Pulsacoil III suspected fault and replacement options - help needed.

[acideraser]

We have a flat with Pulsacoil III used as a hot water source. There is no gas in the property, only electricity. Pulsacoil is about 15 years old, from new built.

Tenant new tenant moved in and reported there was no hot water, plumbers called in by the agency and advised that that the pump to be seized and need to be replaced, but as any repair for these old cylinders there could be further faults and if so then will repair uneconomical, suggesting to replace the cylinder rather than repair it.

They offered following options for replacement:
Option 1: To replace the pump on old cylinder.

Option 2: To replace the cylinder with a center brand cylinder. (20 year cylinder leak warranty and 2 year parts warranty)

Option 3: To replace the cylinder with a Tempest cylinder. (20 year cylinder leak warranty and 2 year parts warranty)

Option 4: To replace the cylinder with a Megaflow cylinder. (25 year cylinder leak warranty and 2 year parts warranty)


I'd like to know if indeed replacing pump on a 15 year old Pulsacoil may be false economy and indeed better to replace the whole thing completely?

If indeed better to replace - I would appreciate expect opinion / advice on reliability of other options offered (less maintenance - better as this property is being rented out at the moment).

Also what concerns me is that as far as I know Pulsacoil is not a water Cylinder, rather a thermal store and due to the initial design of the flat and installation there is no drain or relief pipework where Pulsacoil is installed.

Does it make any sense to replace it with water cylinder or there may be other options?

I would probably avoid megaflow option as it is most expensive.

Thanks for advice.

 

[Hot&Cold]

These people may still be in business http://www.gledhill-response.net/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxfWNsurW1QIV1hXTCh0uyA8EEAAYASAAEgKdh_D_BwE

The plumber sent by the letting agency may not want to get involved with the pluscoil dont blame him thou.

 

[oldbuffer]

1. Were the agency plumbers knowledgeable about these thermal stores? They are a bit specialised, and the reasons for not working can be as simple as no water in the overhead reservoir.
2. The suggestion to replace with an unvented hot water cylinder is unlikely to be workable if the store is not within easy reach of an outside wall.
3. I used to look after one or two of these in a block of flats (until the agents were too slow paying). In at least one case another plumber suggested converting to unvented, thinking it was already an unvented cylinder.
4. You could also contact http://www.pulsacoil-repairs.co.uk/

 

[acideraser]

Thanks very much oldbuffer and Old&bold.
these replacement options looked a bit strange to me too as there is no access to outside wall nor any drain outlet near the cupboard where pulsacoil is located - it is almost in the centre of the building.

Will check water level in the overhead reservoir myself tonight first and if this is not the problem then perhaps contact Bryan from pulsacoil repairs.

 

[acideraser]

as I suspected, it just needed water top up to overhead reservoir

 

[Ethel H]

I don't believe an outside wall is essential for the discharge pipe as discussed elsewhere on this website. We replaced out pulsacoil 2000 with an unvented stainless steel cylinder.

Luckily our plumber located the soil stack (vertical waste pipe behind plasterboard) and connected the discharge pipe from the cylinder into the soil stack easily. We could identify where the soil stack was by following where the kitchen sink waste pipe ended up going but we could have easily cut into the kitchen sink waste pipe itself had we not been able to locate the main soil stack. The plumber deemed the soil stack and sink waste pipe to be able to handle very hot water or steam.