Bolier Replacement

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Worcestershire
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Our boiler Glow Worm Ultimate packed up a couple of days ago - the pilot valve has stuck shut. The heating guys have ordered a part to fix it for now so just waiting on the part and the cost. It was mentioned that the boiler is old (~20 to 22 years) and it might be worth thinking about replacement.

So, what would the recommendations be based on the following:

3 bed detached built 2000
Double glazed
10 rads
Conventional boiler with HW tank (vented)

I would like to stick with a conventional boiler.

I have looked at some of the boilers for efficiency and it seems my current one is about 78% whereas newer ones are around 90%. Is there a way to determine what this equates to in terms of gas? or are there too many variables. Looking at websites for quotes to replace I see savings of £500 per annum given but cannot find out how they justify that. Prior to the recent hike in gas prices that would equate to about all our gas for the year (HW, hetaing and hob)

Thanks!
 
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I have looked at some of the boilers for efficiency and it seems my current one is about 78% whereas newer ones are around 90%. Is there a way to determine what this equates to in terms of gas?

22% wasted, versus 10% wasted (but the 10% is a minimum figure for a modern boiler), so assess the amount of gas consumed by your boiler in a year, and the cost of 22% versus 10% wasted.

Then keep in mind that modern higher efficiency boilers don't tend to last nearly as long, tend to need more expensive parts, are more difficult to diagnose.

Best advice is keep what you have, just as long as parts remain available - and parts at the moment are easily available, plus the are easy to repair.
 
Well, th guys have been to my dead boiler and changed the gas valve. Unfortunately, that did not sort the problem He rang Glow Worm and they reckoned on a PCB fault. So we are now waiting on a new PCB (7 wire, two fuse - looks like the original board)

The symptoms are that there is the sound of a relay pulling in when the timer is on and there is demand for heat. The pilot valve does not operate and the relay drops out again. This will continue until the supply is rmoved.

Prior to this (and I had a booking for them to investigate) was that the pilot valve would occasionally oscillate - you could hear it opening and closing rapidly. Mostly the boiler would fire up. Even befor that the pilot valve had always closed with a bit of a thump.

Just in case it is not the PCB what other problems could it be?
 
Last edited:
Think it is a new engineer you need, not a new boiler
To be honest the voltages looked right but the GV relay was pulling and dropping out so no steady reading. I had the option to revert to the old valve without charge but I chose to keep it on the basis that a faulty solenoid could have caused a problem on the board. I am glad I did now as we no longer have an almighty thump when the pilot valve operates.

I did spot a few charred resistors on the board but they seem to be correct in value. Too much trouble to diagnose the actual fault
 
Ooh I wonder what caused the almighty thump upon ignition!
Sounds like everything was fine except one small thing!
 
Ooh I wonder what caused the almighty thump upon ignition!
Just prior to ignition and was the pilot valve giving a thump. I always knew when it was nearly time to get up on a morning when the water came on ;) More often than not the valve operation was loud but sometimes not.
I haven't looked too closely but I wondered if a relay contact had welded at the end
 

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