Hello - I hope someone can help me with my boiler problem:
- It's a standard gas boiler - Myson Apollo 40. Probably about 19 years old.
- The problem is that the boiler is firing up when on timer and working well for about 20mins but then it starts banging and clanking, all the way up from the boiler unit on the kitchen wall, through the radiators and heat exchanger (?) in the airing cupboard up to water storage tank (?) in the loft where there is a small splashing sound as the noise (air?) finishes it's journey. (You can probably tell I'm not an expert so apologies if I'm getting the names of things wrong!) When this happens the flame just goes back to the pilot light setting. When it fires up again a few minutes later it works fine for about 15secs and then the banging starts and it cuts out. Same again, and again and again with the effect being that the radiators start to go cold. It's fair to say that I don't need an alarm clock in the morning anymore! I've found that if we knock the power off to the unit and leave it for a while to give it a rest, when it comes back on it works great for 20mins and then the noisy cycle starts again.
- I got an engineer out and they said that the pump was quite new so they didn't think it would be that so they changed the "pump over stat" as they said they they thought it was overheating and the flame was cutting out automatically due to a safety mechanism. As it turns out, the part that they changed wasn't scorched as they had expected but they said it might be "an intermittent fault" so they changed it anyway. This made absoulutely no difference. I called them to tell them this and they said it might be the pump but they wouldn't know till they changed it (more expense and no guarantees that it would work). Or there could be dirt in the system but apparently it would cost a fortune to flush it out. I asked them if it could be the wiring but they didn't think so. He rounded off by saying that I should probably just leave it till it packs in completely and then it would be obvious what it was - or just get a new boiler as it is quite old! We've stretched ourselves by moving into a bigger house and will have to borrow money for a new one so I don't want to unless it's absolutely necessary. I was a bit disappointed that I was out of pocket and was still no further forward but to be fair the engineer still gave his time and a new part so it's just bad luck I suppose.
I think I will be getting someone else out (pot luck in the yellow pages) but I thought I'd ask tall you experts on here if you have got any ideas first so that I can make suggestions if the new engineer says the same as the last one.
I think I have probably put too much information on here but if anyone is still awake - thanks for getting this far and I'd really appreciate any advice that you can give.
Thanks
Martin
- It's a standard gas boiler - Myson Apollo 40. Probably about 19 years old.
- The problem is that the boiler is firing up when on timer and working well for about 20mins but then it starts banging and clanking, all the way up from the boiler unit on the kitchen wall, through the radiators and heat exchanger (?) in the airing cupboard up to water storage tank (?) in the loft where there is a small splashing sound as the noise (air?) finishes it's journey. (You can probably tell I'm not an expert so apologies if I'm getting the names of things wrong!) When this happens the flame just goes back to the pilot light setting. When it fires up again a few minutes later it works fine for about 15secs and then the banging starts and it cuts out. Same again, and again and again with the effect being that the radiators start to go cold. It's fair to say that I don't need an alarm clock in the morning anymore! I've found that if we knock the power off to the unit and leave it for a while to give it a rest, when it comes back on it works great for 20mins and then the noisy cycle starts again.
- I got an engineer out and they said that the pump was quite new so they didn't think it would be that so they changed the "pump over stat" as they said they they thought it was overheating and the flame was cutting out automatically due to a safety mechanism. As it turns out, the part that they changed wasn't scorched as they had expected but they said it might be "an intermittent fault" so they changed it anyway. This made absoulutely no difference. I called them to tell them this and they said it might be the pump but they wouldn't know till they changed it (more expense and no guarantees that it would work). Or there could be dirt in the system but apparently it would cost a fortune to flush it out. I asked them if it could be the wiring but they didn't think so. He rounded off by saying that I should probably just leave it till it packs in completely and then it would be obvious what it was - or just get a new boiler as it is quite old! We've stretched ourselves by moving into a bigger house and will have to borrow money for a new one so I don't want to unless it's absolutely necessary. I was a bit disappointed that I was out of pocket and was still no further forward but to be fair the engineer still gave his time and a new part so it's just bad luck I suppose.
I think I will be getting someone else out (pot luck in the yellow pages) but I thought I'd ask tall you experts on here if you have got any ideas first so that I can make suggestions if the new engineer says the same as the last one.
I think I have probably put too much information on here but if anyone is still awake - thanks for getting this far and I'd really appreciate any advice that you can give.
Thanks
Martin