glow worm boiler

[Serenity]

Thats worrying. I also have a glowworm boiler. After six weeks without central heating and just over a week without hot water I am at my wits end.

The boiler checked out fine. However, the valves were changed because it was found the hot water was operating 24 x 7 and not turning off. By the time the valves were fixed, the CH had been down for four weeks. I tried to get help from the outset, but couldn't get a Corgi person available to see it until then.

All was fixed, but by that same evening - both HW &CH were not working. A week later, the Corgi man was not available, by Friday last week GAS LEAK, but on the cooker. (No other gas appliances so that was the last thing to go wrong). With respect to the Corgi man, it worked hard to get all sorted Saturday. However, the cooker was easily remedied, the CH was concluded to have a massage airlock - someone else will now have to see this, but the CH now should have been working. I waited 2 hrs for the water to warm up - stone cold. I am exasperated, £335.00 down and no nearer to a conclusion.

Can someone advise me - on the CH & HW - whats going on

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Serenity, please see forum rule 20

Hi-jacking posts causes confusion and serves no purpose. your post has been split, (I nearly lost both yours and the post you hi-jacked)

Lynda, moderator

 

[Agile]

Serendipity, I dont understand from what you have said what the problems are or have been.

You dont say where you live but I cannot immagine anywhere where there are not several CORGi registered people available to come within a couple of days.

If we do not fix a boiler within a few hours in London there are hundreds of other firms waiting on the ready to do it instead.

I just do not understand how you can be waiting "weeks" ! Even British Gas come within a couple of days and normally get any spare part the next day.

Tony Glazier

 

[Serenity]

Hi Tony,

I used a Corgi person previously recommended and have used before who are currently on another big job.

As the CH broke down six weeks ago I was prepared to wait the three weeks for him to look at the problem. There was no problem HW which was working fine throughout all this.

As mention earlier, the boiler was checked out & fine, but the CH raditors still cold. However, it was found the HW valve was not shutting off at all (which accounted for two £300 qrtly gas bills - I only moved in the house 8 months ago).

New valves and a new box for the timer was fitted. (Up to this point I still had HW, it was only a CH problem). After the new fitment were completed, by that evening I found both the HW & CH not working.

Another visit yesterday suggested a big airlock that was not feeding enough pressure to the boiler - hence the burner was clicking off after 2 minutes - it had been like this throughout the 6 weeks. Another colleague was suggested to be contacted to sort this out, but on leaving yesterday the gasman believed the HW was fixed. But the water is still cold, even though before the valve was renewed, the HW had worked independently over past 6 weeks without the help of the boiler as burner would not stay on. So in attempt to fix the CH, I also lost out on the HW as well.

Thats the best I can explain it as informed during the two visits.

 

[Agile]

Your postings have been moved into a new heading just for yourself as you are not meant to "hyjack" or "butt in" to someone elses posting.

Could I sugest to Lynda or whoever did this though that they remove the Serendipity bits from the other posting and unlock it in case anyone has anything else to add to help the Blackpool B&B place.

Serendipity, its very difficult for me to understand how you have paid £325 and yet you so complacently accept that you have now lost your hot water and heating.

All I can say is that none of our clients would ever accept that and would be on the phone demanding an immediate visit to fix it this evening, yes after 9 pm !

You have still not told us where you are. Whilst anyone who is personally recommended is to be called before someone from Yellow Pages, clearly to me they did not give you any priority over their "big job" and I would say that you were far too easy on them. Whatever they did for you, £325 is a pretty large bill ! We would replace two motor valves for less than £200 !!!

If its only the motor valves stopping it from working you may be able to get something going by manually operating a little lever and latching it into a slot on each valve.

Please tell us whats going on as it does not sound to me that your preferred plumber is doing a very conscientious job for you and may be overcharging you too.

Tony Glazier

 

[Serenity]

Hi Tony,

I was looking for information on the net today regarding the airlock referred to and came across this site. I signed up, then suspected I was on someone's posting. I don't usually sign up to sites, but under the circumstances..........

I paid for two valves, a timer and hours worked e.g. 2 to 3 hrs. As mentioned, to add to complications I had a gas leak Transco cut off the gas Friday. Saturday the gasman had to dismantle to cooker as the test showed up as a leak, and he showed me via a tester. As the boiler was going to be looked at, I asked for a service as I have not long moved in, and the previous owners had not serviced the boiler (approx 5 yrs old). Thereafter the gasman looked at everything including up the loft to check the tank due to no water in seemingly in the rads! and no pressure to the boiler to fire it up. Total of nearly five hrs working. Everything needed & done has been shown to me.

I have text him since he left yesterday, but as this appears to be an ongoing problem, I wanted to find out why. He is going to ask another busy gasman who is a systems......??? to look into it as he believes the airlock is the problem with the CH. But I want to know why the HW is now off - could it be the wiring up of the timer / two new valves replaced as this seems to be when the HW stopped.

I am going to chase this up as I cannot afford to pay out more and to start again with another person will be more £££s. I froze from end the of April without CH, but the HW - thats toooo much.

