FAO Engineers Only

Gas2Air · 18 Mar 2006

Advice needed really before fitting a new gas valve. Not come across this fault before.

Called out last night to 30 year old Glowworm Spacesaver 38 B/F GC. 4131531. Pilot had gone out.

As you may know this boiler utilises a Maclaren UK 48 RB gas valve approx 9 years old.

On selecting pilot on the push valve and igniting, the pilot lights a lovely blue enveloping TC. When released the flame doesn't go out, but reduces to a small ball of light on the injector, passing gas valve?

However when in this state and the gas valve knob is turned to ON, the pilot re-establishes. Hmmm.

Now we have a a working pilot, gas valve set to burner ON. When the blr stat is operated the pilot cuts out immediately.

I do suspect the valve myself, anyone had any similar fault?

meldrew's_mate · 18 Mar 2006

Definitely a gas valve problem IMO. The flap which shuts off the main gas flow is sticking slightly open which is maintaining the pilot. When the main solenoid energises the pressure to the pilot (and the burner) drops to a very low level which causes flame out on the pilot.
It also sounds like this valve is passing permanently so could give rise to a dangerous condition in the boiler combustion chamber. This would be deemed ID and should be capped-off until the gas valve can be replaced.

PS I'm not an engineer, I'm a Registered Gas Installer, or fitter, or a heating technician. Proper engineers don't get their hands dirty, and calling gas fitters "engineers" is similar to calling A & E nurses "surgeons"

pierrot · 19 Mar 2006

meldrew's_mate said:
Definitely a gas valve problem IMO. The flap which shuts off the main gas flow is sticking slightly open which is maintaining the pilot. When the main solenoid energises the pressure to the pilot (and the burner) drops to a very low level which causes flame out on the pilot.
It also sounds like this valve is passing permanently so could give rise to a dangerous condition in the boiler combustion chamber. This would be deemed ID and should be capped-off until the gas valve can be replaced.

PS I'm not an engineer, I'm a Registered Gas Installer, or fitter, or a heating technician. Proper engineers don't get their hands dirty, and calling gas fitters "engineers" is similar to calling A & E nurses "surgeons"

wot e sez

Slogger · 19 Mar 2006

aye wot he said

Softus · 19 Mar 2006

meldrew's_mate said:
Proper engineers don't get their hands dirty...

I couldn't agree less.

corgiman · 19 Mar 2006

oh dear here we go again

fight fight

I am not an engineer I am a plumber. and have been for 25 years and proud of it

Softus · 19 Mar 2006

corgiman said:
fight fight

I hardly think that two opposing opinions, expressed in writing, on a members' forum on t'Internet constitutes a fight.

corgiman said:
I am not an engineer I am a plumber. and have been for 25 years and proud of it

Most plumbers are engineers; they're simply ones who specialise in plumbing. Some plumbers are not so skilled - in fact some can't be trusted to use a toilet, let alone install one.

Nige F · 19 Mar 2006

Softus said:
corgiman said:

fight fight

Click to expand...

Some plumbers are not so skilled - in fact some can't be trusted to use a toilet, let alone install one.

That`s why they use basins and F+E cisterns...I allways sit on customers WC to avoid splashes and noise

Then I tell them that I had to flush to test for undue water consumption , and blame "2Jags"

Moz · 19 Mar 2006

sometimes a very low f/e needs a top up ..lol

ferox have brought out a new product the urine /masker

billplumb · 25 Mar 2006

pilot goes out on 30 year old boiler got to be thermocouple

fitz1 · 25 Mar 2006

pilot goes out on 30 yr old boiler , she surely aint old but may be a boiler

bpowell555 · 25 Mar 2006

I like a good fight.

Language use moves on with time, but what about a footballer being a "professional sportsman" when he gets paid to play a game? Equally Isambard Kingdom Brunel was an engineer, so it a Gas Fitter a Tradesman? A BT repair man is a Telecom Engineer. Am I a Programmer or a Software Engineer?

Being an Engineer sounds a bit more what - pretentious or qualified? Skilled or Academic?

Some companies I bet advertise for Engineers because it reassure the customer, and maybe improves staff retention.

But then english is a bastard tongue. If enough people say plumbers are engineers then maybe that's true?

One thing I do know, I could maybe blag myself as a plumber, but I'd have a tougher job calling myself a heating engineer, and keeping a clean conscience............

Softus · 25 Mar 2006

Not all plumbers are engineers, and vice versa. At the risk of repeating myself, the best definition of an engineer, that I've ever heard, was thus:

An engineer can do, for one pound, what any fool could do for ten.

billplumb · 25 Mar 2006

so what does that mean softus errrrr?

Softus · 26 Mar 2006

It turns out that my attempted quote was correct, in essence, but a bit distorted.

A brief Google reveals several references to the 'fact' that this was a definition coined by the writer Nevil Shute, which ran as follows:

"An engineer is someone who can do for ten shillings what any fool can do for a pound"
-Nevil Shute in "Slide Rule: The Autobiography of an Engineer"

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