Why my WAU overheated ....

[Mikefromlondon]

I rent a house in Harlow, where the WAU appeared to have suffered from excessive overheat and its front plastic cover deformed badly, without me going into a long story, that would need about 2 whole pages, so here is the final cause of the original fault!

Today I managed get a WAU qualified RGI to issue me with much delayed and needed safety record. Thank God for that!

The first engineer condemned it rightly, and sealed off and capped the gas supply at the meter, but was no longer interested in repairing it, full stop! The cooking and hot water is electric, just as well it was!

So I managed to find a second engineer, who went to the place to have a look what needs to be done, but could not test it as the gas meter was now not only capped off but also she did not have any credit left in it, so he advised me that he thinks it must either be the fan switch failure or the limit switch failure, and possibly the fan motor, so he recommended that because of the age of the appliance, i would be better of replacing the two sensors any way, and he could check the motor which he did by applying ac voltage to it and it ran smoothly, so I told him to go ahead and order all the necessary parts as I was getting in serious issues with tenants an my lettings agent.

So when the parts arrived, he went along and replaced them, and again he could not test as the tenant had mislaid or lost her Pre-payment gas card, so the meter could not be turned on and he left charging me full amount but without issuing a safety record and said he would come back to issue me one, once the gas supply has been restored or the Tenant gets a new pre-payment card. he left the meter still capped for safety.

The tenant managed to order a new prepayment card last week, but the guy who was servicing it is now abroad on a month long holiday

My Lettings Agent was also getting restless, and the tenant threatening to report me for not able to supply space heating, I was right in the middle of this loosing battle!

But the lettings agent wasn't interested in what I said and thought I was making stories and wasn't deliberately trying to restore the heating! far from it!

So finally today i managed to get hold of another WAU RGI, who happens to be in the area and he would be glad to help!

So there we go, I met him at the premises, I explained to him that the unit has been restored by an engineer who is now on holidays and is not due back until middle of January, and I need this thing going! i am being crucified left right center with threats from both the tenant and the lettings agent! tenant would seek her rent clawed back, and the lettings agent accused me of committing a criminal offense by not being able to provide heating under the housing act 1985! I just couldn't win, you have already read my why i couldn't progress with replacing the WAU whilst the tenant is still there because of the asbestos, all the liability issues! the removal company wanted everything out including her belongings!

So i managed to ring a 3rd WAU specialist, I tried to be as truthful to him as I could, as he wanted to know why it was capped off, I told him that I have been told it was a fan switch gone wrong that caused some overheating issues and it needed a new fan switch, but while he was going to replace a new fan switch, he might as well replace the limit switch to be on the safe side, and also advised me to replace the thermocouple. So he had done all that, except he couldn't test the appliance as there was no gas available at the meter due to pre-payment meter card mislaid by the tenant!


I told the guy that I am not asking him to take any risk, but that he should check the appliance weather it is fit for the purpose or not, if it is unsafe then he fails it or if it is safe then he should issue a landlord's safety record.

fine he said, but he will need to service it again, he won't just issue a safety record without a service, I said fine, go ahead and his price was very reasonable, I actually paid him 30% more as I was well pleased that he conducted a just and honest test and it passed all aspect of WAU.

Test included ventilation and flue inspection right all the way from the appliance to all the way inside the loft!

The tenant had blocked all the permanent vents along the exterior wall and was cautioned by them not to do that again! or the consequences will be lethal!

Later on as they were checking all registers, (heat emitting vents) they found that the tenant had stuffed a thick jacket inside the vent duct to stop heat being emitted in one of the rooms!

This is what I think caused the WAU to overheat, as the duct was bunged up with this bloody jacket! as we took it out the tenant was in the room, and as she saw us pulling that jacket out, she exclaimed loudly oh that where my jacket went! I was wondering where it had gone!

cheeky cow, could have burnt my place down if that jacket had caught fire! That is tenants for you! Block the vents and stuff the ducts! and expect landlords to provide safe heating!

So I told her never ever do that again, this stupid tenant has cost me all this aggro for nothing!

When second engineer who restored the appliance with new parts, he let me have to old parts as I said I am really curious as to really what went wrong with this heating, not only from the safety point of view but also as a way to avoid it happening again!

so when I took that fan and the limit switch home, I put them on test, blew hot air from a hot air gun, could not find anything wrong with them! the heating must have therefore overheated, because the first floor registers were bunged up!

I am thinking was the tenant trying to save on heating costs by stopping the heat being fanned upstairs! crazy!

Clearly says on my registers "do not block"

 

[gaswizzard]

the heating overheated, because the first floor registers were bunged up!


Clearly says on my registers "do not block"

Nope , try again

Was filter clean?

