Halstead Ace High beats plumber.

[south_lambeth]

We've had problems since before Christmas with our Halstead Ace High, and have had a plumber making many attempts to fix it, and still without any luck.

The problem is with both heating and hot water. It does fire up for both, but often shuts down again very quickly. Sometimes it will run for a longer period. Occasionally, if the hot water is working and has been running for a long time, the boiler shuts down and vents steam from the valve at top left.

Our plumber has so far:

Installed a service kit on the diverter
Changed two thermistors
Power-flushed the system
Replaced the pump

With, more or less, no effect. A nightmare.

What is really weird is that each time he comes the boiler seems to fire up again, we check the water and heat, and it all seems fine. After a couple of days it's back to being useless again.

So I have two questions:

1. Do any of you have any idea what's wrong with my boiler?
2. Is there any problem with a boiler that can be temporarily solved by draining it down then refilling it? (the only explanation I can think of why our boiler works for a couple of days after each plumber visit)

Any kind of advice you have to offer would be really appreciated, looks like we're going to need to start again with another plumber (I've a feeling our man will throw in the towel when I ring him Monday), could really do with a few clues on what might be the problem before I start flicking through yellow pages.

Thank you!

 

[gas4you]

Blocked plate HE?

 

[south_lambeth]

He's done so much stuff I'd forgotten that he'd had the heat exchanger cleaned. It's the one that's next to the diverter.

He was saying something about another heat exchanger (the one over the top of the burners?) that could be blocked. Could it be that? Out of my depth now...

 

[gas4you]

Anything is possible. When he flushed the system did this include the boiler?

Personally I always replace the DV instead of using a recon kit

 

[south_lambeth]

Thanks for your help, Dave.

Yes, he did the boiler first, then opened up the rest of the system and flushed through that.

 

[south_lambeth]

Could there be something still wrong with the diverter as he's used a kit rather than replacing the whole thing?

 

[gasbanni]

Could there be something still wrong with the diverter as he's used a kit rather than replacing the whole thing?

He might have put it back together incorrectly, from you description its what i'd be looking at.........I nearly always service them rather than replace them.
Ive had faulty new ones ! not often, true but it has happened had to srtip it down and fix what was wrong.

 

[south_lambeth]

Do you reckon that could explain why it worked for a while, then went back to where it was after a couple of days? I'm thinking maybe something in the diverter dropped out of place.