Problems with my boilermate II, and how to descale it ?

[Dazza322]

Hi,
I am considering descaling my Boilermate II myself. I have already had this descaled once about 2 years ago and at that point also fitted a water softner and after this things are ok, but my gas bills are massive and the green neon stays on all the time and the boiler firing unless i turn the boilermate thermostat down to about halfway, since then the bills are still massive and the hot water although better not great, but recently the water hasn't been hot for two long before it starts cooling down. The heating i'd say is not perfect either as one minute the the house is cold and the next it's sweating in there. and i have changed the thermostat in the hall to a digital one. But anyway i'm hoping another descale might improve the heating of hot water and more of it ? The boilermate is attached to a suprima boiler and this is set to run at Max as i have been told this before from others.

So two questions...
1, can anyone shed any light on my plight ?
2, if i go ahead with descale, where on boilermate II do i connect the descaler ? what chemicals are best and how much to use ? and what about an inhibitor ? what and how do i get any inhibitor into and around the system ?

Thanks

 

[Dazza322]

Forgot to say about the time of the first descale i also had fitted three oventrop/brawa mixxer valves....

 

[nickso]

why so many?

 

[Dazza322]

The reason i had three was because, when i first had a problem with hot water when i moved into the house i got the tank descaled straight after that i noticed that the water was now running better but running hot/cold in shower, I tried to seek advice about this and both the engineer who descaled and a helpful guy from Gledhill told me to open the valve right open and then close back down 1 1/3 turns, this filed to work. So i called the people back who descaled it and they told me the mixer tap had gone and thus fitted a new one at great cost.....(something like £100 + part & £60 to fit + Vat) Anyway this failed to cure the problem so i called them back and thinking the valve might have been faulty they replaced with another and left..... this never sorted the problem and after inspection the mixer valve they put on looked secondhand so while debating what to do next i was trawling ebay one day and saw a oventrop mixer valve for the boilermate (brand New) and i won it for (get this) the grand sum of £3 + postage. So i promptly paid and i fitted it myself after watching them twice already. Well guess what.....that never fixed the problem.
But one day while standing in the hot/cold shower feeling a bit miffed, i thought i'd try again with the valve, so i opened the valve right up and proceeded to turn it turn a 1/4 each time and then test shower. Finally i got to a point where the water was stable and i could have a decent shower.....

However i had turned the valve down 2 1/3 turns to achive this, So chances are i never needed a mixer valve in the first place.

So i'm sure this issue isn't with the valve.

Sorry for long winded explanaination.....

 

[nickso]

understandably not many takers on this one. ive worked on them a fair bit but live in soft water area so never had the joy of descaling a BM.

phone gledhill...they know.

 

[richieg66]

Hi Dazza322,

did you manage to add inhibitor to your boliermate? Was it an easy job etc?

Thanks

Richard

 

[gas4you]

Boilermate 2's were a complete design disaster

The cold fill is like a hockey stick at the bottom of the cylinder and as such always get blocked so you can't refill after draining the system other than back filling it

 

[nickso]

or running a new cold feed into the drain point.