Have you a return air path on that unit? (return air ducted directly into top of heater)

 

[mickyg]

i read all that waiting for the problem to assist with only to find there wasn't one ! how disappointing !
The problem you have is not tenants, but harlow tenants
Thats an area I cover.....reluctantly.....Most of the WAU there are either U duct flats or fairly large 70s houses........There are a few flat topped exceptions... glad you got it sorted mike

 

[Dan Robinson]

Would have thought a WAU register wold be closeable so you didn't have to heat that space?

Meh.., don't care anyway.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Yes all room doors have a glass pane above the doors, and a 1" gap on top, these were Ok, not blocked

as well as the WAU cupboard door that is lined with asbestos sheet had both top and bottom vents with metal grills clear.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

i read all that waiting for the problem to assist with only to find there wasn't one ! how disappointing !
The problem you have is not tenants, but harlow tenants
Thats an area I cover.....reluctantly.....Most of the WAU there are either U duct flats or fairly large 70s houses........There are a few flat topped exceptions... glad you got it sorted mike

I think this lady is my worst nightmare, she has breached so many tenancy clauses, that being a sympathetic and a patient landlord, I have actually fallen off with my lettings agent, who no longer wishes to deal with me or her, simply because I had overruled their decision to serve her section 21, but that was then in March when i knew nothing of the heating issues or other breaches but only on falling behind rent ground bases!


If I had known how she has messed my place up, I would surely have gone ahead on those bases but not just on rent arrears.

things are bad out there, so you can't be that cruel with poverty ridden tenants!

 

[Mikefromlondon]

i read all that waiting for the problem to assist with only to find there wasn't one ! how disappointing !
The problem you have is not tenants, but harlow tenants
Thats an area I cover.....reluctantly.....Most of the WAU there are either U duct flats or fairly large 70s houses........There are a few flat topped exceptions... glad you got it sorted mike

Yes mate it is a square or rectangular duct work in galvanised steel, has registers that cannot be closed other than louvers that can be angled to direct the warm air towards different directions.

I think this lady is my worst nightmare, she has breached so many tenancy clauses, that being a sympathetic and a patient landlord, I have actually fallen off with my lettings agent, who no longer wishes to deal with me or her, simply because I had overruled their decision to serve her section 21, but that was then in March when i knew nothing of the heating issues or other breaches but only on falling behind rent ground bases!


If I had known how she has messed my place up, I would surely have gone ahead on those bases but not just on rent arrears.

things are bad out there, so you can't be that cruel with poverty ridden tenants!

 

[gaswizzard]

Yes all room doors have a glass pane above the doors, and a 1" gap on top, these were Ok, not blocked

as well as the WAU cupboard door that is lined with asbestos sheet had both top and bottom vents with metal grills clear.

Has the unit got a return air path directly into unit (flexi pipe into top of unit around 300mm diameter) , I would of thought so if it has been signed off.

Seen a few WAU's catch fire with return air not installed (vitiation)

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Yes all room doors have a glass pane above the doors, and a 1" gap on top, these were Ok, not blocked

as well as the WAU cupboard door that is lined with asbestos sheet had both top and bottom vents with metal grills clear.

Has the unit got a return air path directly into unit (flexi pipe into top of unit around 300mm diameter) , I would of thought so if it has been signed off.

Seen a few WAU's catch fire with return air not installed (vitiation)

No, I don't think this one has a dedicated return path as such, it picks up the air from the the hall way, from a tone louver at the top, and one at the bottom facing the hall way, and then through a dust filter (which wasn't blocked as such but just a thin layer of dust) fan warms the sucked air, and pumps it into 2 rooms downstairs and the hallway itself from the bottom grill, and then to 2 rooms upstairs, and each of these rooms are vented from the top so that the air circulates back out into the hallway, which maintains the flow.

There is a timer and a room state in one room, but the tenants use just the room state to turn it off when not needed and turn it up to the temp they want to maintain.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

the heating overheated, because the first floor registers were bunged up!


Clearly says on my registers "do not block"

Nope , try again

Was filter clean?

Have you a return air path on that unit? (return air ducted directly into top of heater)

Do you mean it says "DO NOT COVER" instead of I said do not block, yes they do not have a control to shut them off, or else why would the tenant stuff a jacket in the duct?

Filter was reasonably clean, just a thin layer of dust,

And yes there is a top vent from where the air is inducted as well as one at the very bottom close to the burner section.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

I am of the opinion that if your outlet is partially blocked i.e.stuffing a thick jacket for example in one or more of the Duct outlets, for example if the tenants may have blocked the warm air from heating rooms upstairs, leaving just the ones downstairs, possibly in their futile attempt to trying to save on energy bills!

So this would have first of all put a strain on the fan motor, that has to try and push all the air through one or two outlets as opposed to from 4 vents. My Fan Motor had never burnt out for all its entire life except recently, (18 months ago) now I remember when these current tenants moved in about 2 and half years ago, I had to replace the motor, it is now all coming back!

