Central heating restart delay

[Anirban]

Hi,

I have an old potterton netaheat boiler, which works fine except one problem that I am having. When my central heating starts from cold, the boiler runs for a long time, then it stops for a long time before it restarts again. By that time the radiators are cold again. Few symptoms I observered and they are,

1. It used to take long last year but not this long, now radiators become cold, so this has gradually got worse.

2. Boiler runs for same amount of time regardless of what the temperature is set in the thermostat.

3. If I use much hot water from the hot water tank, the boiler starts again, so it seems that decrease in hot water temperature triggers the boiler to restart.

I called in 3 different gas safe registered plumbers and they all gave 3 different solutions to solve this. Someone said I need to flush my system even though my radiators are very hot. Someone said I need to replace the central heating timer even though it's starting and stopping central heating fine. The other guy said I need to replace the pipe work from the boiler to the tank. None of them made much sense.

I would very much appreciate any help on this.

 

[Dan Robinson]

None of those sound like likely culprits to me, although a flush probably would be out of the question long term.

It could well be a problem with the boiler thermostat, but there are a few other possibilities depending on which version of the boiler you have.

Someone like Tony (username Agile) would be right up your street as he does fixed price repairs in London .

 

[Agile]

Hi,

I called in 3 different gas safe registered plumbers and they all gave 3 different solutions to solve this. Someone said I need to flush my system even though my radiators are very hot.

I would very much appreciate any help on this.

Can you explain exactly how you called three engineers?

Did you pay them all?

Or did you not pay any of them?

Tony

 

[dcawkwell]

Boiler thermostat most likely.

Good grief the quality of gas engineers. Are they giving gas safe registrations out with cornflakes now.

 

[Dan Robinson]

So it seems....

 

[Anirban]

Thanks very much for your replies.

I did not carry any work and didn't pay any of them as none of the solutions made any sense to me.

I know! I found them from local newspaper adverts

My boiler is Potterton Netaheat 10-16. Would the boiler thermostat still be available to buy from shops? How much would it cost to buy and also the cost to install?

Many thanks again in advance.

Cheers,
Anirban

 

[hertsboilers]

Rule of thumb, in London and South England a gas engineer who knows how to repair boilers normally has a call out charge not less than 50 pounds per visit.

 

[Anirban]

Thanks. Could you please recommend someone who can fix it?

 

[doitall]

Thanks. Could you please recommend someone who can fix it?

Dan already did.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Fault diagnosed, and suitable repairer all sorted in the first reply.....

You can lead a horse to water....

 

[Anirban]

Indeed, thanks very much for that. In fact I officially thanked you for your first post

 

[ianmcd]

Well Tony has replied to you also and he is definately the man for this job he keeps spares for your boiler most of which are obsolete

 

[Anirban]

Hi Tony,

I am chasing you to arrange a date so that you could come and have a look at the boiler thermostat. I left you a voice mail and an email, please respond at your earliest convenience.

Cheers,
Anirban

 

[skodaman007]

Anirban,please remember that heating engineers are very busy during the cold months,Tony (aglie) is one of the top gas service engineers around and he will busy with his regular customers.
So give Tony a chance to reply to you and if he decides to take your job on make sure you tip him well.

 

[Anirban]

Sure, I understand. We already spoke last week and yesterday he said he would come and have a look sometime today/tomorrow, so I am only trying to arrange the time. Also because It's a bit urgent as the house becomes very cold and I have a child.