Valliant VCW Sine 18 Combi

Morning all,

I have this old Valliant VCW Sine 18 Combi boiler in my property.

It's was certified/serviced at the start of the year with a clean bill of health.

It's now delevoped a problem where it will only produce hot water when the heating is on.

I struggled to find a Local Boiler Engineer that was actually local and not part of a massive UK corp with confusing pricing structures.

The engineer is suggesting the Water Valve needs replacing at a total cost of £168 of which £70 is labour.

Can anyone advise if this all sounds above board?

Reason being the boiler is old and it may be time to bite the bullet and swap it out however i'm not flush so looking to understand my options.

Many thanks for any advice,

Ben

Thats a coincidence as I went to repair a Sine 18 yesterday!

I suspect there may be two faults on your boiler as activating the hot water preheat would normally restore hot water without having to have the heating on.

I am one of the very few enginers who is prepared to repair these boilers but a general problem that I encounter is that most of them now have more than one fault. Unfortunately the design means that they are very fault tolerant and will often seem to be working when they have a fault and its only when a second fault occurs that the owner will notice.

You seem to be questioning a repair cost which is fairly reasonable for most people. Are you a mean landlord? But you must have had someone who diagnosed the fault without charging and so he will naturally charge more to actually repair it.

In the simplest fault senario in your case I would charge about £136 but the difference is that I always charge to visit and diagnose the fault.

Tony Glazier

Thanks for replying it was partly due to me not being able to understand what the guy was saying as he had a very heavy accent.

I've since spoken to the office again and it's the Hot Water Operating Valve thats in need of repair.

U love urself agile! Ur not one of the few there r many that mend these units big head! That price is very reasonable!

Bunnyman said:

U love urself agile! Ur not one of the few there r many that mend these units

Click to expand...

Yep , one of the first combis i fitted back in 81/2 , repaired a few myself , the problem here is Agile started in the gas industry later on in life , much later on , maybe rarely seeing these boilers or knowing little about them is possibly the reason he feels no other engineer has ever seen one , most guys out there were repairing these before Agile thought about leaving the BBC....i can guarantee Agile has never had the pleasure of fitting one.

Somebody has to love me!

I even had a message left today by a landlady " Can you come quickly? I need servicing !"

Usually when I go to one of these its after someone else has failed or declined!

Today I saw an Alpha 240 Eco that BG had visited five times and fitted two fans on and still not identified the fault but then the owner gave up on them. I dont know how they came across me but they know my cousin who also used to work for the BBC before moving to Yorks TV.

give these guys a call best around

http://www.vaillantservice.co.uk/VAILLANT/Vailliant_Home_Boiler_Repairs_Servicing_Faults.html

Thanks for the input,

Boiler fixed for the time being for a total of £168, inc. £70 Labour.

Hopefully it goes through the winter without any other issues.

Great website ! Thanks to all involved !