What a mess !

[Leaking]

OK so here's a recap. Have a Potterton Suprima 70 Boiler (in kitchen) feeding upstairs Gledhill Boilermate II.

New years day, water leaking out of bottom of Potterton. Arrange fixed price repair with Heat Team. Guy calls today as promised - opens front of Potterton and water flows out. Has gone quite a way up inside !

Guy empties system completely and then turns water back on again to see where leak is in Potterton. NOTHING. No water coming through at all.

Initially guy thought that leak caused by water coming through Flue (stormy weather) building up inside boiler.

However we went upstairs to check on Boilermate. Upper feed tank full of sludge - so no water able to be fed through!

What a mess. Both Gledhill and Potterton look totally knackered - so much for a system that would last 20 years (as they say in the brochure).

THe question is what do I do now? Worth throwing good money (after bad) trying to get Gledhill flowing so can get Potterton fixed.

Or go for a new system - but WHICH ??? - should I go for a combin in Kitchen and forget tank all together.

Also radiators are all in good nick - can I just get a new Combi boiler without the hassle of new pipework and have Gledhill ripped out somehow ????

 

[nickso]

i assume the gledhill is not refilling because the internal cold feed pipe is blocked. get your engineer to make a new feed pipe between the tank at the top and the drain off point at the bottom of the gledhill....thats that solved. wont even cost you that much.

you dont say why the suprima is unrepairable.....i assume thats what he said before you are having thoughts about a new boiler.

 

[Agile]

I would have expected if there was a leak in the Suprima then its probably the HE or a connection to it and thats likely to be an uneconomical repair on a boiler not renown for reliability. I found one like that last year. It was the joint into the HE but the whole boiler was seriously rusty.

Nick evidently seems to know what the "Gledhill" is. I thought they were a manufacturer who made lots of different things. There is also a "Boilermate" which I assume to be the same as a "Gledhill" in this context and I would guess must be a vented thermal store with integral F&E tank. I have never seen them used with a Suprima though mostly with a Potty Ultra.

In view of the unreliability of both systems I think a nice combi would be the most cost effective solution and would free up some useful storage space.

Tony

 

[Leaking]

Thanks for your help guys.

The water had done so much damage to the inside of the Potterton Suprima. It had rusted in the space of a day ! It had seeped into the fan, the heat exchange, the gas burners - eveything. The circuit board was water free and whilst replaced 2 years ago would probably have needed replacing again as everything else did so yes very uneconomical to repair.

The Gledhill Boilermate II has a small water tank atop the large tank and it is this that is full of "silt". It has a 15mm pipe feeding into the large tank and yes I think this is blocked with this silt preventing any feeding of water into the lower tank.

Now I don't know what happens inside this large tank - will this also be full of silt ?

My bigger question however is this - there is an immersion heater element to the bottom of the big tank AND an on/off switch.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me whether I can use this to heat any water.

I obviously do not know what it heats and where it gets the cold water from to heat this and whether the problem with the overhead smaller tank will stop this (guy stopped water supply to smaller tank).

 

[nickso]

I would have expected if there was a leak in the Suprima then its probably the HE or a connection to it and thats likely to be an uneconomical repair on a boiler not renown for reliability. I found one like that last year. It was the joint into the HE but the whole boiler was seriously rusty.

Nick evidently seems to know what the "Gledhill" is. I thought they were a manufacturer who made lots of different things. There is also a "Boilermate" which I assume to be the same as a "Gledhill" in this context and I would guess must be a vented thermal store with integral F&E tank. I have never seen them used with a Suprima though mostly with a Potty Ultra.

In view of the unreliability of both systems I think a nice combi would be the most cost effective solution and would free up some useful storage space.

Tony

if you read my post carefully i said i ASSUMED the gledhill was not filling because of the cold feed.....i did not assume which particular model it was. there are plenty in operation around here with a suprima.

i made an assumption based on very little evidence from the OP which i expected him to provide me with if i was wrong.

likewise you have assumed the h/e is leaking without any evidence to back that up.....although you are probably right.

with regards to it being uneconomical to repair it depends on heatteam's terms and conditions. they will no doubt have a problem with running an external cold feed even though it was gledhill who originally told me about that fix. putting a combi in will mean a fair amount of work and cost for this guy....perhaps repairing what he has already is the way forward

 

[kevplumb]

" gledhill + suprima "

christ fella recipie for disaster

mix crap with crap you get

oh yeah crap

 

[Leaking]

Cheers Guys - everyone of you

Kevplumb - you ain't wrong - but it was expensive rubbish

Nickso you are totally right about the upper tank feed pipe being clogged up.

All I wanna find out now is I can use the immersion heater - daren't just turn it on in case there is no water in the damn thing and I risk making a bomb (!) - have searched high and low for Gledhill Boilermate II specs but to no avail. Still it was 1997 so had nearly 10 years out of it (pain most of the time!)

 

[kevplumb]

Kevplumb - you ain't wrong - but it was expensive rubbish

most of it is these days marra

 

[nickso]

Cheers Guys - everyone of you

Kevplumb - you ain't wrong - but it was expensive rubbish

Nickso you are totally right about the upper tank feed pipe being clogged up.

All I wanna find out now is I can use the immersion heater - daren't just turn it on in case there is no water in the damn thing and I risk making a bomb (!) - have searched high and low for Gledhill Boilermate II specs but to no avail. Still it was 1997 so had nearly 10 years out of it (pain most of the time!)

the point is you can probably still use it once its been repaired as ive stated above. there may not be enough water in it...only ways to find out are to refill it or switch the immersion on and see what happens

 

[kevplumb]

fair comment marra