Apollo 30/50 No Pilot lite

[ary]

I have an Apollo 30/50 , the pilot lite has gone off because the pre-pay gas run out of credit. but I am unable to turn the pilot lite back on even though I I have spent hours press and hold the button while pressing the ignition switch.
I can see strong sparks from the ignition but don't know why the pilot lite will not come on. please please help.

 

[namsag]

Try pressing the ignition button quicly repeatedly this sometimes does the trick

 

[gas4you]

Have you checked other appliances are getting gas and working?

Could be air in the gas pipe to the boiler, can take absolutely ages to purge through via the pilot light.

Could even be a slightly blocked pilot injector.

 

[ary]

Thank all so much for your replies. appreciated
I have tried repeatedly to ignite the pilot light but unfortunately with no joy. The boiler is the only gas appliances in the property, and Dave you are right it is along pipe from the meter to the boiler and could take ages to empty the air out. I wounder if there is any way of bleeding the air out?. It has only been two months since it was serviced and certified.
British gas quoted me £180 to send an engineer.

 

[gas4you]

yes we would purge the gas pipe first but unfortunatley this means disturbing a gas connection which needs a corgi to do it so it can be tested afterwards for leaks.

 

[ary]

Called in a Gas engineer to purge the air at £55 p/h , once he managed to get the pilot light going the fuse decided to blow every time he switch on the boiler (don't know why because it was all in perfect order before the pilot light went out) , he advised my tenant that the over-drive or over-ride sensor needs changing before he was paid.
I called again asking him to buy the part and replace it, the following day he spent a couple of hours but this did not resolve the fuse blowing problem.
Now he has narrowed it down to the Hi limit stat, so he has disabled it and taped the wires because apparently the whole boiler was getting 220 volts.
The boiler is currently running quite happily whilst switched on Low, until next week when the part will be replaced.
I'm not sure if this is a genuine co-accidental fault or is it due to the engineer's incompitance . also should I pay him for the wrong part (£20) and the couple of hours he has spent on that?.

 

[gas4you]

You are there, we are not, all I can say is that I would only charge for the time and parts that actually fixed the problem.

He shouldn't have bypassed a safety device though One of the biggest no no's