Halstead Boiler - hotwater problem

mrM · 27 Sep 2005

Hi, I have Halstead Finest Boiler and certainly replaced a leaking divertor value on it and Automatic Air Vent, unfortunately the hot water isn\\\'t very hot now and then every couple minutes or so trips out - centeral heating is fine. I have checked the diephram and this also fine. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Agile · 27 Sep 2005

Its not very clear to me what you are trying to say.

You should have said why you replaced the diverter.

Perhaps the DHW HE is full of debris?

Tony

ChrisR · 27 Sep 2005

Should that say "recently"?!

Is the flow switch (on the small end of the diverter valve) operating fully and smartly when the hw is turned on?

is the cap loose on the auto air vent?

Is it OK on CH?

mrM · 27 Sep 2005

My typing skills are as good as my plumbing skills ........ apologises.
Yes, it should say "recently". I replaced the divertor value because it was leaking water from the central heating systems and hence loss in pressure and so on....... I actually had the corgi boiler repair man have a look at it when he was replacing the AAV and he also advised that it needed replacing, he was going to charge quite a bit and hence me doing it my self.

The flow switch i.e the pin that goes into the micro switch appears to be working fine. I haven't checked the AAV but can do, I do remember the boiler repair man not having a Halstead Finest AAV and put a BOSH AAV in instead ? could this cause the problem.

I get luke warm water and the same symptoms when CH is on.

Sorry but not sure what "DHW HE" means.

There certainly was not of debris - red rusty bits that came out of the old divertor value.

Many thanks for the response to my original problem.

ChrisR · 27 Sep 2005

I wouldn't worry about Bosch bits being not as good as Halstead bits.

Go with Tony, take the dhwhe - domestic hot water heat exchanger -out, which is quite easy. If the primary(boiler) side is full of black stuff then so's your whole system. Cleaning the h/e will help your hot water but you have choices like getting the whole system clean or become good at whipping out the dhwhe. The main h/e will be sludgy too, which will cost you efficiency.

The secondary side may have limescale in it (from hard water).

I/we usually use nasty chemicals but I recently tried "Scale Away" domestic iron descaler which worked surprisingly well. Get 2 or 3 packets and pour it in the dhwhe hot and strong, and wait until it stops fizzing.

Would recommend new "O" rings

mrM · 27 Sep 2005

Many thanks for your advise on this Chris.

I assume that DHW HE is the bit directly under the diverter ? Is the CH HE the same as the DHW HE and divertor switches the water flow from the CH to HW, what I am trying to say is that if the CH is very hot implying that the water in it is very hot, doesn't this imply that the HE is working correctly and the problem may lie else where ?

The old diverter appears to have a lot of black bits in it.

Occassionaly the HW ignition switch fails to ignite, however this is once in a blue moon. Is it a costly activity the entire system treated to get rid of all sludge and debris ?

ChrisR · 27 Sep 2005

You NEED the instructions, which are on the Halstead site.

"Is the CH HE the same as the DHW HE "

The gas to water H/e is common, and goes up to 80ºC+

The CH HE is the radiators!

"entire system treated "
Properly yes, needs a powerflush machine etc. Do a search on "powerflush" . You can put chemical in for a week or two;drain, refill, repeat... and put corrosion inhibitor in, which will help.

Feel your rads in the middle at the bottom when the heating's been on long enough to heat thoroughly. If any are COOL you have a lot of sludge in the rads and it would be worth clearing.

mrM · 11 Oct 2005

ChrisR said:
You NEED the instructions, which are on the Halstead

site.

"Is the CH HE the same as the DHW HE "

The gas to water H/e is common, and goes up to 80ºC+

The CH HE is the radiators!

"entire system treated "
Properly yes, needs a powerflush machine etc. Do a search on "powerflush" . You can put chemical in for a week or two;drain, refill, repeat... and put corrosion inhibitor in, which will help.

Feel your rads in the middle at the bottom when the heating's been on long enough to heat thoroughly. If any are COOL you have a lot of sludge in the rads and it would be worth clearing.

Chris/Agile ,

Apologies for not getting back to you sooner, however it took me a little while to build enough confidence to actually get around to do it. The upshot is that I took your advise and took out the DHWHE and did the descaling - there was lots and lots of black stuff in it and not much scale. Once it had soaked for a little while I rinsed and reinstalled and low and behold lots of lovely hot water.

Once again many thanks for your advise and help on this.

meldrew's_mate · 11 Oct 2005

If you got lots of black sludge out of the DHW HE there'll be plenty more in the system waiting to take its place. Do a full powerflush and refill to make your success last.

Has anyone tried the magnetic sludge filters out there yet (Magnaclean

)

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Halstead Boiler - hotwater problem

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