Please help! My boiler sounds like its going to explode!

[Cathryn1976]

I was woken at 4am by the worst noise - it turned out to be my boiler. I turned it off, reset it, then turned on again. I guess it had been running for about 15 min before it first went, judging by the temp of the rads. It fired up, ran for about fifteen secs, then made knocking sounds, then cut out then made the loudest gurgling sound like gallons of water swishing around the very top part of the boiler by the flue. Its a combi boiler, about ten years old i guess, was serviced a couple of years ago. Ill bleed the rads when i get in from work but what else could it be? Its not the water pressure = thats fine, its on 1.5 bar.

 

[Jackrae]

Get it serviced ! That might not sound very constructive but there are numerous possible causes and speculation by well-meaning contributors isn't really going to help.

 

[Cathryn1976]

Thats down to my landlord but i need something to get it working right now. Ideas, at least? What to expect etc. Could it be air in the system?

 

[Jackrae]

This problem is clearly your landlord's responsibility and you need to express the urgency and danger to his tenants - for whom he has a legal responsibility.

Within the terms of your tenancy agreement you may well find out that if you start mucking about with the building systems you will be held responsible for the failure and/or damage - whether or not you actually caused it.

 

[Agile]

I was woken at 4am by the worst noise - it turned out to be my boiler.

But we now learn that it is not your boiler at all but your landlord's!

But as said its not your responsibility and you are not qualified to work on gas boilers.

So the obvious solution is to advice the landlord and agent so they can get it repaired promptly.

You had all day to advise them but did nothing until this evening when you posted here. Its normal to hope that an engineer can come the next day. A few will come the same day but only if advised reasonably early.

I do hope you have a gas safety inspection certificate?

Tony

 

[Scarum]

"..., was serviced a couple of years ago."

Is it a legal requirement that a landlord should service a tenant's boiler once a year?[/quote]

 

[gas112]

No its not a requirement that it should be serviced its a requirement that it should be checked for safety every year two completely separate things

 

[Cathryn1976]

Well, firstly, I never said I was going to work on it. Id just like an idea of whether it's something easily remedied. I wouldnt bother my landlord if it was something as straightforward as topping up the system.
As for stating that i 'had all day to advise them' - no, I didnt. I was just finishing a 12 hour shift when i posted this during most of which, my landlord was unreachable. I was trying to find out whether it was something that merited bothering him.
As i stated, I just wanted some advice about what the problem could be but thanks for the judgemental, accusatory response. Really helpful. You're an ass.

 

[cjard]

Do try to see the sentiment behind the words. Your post was rather scant on detail and was posted on a "Do it yourself" forum, but this is one thing that you really mustn't do yourself, not only for the legal/gas safe reasons, but because it's not your job, appliance or responsibility. I wouldn't even fill the system up if you hadn't been shown how and given permission to do so (this is dispute prevention as landlords can b funny creatures)
First call should be to the landlord, and if no resolution, second call should be to the landlord advising him that third call will be to a gas safe engineer and you'll be deducting the fee from the rent.
Alternatively, as hot water is a basic sanitary/habitation requirement the failure renders the house uninhabitable if the situation persists for an extended period, you've a right to alternative accommodation at the landlord's [insurance company's] expense