Hello all.
After a bit of advice/guidance. Sorry for the long post!
My trusty old Vaillant combi boiler has been playing up - it was 18 years old so chucking more money at it seemed pointless. I've had a replacement fitted this week, another Vaillant combi installed by a Vaillant Advanced installer thus qualifying me for their extended 10yr warranty. The existing installation was looked at by the engineer prior to the quote, which was later agreed on prior to him starting the work.
I paid upfront for the boiler and sundries, the labour payment is upon completion of commissioning and my being satisfied that the system is working.
I have a few questions which I'm hoping some kind soul(s) might help me with.
i. Takes a deep breath.....
I had a Hive fitted which was using just the Heating channel for obvious reasons. It's worked flawlessly for 3 years on the old combi. The engineer had some "issues" with the existing Hive and insisted on replacing it with the heating only unit stating the existing dual channel one wouldn't work. He said just the receiver would need replacing, but ended charging me for a whole kit - this wasn't mentioned at quote time. Looking at the Vaillant manual wiring diagram it states that there are two Room Thermostat (RT) terminals, one of 24v and another of 230v. The dual-channel Hive works on 230v. Could he not have just connected the Hive into the 230V RT terminal rather than me have to spend another £180, seems to me he either doesn't understand his electrics or I'm misunderstanding completely - not for the first time.
ii. To qualify for the 10yr warranty with Vaillant conditions have to be met, some of which are;
Install a "Vaillant Advance Boiler Protection Kit"
Follow the commission process completing the Benchmark commissioning form with all values entered.
Clean/flush the entire system pipe/rads dose with inhibitor.
He installed the Vaillant Advance Boiler Protection Kit as agreed - so no issue there.
However, he's barely filled out half of the Benchmark form - I'd assume this wouldn't meet with Vaillant T&C's, therefore, rendering my warranty worthless?
He used a Magnacleanse to flush the system but didn't use an agitator on the rads and the way he piped it up I can't see how it would have circulated around the whole system. He had one leg on the flow just below the boiler and one on the return again just below the boiler and was using the internal boiler pump to circulate - seems to me that the water would have just flowed through the Magnacleanse around to the return just before the boiler as that would have been the path of least resistance - shouldn't he have added the Magnacleanse in/out onto the return pipe so the water flows out of the flow, through all pipework, through any open rads and back to the return and through the Magnacleanse? The water looked so clean, yet I know there is sludge in parts of the system. Again, maybe I'm not getting it.
He didn't balance rads, left several completely shut off and there two in the loft are stone cold even though TRV's and lock-shields are open. I saw no evidence of him following the Magnaclense practice of shutting off all but the furthest rad, agitate rad, flush for 5/10 mins, shut off, open next furthest rad, repeat until you get to the nearest one. There are definitely cold spots on some of the rads - shouldn't the Magnaclense have helped with those?
He had to install a filling loop as he claims the built-in one isn't working, I asked him to contact Vaillant about this as far as I'm concerned it's faulty and should be fixed under warranty.
I don't like to argue with people but this is a decent chunk of money, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a professional installation to Vaillant specs - the last thing I want is a load of sludge entering the boiler due to someone cutting corners and me having to pick up the tab due to a poor install.
I think that's it. If you got this far - thanks for reading!
Any comments would be really welcome.
W7r
After a bit of advice/guidance. Sorry for the long post!
My trusty old Vaillant combi boiler has been playing up - it was 18 years old so chucking more money at it seemed pointless. I've had a replacement fitted this week, another Vaillant combi installed by a Vaillant Advanced installer thus qualifying me for their extended 10yr warranty. The existing installation was looked at by the engineer prior to the quote, which was later agreed on prior to him starting the work.
I paid upfront for the boiler and sundries, the labour payment is upon completion of commissioning and my being satisfied that the system is working.
I have a few questions which I'm hoping some kind soul(s) might help me with.
i. Takes a deep breath.....
I had a Hive fitted which was using just the Heating channel for obvious reasons. It's worked flawlessly for 3 years on the old combi. The engineer had some "issues" with the existing Hive and insisted on replacing it with the heating only unit stating the existing dual channel one wouldn't work. He said just the receiver would need replacing, but ended charging me for a whole kit - this wasn't mentioned at quote time. Looking at the Vaillant manual wiring diagram it states that there are two Room Thermostat (RT) terminals, one of 24v and another of 230v. The dual-channel Hive works on 230v. Could he not have just connected the Hive into the 230V RT terminal rather than me have to spend another £180, seems to me he either doesn't understand his electrics or I'm misunderstanding completely - not for the first time.
ii. To qualify for the 10yr warranty with Vaillant conditions have to be met, some of which are;
Install a "Vaillant Advance Boiler Protection Kit"
Follow the commission process completing the Benchmark commissioning form with all values entered.
Clean/flush the entire system pipe/rads dose with inhibitor.
He installed the Vaillant Advance Boiler Protection Kit as agreed - so no issue there.
However, he's barely filled out half of the Benchmark form - I'd assume this wouldn't meet with Vaillant T&C's, therefore, rendering my warranty worthless?
He used a Magnacleanse to flush the system but didn't use an agitator on the rads and the way he piped it up I can't see how it would have circulated around the whole system. He had one leg on the flow just below the boiler and one on the return again just below the boiler and was using the internal boiler pump to circulate - seems to me that the water would have just flowed through the Magnacleanse around to the return just before the boiler as that would have been the path of least resistance - shouldn't he have added the Magnacleanse in/out onto the return pipe so the water flows out of the flow, through all pipework, through any open rads and back to the return and through the Magnacleanse? The water looked so clean, yet I know there is sludge in parts of the system. Again, maybe I'm not getting it.
He didn't balance rads, left several completely shut off and there two in the loft are stone cold even though TRV's and lock-shields are open. I saw no evidence of him following the Magnaclense practice of shutting off all but the furthest rad, agitate rad, flush for 5/10 mins, shut off, open next furthest rad, repeat until you get to the nearest one. There are definitely cold spots on some of the rads - shouldn't the Magnaclense have helped with those?
He had to install a filling loop as he claims the built-in one isn't working, I asked him to contact Vaillant about this as far as I'm concerned it's faulty and should be fixed under warranty.
I don't like to argue with people but this is a decent chunk of money, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a professional installation to Vaillant specs - the last thing I want is a load of sludge entering the boiler due to someone cutting corners and me having to pick up the tab due to a poor install.
I think that's it. If you got this far - thanks for reading!
Any comments would be really welcome.
W7r
nice to see you, to see you ... nice!!
