Halstead ACE Combi boiler puffs steam after running bath

[wanleg]

I have a Halstead ACE Combi boiler (I know people hate these) installed. After running the bath or taking a long shower steam can be seen and heard escaping from the back left hand side (if you look at the boiler from the front) of the boiler. The result of this is I get condensation on the wall behind. I am concerned about this for two reasons, the first is that I don't think it should happen if the boiler is working correctly, the second is that i'm having the room replastered and the condensation ss going to make a mess of the newly plastered walls in the kitchen.

I have the boiler under maintenance cover with British Gas but every time I talk to an engineer about this they say that this is normal and the boiler is just releasing pressure. I have a copper pipe that is installed through the external wall to the outside which I understood was for pressure relief.....is the engineer correct or is there something wrong with the boiler ?

The boiler does not require topping up and the hot water delivery does not seem to be affected by this.

Any advice appreciated.

 

[kevplumb]

if you are getting steam out of the auto air vent NO THIS IS NOT NORMAL

the boiler is overheating

 

[wanleg]

thanks for the speedy reply........an ideas what could be wrong ? parts that could need replacing etc....i'm keen not to be fobbed off again !

 

[kingo15]

get in contact with with halstead direct and speak to the tech department there they are very helpfull.......

that would be the first point of call also how old is the boiler????

 

[wanleg]

The boiler is a little over two years old. I will speak to Halstead technical.

 

[ChrisR]

NOthing particularly bad about these boilers. V similar to pottertons, aristons, baxis, alphas...
You may have a sticky diverter valve/ switch?

 

[kevplumb]

fair comment chris but if the poster is on a service contract it should be sorted

 

[wanleg]

Thanks for the posts guys. One final question....I've got the combi protected scale wise by a Liff Combi-Flo (just the boiler).....every couple of months the plate heat exchanger seems to get clogged up (it's not very big on an ACE) by bits of debris....having removed a rad recently it didn't appear to be the water in the CH system that was full of the debris so my attentions turned to the Combi-Flo. Having looked at the device there is a filter on the connection from the mains but no filter on the connection to the boiler......is it possible that the Siliphos crystals are breaking up and clogging up the heat exchanger ? Anyone had similar problems ? Would a Combimate be a better option ?

 

[PEDANTICVINDICTIVEMAN]

I would demand to know which dickhead told you this was normal, what an assholle, anyway throw away the peice of scrap metal called a halstead arsse on your wall and get a boiler fitted.