Boiler leaking now not working at all.

[beccaf]

For the past few days the boiler (Ideal Mini) has been leaking. Today someone came out and had a look at it, couldn't find out where it was leaking from, but had the theory that it was the condensate pipe. The pipe is very hard to get to so he's going to talk to the landlord about getting access. Meanwhile, he told us to use it as normal and just put a tray underneath to catch the water. He basically wanted us to make it worse so it's actually leaking next time he visits.

Once a couple of days ago the boiler stopped working entirely. My theory was that it was water in the electrics. Boiler guy said boilers have an automatic shut off if the condensate pipe gets blocked, so that made sense.

However a few minutes ago, I heard a kind of electronic sizzle, and now it isn't working at all again. It's barely been used since the inspection, and doesn't seem to have leaked a great deal. I can see some water behind one of the lights though so obviously it's still quite wet inside.

My initial thought is that if it is the electronics, it probably isn't safe. Whatever clever person installed the main switch failed, and it's either on, or on. Even if I could turn it off, would there then be a possible problem from the gas still being on?

Basically my question is whether it's safe to leave as it is, or should I do something?

 

[denso13]

Just turn off the power to the boiler, there should be a spur nearby, similar to this

 

[beccaf]

That's the problem. There is one, but it's on, or on. Switching it does nothing and the small light in the switch also remains on!

Edit: I'm presuming it does nothing, anyway. The digital programmer display remains on, too.

 

[denso13]

Is there fuse as in the photo, there should be? Can you remove it?

 

[beccaf]

Nope no fuse. It looks like this (in the 'off' position):

Untitled

• beccaf
• 6 Dec 2013
• 1

 

[xr4x4]

Maybe that switch is for somehing else?

 

[beccaf]

Definitely not, the white wire you can see goes directly into the boiler and there are no other switches around.

I guess I could turn the electricity off, open up the switch and see if I can remove a fuse from there, but I'm not hugely comfortable with doing that. I will though if you think it's necessary.

 

[Gas2Air]

These normally leak out of the diverter valve and on to the thermistor below, it will fry the small amp fuse on pcb. This "someone" has no idea what he's talking about.

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Unlikely to be a fuse inside that switch. If you are confident to isolate it then open it up and check it's been wired correctly. If it's not isolating the boiler then I can only surmise someone has wired it up incorrectly.....

However, as you are the tenant then this should be up to the landlord to sort out!

 

[beccaf]

It should indeed to be up to the landlord, yes. However he tends to be an 'I'll be round tomorrow' type person, so if I find that it's a simple solution I can do myself, or at least something temporary that means it can wait until tomorrow, I'll tend to do that.

As long as it's not actually dangerous in its current state, I'll leave it for now, and see if I can deal with it in the daylight/get the landlord back.

To be honest, I wasn't convinced by his 'nothing I can do until it gets worse/see where the condensate pipe goes' answer, but I basically know nothing about boilers so trusted his opinion. He mentioned nothing about the diverter valve or thermistor. If it was that fuse that fried, then would it come back on again when it dried out like it did the other day?

 

[GavThePlumber]

Landlords man, crazy stuff they get away with, grind my gears.

 

[beccaf]

This is one of the better ones I've had. The last ones decided to do convert the attic while we were living there (to be fair, they fired some of the builders they used as they made SO much mess and smoked in the house even after I asked them not to, but still, we were in the last year of our degrees/phd, that is not the time for major building work), the one before...well, I'm not going to even go there.

 

[GavThePlumber]

It should indeed to be up to the landlord, yes. However he tends to be an 'I'll be round tomorrow' type person, so if I find that it's a simple solution I can do myself, or at least something temporary that means it can wait until tomorrow, I'll tend to do that.

You pay hard earned money to rent this place, you should not have to do anything, tell him you will be getting someone in and sending him the bill and/or making a complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service

 

[beccaf]

It should indeed to be up to the landlord, yes. However he tends to be an 'I'll be round tomorrow' type person, so if I find that it's a simple solution I can do myself, or at least something temporary that means it can wait until tomorrow, I'll tend to do that.

You pay hard earned money to rent this place, you should not have to do anything, tell him you will be getting someone in and sending him the bill and/or making a complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service

I don't want to escalate it that far quite yet, but don't worry. As the previous landlords found out, I don't put up with it if they do something stupid and I'm not afraid to persevere until it's fixed.

 

[Gas2Air]

Landlords man, crazy stuff they get away with, grind my gears.

Went to a BBF last week that had been serviced apparently for the last 3 years. Tenant said she had no paper work or cert since she had moved in. Just some chap that came round every year to test the CO alarm and said all was ok.

Boiler and fire had 15 years worth of dust, dog hairs, body hairs, kids toys and 2 inch of soot in it, vent around the 30% free area mark. Annulus not sealed.

They get away with it that's the problem. Until someone dies and they get off.