Expansion vessel has gone on boiler - advice please

[suestew]

Hi all

As subject explains, the expansion vessel has gone on the boiler. Basically when heating is on the pressure goes right up then drops to zero once off. We have been told by an indepedent guy this is the problem plus British Gas have also confirmed this.

Our boiler is around 13-15 years old.

My quesion is would it be worth just changing the vessel, is it really expensive to do so? We have been told around £1,000, is this correct?

Also, bearing in mind how old our boiler is should we just forget about repairing and get a new one?

Thanks

 

[ianmcd]

get a decent engineer to try to recharge the expansion vessel it may just need recharging and the quote to replace is excessive even if it does need it

 

[suestew]

we have had 3 people round so far, and not one of them has recharged it, one of the guys looked at it but I was not in the room. All have said it needs replacing.

 

[Nige F]

Hi all


My quesion is would it be worth just changing the vessel, is it really expensive to do so? We have been told around £1,000, is this correct?

Also, bearing in mind how old our boiler is should we just forget about repairing and get a new one?

Thanks

Surely a new , remote one could be fitted on the system somewhere . Price around £120 for the vessel . And £800 to fit it - give me a call I could travel up to the smoke and stay overnight in an hotel

 

[Boilerman2]

For that Money you could stay in that nice little place in Park Lane ...whats it called.....oh yeah..... the Dorchester

As others have said you cannot write off a vessel untill you have tried re-charging it with air only then will you know if the vessel is shot

If one of your car tyres went down you would put some air in it to see what happens before changing the wheel!!

some boilers require to ome off the wal to replace a vessel, in these cases it i easier to fit a remote vessel on the system somewhere expect a bill for £300 absolute max for this work

 

[suestew]

Thanks[/quote] Surely a new , remote one could be fitted on the system somewhere . Price around £120 for the vessel . And £800 to fit it - give me a call I could travel up to the smoke and stay overnight in an hotel[/quote]

We did have someone come round to say this could be done, but since then not been able to get hold of him, people just don't seem to want to get work nowdays...
BG are going to quote to do the separate one but expect they will be way overpriced.
the problem is my boyfriend is worried that we get that done it may go again, in your opinion how long would it hold up on an old boiler

 

[Boilerman2]

As long as the vessel is serviced at regular intervals i.e discharge water pressure and pump up the vessel with compressed air to the correct charge pressure, then the vessel should have a fairly long life

 

[Phill Peck]

Sorry but that is a ridiculas price.

Fit an external vessel. Did one today supply and fit for £186 inc vat
Was an easy job but even if difficult no way is it £1000

To fit one in the boiler can sometimes mean taking the boiler off the wall and internal expansion vessels are more expensive but you should be able to find somewhere to fit an external

 

[Phill Peck]

Also internal vessels fail because they are often too small for the system the advantage of external will mean the vessel can be oversized

 

[suestew]

thanks all for your replies

 

[dcawkwell]

we have had 3 people round so far, and not one of them has recharged it, one of the guys looked at it but I was not in the room. All have said it needs replacing.

Hard to get a quality engineer in the London area. Keep trying
avoid the first 3 idiots. Don't suggest anything to any of the engineers
that turn up you don't want to give them clues!

 

[suestew]

Hard to get a quality engineer in the London area. Keep trying
avoid the first 3 idiots. [/quote]

Tell me about it!!!

 

[Agile]

There seems to be something in common between all these people that you have had call. None of them have been paid.

So only one of the four might get paid and so the £250 bill has to be increased to £1000 to cover the wasted visits.

I try to avoid any unpaid visits as thats unfair to paying clients. I normally go to actually do the job and start by seeing if the cheapest possibility could work first.

Last one that I did to take boiler off the wall was about £158 but the owner helped to with the lifting so it was all completed in about 40 minutes.

Tony

 

[gas112]

Simple questions need to be answered what make of boiler do you have ?
And do you have room for approx an 18 inch high by 10 round cylinder preferably beside the boiler.
External expansion vessel cost less than 40 quid to buy.

1000 quid repair on any boiler would be mad even in london you would get a straight forward combi changeover for not a great deal more with a reasonable boiler