Glowworm Fuelsaver 55-60 gas boiler.

[cavalier]

Hi all,

I am new here and this is my first posting. Apologies for the length of my post.

This boiler is about 25 years old and has been in service continuously. We had a contract with British Gas initially until a few years ago they ended the contract as some of the spares were no longer available. Fair enough. Fortunately all has been well boiler wise since then until now.
For a few weeks my pilot light would go out but would normally stay lit once reignited. It no longer stays alight when the gas valve button is released. As it was such an old boiler but very reliable I decided after looking at forums like this to replace the thermocouple. I could only get a universal one.(900MM). I have never attempted any repair to it before for safety reasons. However, it would appear from comments here and elsewhere, it could be undetaken as a DIY task.

I have managed to remove and replace the TC after a bit of a struggle.
On testing I am in a similar state. Trying to reignite the pilot will result in a flame or no flame at all.

I rechecked the instruction on the cover and it tells me to switch everything on and see that the controls are set to demand heating. I duly switched everytning on and set the controls to continuous. Trying again I get the same results. I did switch the gas supply of at the mains for extra safety precautions and wondered if there could perhaps be an airlock (if thats possible). We cook using a gas oven with no effects after switching off the gas.

Is there any check I can do to test my repair or is the gas valve assembly faulty. If that is the case then I will invest in a condensing boiler.

I would appreciate any help/comments.

Thank you.

 

[45yearsagasman]

No one on here should or would have given advice which is gas related.
This is a room sealed appliance and should only be accessed by a competent boiler repair man, who after completing a simple repair would do all the safety checks.
PS BG do not terminate contracts when parts become reduced. They only advise that this may be the case and the customer then has the choice as to cancelling or remaining on contract.
In short, get a RGI in to repair your boiler.

 

[cavalier]

Thanks gasman for you prompt reply. Your comments are duly noted.

Regarding BG contract ending that was indeed the case at the time some years ago. Perhaps their policy has changes since then. I did, infact, make the very case for continuing knowing the spares situation you alluded to but my pleas fell on deaf ears. Their position at the time being if they could not honour my contract due to a withdrawl of certain spares they would cancel the agreement. Its all history now but perhaps in the light of your comments it would appear that is not quite the case at present.

Thank you for your time in replying to my post.

 

[nickso]

it's certainly not the case and hasn't been so for a very long time. once upon a time the engineers were deciding which boilers they liked working on and were cancelling contracts all over the place, difficult to do that now without your manager getting involved.

to cancel a contract no matter what the spares situation is throwing money away, if the customer is aware of the parts situation it's up to them to cancel. IMO, it would only be cancelled now if there was a serious safety defect that the customer refused to deal with.

 

[misterdubya]

Thanks gasman for you prompt reply. Your comments are duly noted.

Regarding BG contract ending that was indeed the case at the time some years ago. Perhaps their policy has changes since then. I did, infact, make the very case for continuing knowing the spares situation you alluded to but my pleas fell on deaf ears. Their position at the time being if they could not honour my contract due to a withdrawl of certain spares they would cancel the agreement. Its all history now but perhaps in the light of your comments it would appear that is not quite the case at present.

Thank you for your time in replying to my post.

 

[cavalier]

Thanks everyone for your comments. It was not my intention to argue for or against BG but to seek advice here. Suffice to say I think I am in a better position to know what transpired at the time. If the situation is different now, so be it. Clearly I was not aware of the posting regulations concerning information regarding gas appliances, though I fully appreciate it's relevance.
For the record I have sorted the fault and happy and pleased to report normal service has been removed.

Thank you.