Intermittant starting problems

[chrisgtk]

I have a five year old Boulter Camry 5, 90E Oil boiler. Since having it serviced before Christmas I have spent nearly £700 in call outs and replacement parts such as a new bosch pump, thermostat, etc. and am still getting problems. It seems to run ok for around 4 days and then wont start.

Electrics seem ok, lights on the programmer and on the boiler but this Monday I managed to spot something. The boiler failed to ignite, left it for 20 or so minutes and then I happened to notice a weird screeching noise coming from the pump which I switched off. The pressure then dropped and I boosted the pressure, and heard water running into the pump. I then switched the pump back on, boosted the programmer timer and the boiler started up OK.

Was the noise from the pump because there was no water in it? Or was it caused by dirt in the system which I removed by boosting the pressure? My plumber has checked things out and says that the system doesn't need flushing however the engineeer disagrees and suggests that it does and wants to charge me £300 or so to do it. I'm at my wits end and the system is costing me a fortune. I'm thinking of installing solar panels. Can anyone help?

 

[Boilerman2]

The pump was most likely screaming due to the water pressure being at Zero and therefore running dry, Has the Expansion Vessel be checked for air charge with the water pressure at zero and a drain point open? the air charge should be equal to the water fill pressure, it would seem that the pressure is dropping and the expansion vessel would be a very liklely suspect! the Camray boiler is normally very reliable so i am suprised that you are having the problems you describe!

 

[chrisgtk]

Thanks for the info. An engineer from Rix is due out next week FOC to check things out. I had a new expansion chamber fitted last year and they have now replaced all the offending parts! I suppose that it is possible that the new pump they fitted may be u/s. I agree that the Camray is a good boiler, but mine may have been made and fitted on a Friday afternoon as I have had nothing but trouble with it!!