apply for HomeService 200 again.
With his hat back on we went through the usual "have you thought about changing your system?" and did the obligatory calls to BG Sales who quoted £7,000 for combi, rads, pipework and shower. (It's a 3-bed detached with 7 radiators.) I'd like a combi in the future but having just moved I can't afford to change the system for a couple of years.
I duly cancelled the HomeCare 100 and got a plumber (not CORGI) coming to flush the system manually the week after next. No CORGI plumbers locally were interested in just doing a flush. They were only interested if they were doing it as part of fitting a combi.
Since the high winds have started (which was after BG's visit) the pilot light keeps going out. Sometimes I'm lighting it a dozen times a day. Once lit, it stays on whilst the boiler fires up and gets the house to temperature (or at least what it thinks is temperature) and then goes out. I've never had this problem with previous boilers when it was windy. Is this something that is easily remedied or am I looking at a new boiler?
The boiler has episodes of rather noisy kettling and sometimes you can hear water falling back down the pipes when temperature is reached.
I've tried to give as good a description of the system and its problems as I can. Any advice appreciated. Thanks.
