Replaced my boiler pump.....looking for advice

[jimmies]

I have a 2.5 year old Vaillant ecotec pro 24 - and three days ago the pump went, leaking water and sounding like bearings were shot. I called out an emergency heating guy and £210 pounds later(callout + 2 hours !!!!) he told me what I already knew - that I needed a new pump. He went away and quoted me £160+ vat for the pump and £60 to fit it. I thought that it sounded alittle high so I looked online on found lots of places doing the pump for between £90 and £110 inc vat.

Feeling that this guy was out to fleece me and being ok with this sort of thing I bought the pump myself and fitted it. The pump I bought seems to be the one for the ecotec plus (it has 5 contacts on the plug....the pro has 3) - but it said it was ok for the ecotec pro 24. I was hoping to just change the head but the screws are a different size that bolt the head to the plastic bit which connects to the pipes. So I had to completely remove the pump which was easy enough by taking it slowly.

Once the pump was in I filled the boiler to 1.5bar....no leaks and I powered it up. All seems fine and I have hot water and rads. The question I have is that is there anything else I should do with regards this installation to make sure the boiler is happy?

thanks in advance

 

[mogget]

If you drained the system to change the pump, you might (should) add inhibitor to the water.

 

[HERTS P&D]

Did you replace the inhibitor?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sentinel-...arden_Hearing_Cooling_Air&hash=item257b9206cf

Andy

 

[mogget]

LOL, crossing posts again

 

[jimmies]

to be honest .....I just needed to get the pump in as I had not heating/water and my house has been freezing

With regards to x100 - is this just added to the water? How/where exactly (i'm sure this is a silly question) - I'd be happy to open it up again as it was pretty simple.

 

[mogget]

You add the concentrate through a radiator bleed valve. You have to drain some water from the heating, to make space. Then add the inhibitor to an upstairs radiator. Run the heating for a bit to mix it all up and you're done.

If you're using the non-concentrate (standard) inhibitor, you take a blanking plug out of an upstairs radiator and add it there.

 

[jimmies]

cheers - thought it would be pretty simple

one question I do have is - my old pump was a single speed and the one I replaced it with is variable/two speed. Will this cause any issues and is there anything I need to do to make sure it is a the correct speed. The new one has 5 wires that plug into the PCB where as the old one had three

 

[picasso]

Callout + two hours to diagnose a faulty pump! Was his guide dog behaving its self, can't believe it took him two hours or maybe he was just taking the ####

 

[jimmies]

he came in the house....looked at the leak...said " I need to get my torch to see in the boiler"......back five mins later.....he looks around the boiler for 15 mins " I need to go get my spanner to check the pipes.....out to van again.....comes back and checks pipes..... " i need to get my allan keys to remove pump head"

Why an engineer would not bring a small tool bag into a house in the first instance I don't know. His game was obvious from the start. He took around 70-80 mins in total but charged in hour lumps. There was no way I was using him to fit the pump if I had any choice at all

 

[Agile]

Well you had the option and probably asked in advance how much he would charge and accepted it. Probably out of office hours visit too.

I would have charged about £84 plus about £160 for the correct pump as they are expensive!

 

[Charnwood]

lots of places doing the pump for between £90 and £110 inc vat.

Fot the wuck is so special about this pump, 24 carat gold lined?

 

[jimmies]

lots of places doing the pump for between £90 and £110 inc vat.

Fot the wuck is so special about this pump, 24 carat gold lined?

I agree £100 is alot......but he wanted to charge £160+vat - he said to me that was his cost to him......he needs to change his supplier if he was telling the truth

 

[jimmies]

Well you had the option and probably asked in advance how much he would charge and accepted it. Probably out of office hours visit too.

I would have charged about £84 plus about £160 for the correct pump as they are expensive![/quote

true I did know the rate at the start - but he was taking the pee with his go slow routine. £160 is ALOT for the pump for this boiler. I got a new one delivered for £95....plus all I actually needed was the head

 

[Tibbot]

Did he use menaces? If not, even if his pump price is £1.6m, how can you be fleeced when given the option of saying no?

 

[jimmies]

Did he use menaces? If not, even if his pump price is £1.6m, how can you be fleeced when given the option of saying no?

All's well that end's well - as you are right I had the option to say no and I took it. But he did 'get me' on the callout performance of his.

Somebody with less confidence might have just also have paid his price for the pump and fitting on top on the callout bill. I'm sure plenty of people have paid well over the odds for fixes on things like this