Powermax 155x – Pump replacement - drain blocked URGENT

[Al_Fox]

Pretty urgent as there’s no heating and hot water!

I have an open vented Powermax 155x boiler. It’s under a Potterton maintenance contract and has stopped working. The Potterton engineer say that it’s unrepairable because the pump needs replacing and the drain at the bottom of the boiler is blocked with sludge. If he unblocks it 150 litres of water with come through the house. I’m not convinced…

If it’s the hot water heat exchanger pump it’s on a separate loop that looks like it can be isolated.

If it’s the central heating pump, can’t the heat store be almost completed drained via a radiator drain?

Could the sludge block be cleared by back filling it from the mains water via the drain?

Any solutions or comments?

 

[nickso]

Can't remember what it looks like inside as I generally avoid them but if it's blocked there will be some way round it.

The problem you have is manufacturers agents often won't do anything out of the ordinary to fix things either because they aren't allowed to or just can't because they are poor engineers.

 

[ianmcd]

worst case scenario use a freezer kit but could be easily sorted

 

[andytw]

If its a pump, and I'd keep an open mind on that, then they should have isolating valves to allow the pumps to be swapped.
Can you say exactly what is happenening.
When the HW LED is on, does it fire up and get hot ?

 

[screech]

If it's the one with a pump in front of the sump at the bottom then it doesn't have pump valves and yes the system can be drained to replace either pump from any drain point. The pump valves on these are garbage and always leak.

 

[andytw]

Still a bit sceptical about this 'pump' issue. The OP says he has no hot water and no heating. If the CH pump was the issue then he would still have DHW and vice versa.