Whistling boiler

[usherpaul]

My boiler is whistling and i got a plumber round who charged me £60 call out then said it was air and i needed to bleed the radiators. This has not worked. Any body know what else i can try please. It is a gas Thorn Emi Apollo with a flu on the outside wall.
The whistling happens when i turn on the heating and hot water and when the heating/hot water comes on from the thermostat. It is not a combi. The whistling stops as soon as the heating goes off.
The water and heating seem to work fine and i bleed the radiators about once every 2 weeks and 1 radiator has about 4 seconds of air coming out.

Thanks

 

[LUNAT]

HI

it could also be buid up of scale inside the boiler.does it sound like kettling ?

 

[usherpaul]

Thanks for the reply. Not sure what kettling is but it is a similar sound to a kettle whistle or an aeroplane. I have some de scaler i use on my kettle can this be put in the boiler somewhere? Reluctant to start opening it up without more knowledge as i am not a plumber.
British gas say they will come and do a one off repair for £210 but only guarantee any work for 28 days.

 

[namsag]

Stick some sentinel x200 in system this should quieten it down

 

[usherpaul]

I'll give it a try, thanks for the advice.

 

[Agile]

Other boiler people on this forum will not like this but.....

This guy charged you a very reasonable £60 to come and diagnose the fault!

His diagnosis was not correct!!!

Surely, either he comes again free and correctly diagnoses the problem. ( We cannot all get it right the first time after all (?) )

Or he refunds the £60 he charged for his incorrect diagnosis!

Simple enough to me! But you must give him the opportunity to decide if he is going to come and correctly diagnose the problem or just refund the £60.

X200 will probably solve the problem but why should the muppet get away with your £60 when he has not done what was asked of him??? These incompetents give our profession bad name!

Tony

 

[simond]

A whistling boiler is a happy boiler.

I've asked Agile and he says you can have the £60 back.

 

[usherpaul]

Thanks Tony. It was ages ago that i had the guy round and i just thought he had ripped me off when the problem was not resolved. I'll try and track him down as i still see the person who put me in touch with him.
It was a call out fee and i know these people charge for their knowledge even though it would have been fairer if he had done some after sales service and bothered to check with me if the problem had gone away. I would expect to be charged again so i would rather try some trial and error myself first if i cant track the original guy down.
Im looking for a manual for the boiler to see where to put the Sentinel x200 and how to take apart the cover etc. I have had the bottom cover off where the ignition and thermostat switch is.
Anyone know where to get the manual please? Im looking on the net and i suppose the thorn emi website should be my first stop.

 

[usherpaul]

Thanks simon but its not when ive done a night shift and forgotten to change the timer and cant get back to sleep. Maybe ill put a sign on my pillow. " Dont forget the timer" And a sign in the airing cupboard "dont bang your head bending down to change the timer" because it was fitted by a flippin contortionist.

 

[Agile]

Thanks Tony. It was ages ago that i had the guy round and i just thought he had ripped me off when the problem was not resolved. I'll try and track him down as i still see the person who put me in touch with him.

It was a call out fee and i know these people charge for their knowledge even though it would have been fairer if he had done some after sales service and bothered to check with me if the problem had gone away. I would expect to be charged again.

He had not intentionally ripped you off! He just wrongly diagnosed the fault.

We dont have time to call every customer ( unless they are Miss UK potential ) to see if we have fixed the problem. Most clients will be on the phone the next day if we havent!

We charge for our knowledge, that quite true. But we want to give a good service and most dont expect to charge if we have not got it right!

Suppose this fellow said the same thing to everyone and NO ONE ever called him back to say it was wrong? After 30-40 times he will be thinking he is very successful as he gets it right 100% of the time!

Tony

 

[usherpaul]

Fair point Agile although i would say part of a good service is checking the customer is happy. Shift work messes with the head and if someone is constantly tired and is being woken up then its not easy to be on the ball. I should try and get in touch and i will try and track him down. My experiance with (only some) trade workers is that they will say give me another ring or ring me back later/ tomorrow/ next week etc. Hardly inspiring to ring them back. In my opinion counter productive but when there is lots of work for (again some) trade workers maybe these dont need to care. By the way are you Agile by name and nature? Did you fit my timer clock?

 

[gas4you]

Anyone gas rated the boiler?

 

[usherpaul]

Sorry agile i called you Tony earlier. Suppose you have been called worse.

 

[usherpaul]

No Dave. I had a corgi certificate a couple of years ago. Is that what you mean?

 

[gas4you]

NO. You need to have it gas rated, ie see how much gas it is actually using. If it is not whistling due to scale, it could be because the burner jet has worn and letting too much gas through. This is called 'singing'.