 

[Serenity]

Just to clarify, these were two different visits 1) up to 3hrs and the 2) up to nearly 5 hrs. Visit one - replaced valves etc. Visit 2) gas leak, etc.

I live in London

 

[moderator]

Could I sugest to Lynda or whoever did this though that they remove the Serendipity bits from the other posting and unlock it in case anyone has anything else to add to help the Blackpool B&B place.

Hello Agile, I only locked the post while I was editing it, (I did have trouble spliting it, I nearly lost both posts) all shoud be ok now.

 

[Serenity]

I am sorry for the mistake and to the person's posting who I hi jacked. I don't usually sign up and write postings. I am sure I will become familiar after today.

 

[moderator]

I am sorry for the mistake and to the person's posting who I hi jacked. I don't usually sign up and write postings. I am sure I will become familiar after today.

Apology accepted. You may want to see all the forum rules which are here

 

[ChrisR]

Serenity, (I won't tag you dip)
What exactly is the boiler - model?
WHat was wrong which caused work to be done.?
What valve(s) were changed?

It's possible that there is a block in the water feed pipe from the header tank so the boiler is starved of water. Not an air lock as such, just lack of water. No water going round to heat up the HW cylinder therefore.
Check on the pipes which go into the side of hot water cylinder part way up. Usually there is a an air vent point on the top one - unless it carries on up into the loft.
If there is a vent point, what happens if it's undone - surely your man must have tried this? Does water come out like it should!?
If there is no such vent point, undo a bleed valve on a radiator - the highest there is. Does water come out?
Please tell us that these sort of tests have been done!!

ANy motorised valves, like the one in this link
http://content.honeywell.com/uk/homes/Catalogue/Sundial Plans/3.4 Y Plan.pdf

Can have 2 or 3 pipes going to them.

 

[Serenity]

Hi Chris

Its a Gloworm Micron. There is an immersion heater, which is new to me, not previously had one.

The original prob was the rads would not come on and the burner kept cutting out after 2 mins coming on.

It was said there was no water in some of the rads. Yesterday, before the gasman left, he advised to bleed the rads again. I did. Some let out a little air, some did nothing others had water coming out. I suspect his collegue will be coming out, something was said about a hose from the tap to the rad to top up the system with water, etc etc. He's been up the loft to check the water tank, etc.

The recent prob is no HW. While trying to sort out the CH, it was found new values & timer ( same type of valve as to the one on the Y plan - thanks for that). I was shown the problem & why it needed changing, so that was fine - but since then the HW is running cold water so that has become the second problem. Both visits it was expected the hot water was sorted, but probs left with the CH.

Thanks for dropping the 'dip' - though not understanding this problem makes one feel a bit like that.

Serenity, (I won't tag you dip)
What exactly is the boiler - model?
WHat was wrong which caused work to be done.?
What valve(s) were changed?

It's possible that there is a block in the water feed pipe from the header tank so the boiler is starved of water. Not an air lock as such, just lack of water. No water going round to heat up the HW cylinder therefore.
Check on the pipes which go into the side of hot water cylinder part way up. Usually there is a an air vent point on the top one - unless it carries on up into the loft.
If there is a vent point, what happens if it's undone - surely your man must have tried this? Does water come out like it should!?
If there is no such vent point, undo a bleed valve on a radiator - the highest there is. Does water come out?
Please tell us that these sort of tests have been done!!

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edited to correct quote

 

[Gasguru]

So have you turned on the immersion heater for now to give you hot water (takes an hour or two to heat up)

If there is no water coming out of the radiator when you try to bleed it (and the radiator valve is open) the feed pipe is probably blocked.

 

[Serenity]

Hi Gasguru,

Yes the immersion heater was on for several hours, but stone cold whereas in the past the pipes coming out of it are usually very hot.

What can be done about the blocked feeder pipe?

 

[Gasguru]

If the immersion heater is turned on but the water is cold the element may have burnt out.

A blocked feed pipe normally occurs where it tees into the main heating system pipework.

Tie up the float valve in the feed tank, drain water from the system and see if the level in the tank drops. This will confirm if the pipe is blocked.

It often requires the offending tee to be cut out to clean the blockage.

Images of the airing cupboard would be useful.

 

[ChrisR]

Immersion heaters only get used in emergensies so nobody knows if they aren't working. As long as it has power, it isn't too hard to fix, but needs the right tools.

Corrosion products block feed pipes. Sometimes they're soft and can be forced out, but sometimes they're very hard and the pipe has to be cut out. If you have a separate feed and vent pipe they are more or less in parallel, annd it is possible to convert permanently to a combined feed and vent and abandon the feed. (Edit :Smaller output Microns only)
This has been covered several times here, but the search tool only works on one word so it could be hard to find. It is covered in the boiler manual. there are/were several models, by the way, from 30 to 100.

One temporary solution is, as you hint, to connect a mains hose to a drain point and fill the system from the bottom up. Not he best way, some would say.
Eg one can temporarily connect the mains supply which goes to the header tank in the loft, to the vent pipe, quite easily (if you're a plumber). This not only fills the system but also often pushes the blockage back up into the header tank for scooping out.