One of the problems can be that many engineers haven't got the time to delve on a failure of certain parts, it is usually put down to wear & tear and its age, so they don't tend to investigate the cause fully, and quickly order a new one to replace without delving any further. (I don't blame them as they have other calls waiting to go to) How many times would you think before replacing a fan motor in say condensing boilers, when it had either burnt up, or failed for another reason. You would simply replace it and put the cause of failure on "just one of those things....i.e. faulty item, bad manufacture, or just a natural failure due to prolonged usage"

Now it is all coming back to me, and now I can see the cause!

So from day one they had most probably been fiddling with the system.

This does nothing to save on the gas use, because of the vintage system design, it uses crude form of heat control, i.e. bimetallic switch elements,
which do not regulate the heat output to a very fine and precise temperature control.

I can now see, if you stuffed an outlet or two, the air flow becomes restrictive, and temperature rises and starts to push far more hotter air than intended, this must result bin room where the grill is still open to heat up more and real warm, but it also must cause a lot of heat building up within the enclosed cupboard, as the air flow is now reduced, so a large amount of heat builds up that caused this plastic front panel to melt!


The new panel replaced is now made of powder coated steel.

So the bottom line is my heating although very old, has been very effective, but because it has been tampered with, that is what caused its two major failures during the term of the current tenancy, whereas, during the past 15 or so years it has suffered no major issues.

It may be worth remembering that if all 4 outlets are blocked, the warm air won't have anywhere to go but start heating the appliance to such a degree so as to melt its front plastic cover! It would cycle like an oven around 180 degrees, you could possibly bake cakes!


(So it is the Tenants that you have to blame, not on my old heating. I was quite concerned when the old sensors tested OK! I was afraid that there may be another cause with the appliance that the RGI has not managed to pick up, but now I know what caused this failure.)

They will soon be out now I can promise.

(I will post a pic of the melted front panel a bit laters)

The old sensors that I tested had nothing wrong with them, new ones have gone in as the Engineer wanted to play safe.

 

[Gasop]

So i managed to ring a 3rd WAU specialist, I tried to be as truthful to him as I could, as he wanted to know why it was capped off, I told him that I have been told it was a fan switch gone wrong that caused some overheating issues and it needed a new fan switch, but while he was going to replace a new fan switch, he might as well replace the limit switch to be on the safe side, and also advised me to replace the thermocouple. So he had done all that, except he couldn't test the appliance as there was no gas available at the meter due to pre-payment meter card mislaid by the tenant!


I told the guy that I am not asking him to take any risk, but that he should check the appliance weather it is fit for the purpose or not, if it is unsafe then he fails it or if it is safe then he should issue a landlord's safety record.

fine he said, but he will need to service it again, he won't just issue a safety record without a service, I said fine, go ahead and his price was very reasonable, I actually paid him 30% more as I was well pleased that he conducted a just and honest test and it passed all aspect of WAU.

So how did WAU specialist number 3 manage to test the appliance and issue a safety certificate with no gas supply from the meter?

 

[Mikefromlondon]

It all happened yesterday, the Tenant phoned to say she has got her prepayment card through the post, but a guy from Southern Electric will be sent to initilise the card to remove some old debt, as she has paid that seperately.

So I then phoned through internet yellow pages to find any WAU specialist who would go and issue me a landlord's safety record, as the guy who started restoring the appliance is not due back till mid January.

I could not wait any longer as things were getting really tense, to the extent that i have had a letter from my lettings agent that with an immediate effect they will no longer wish to deal with me from now on!

They really thought I was dragging this on!

So I was actually there before the engineer turned up, and whilst waiting for them, this chap from Southern Electric came over and did what he had to and put a 10 quids worth of charge in the meter.

The RGI then conducted his business without me standing over his shoulder.

 

[gaswizzard]

No, I don't think this one has a dedicated return path as such, it picks up the air from the the hall way, from a tone louver at the top,
.

In that case the unit should not of been left in service , was the 3rd guy a RGI? , or maybe even the 2nd guy?

These open flued WAU's MUST have return air ducted directly to heater (flame reversal)

 

[Mikefromlondon]

This is an Ex Council property, in other words I bought it from its previous owner who purchased it from his local Council, under the right to buy council homes. under Mrs Thatcher's new scheme!


So these are Council build row of houses, and all fixtures and fittings must comply with that council's own building regulations as well as any heating appliances they originally installed, so are you telling me that nearly a dozen or so RGI are incompetent to have issued a safety record for the past 15 years, and that it must have a dedicated return path for the burner.

For your information, yes all the Engineers who worked on this system are fully competent WAU specialist, the only requirement for ventilation is that the premises must have permanent means of adequate vent, that is open to outside to draw fresh air into the hall way. This does not mean it has to be a spiral duct or any other duct as long as the fresh air gets to the hallway from where it is drawn into the cupboard through two vents on the door, so in my view it has always had adequate ventilation and unless it was deliberately blocked by a tenant, that is another issue, and if you have stupid tenants then nothing would stop them blocking a duct or a spiral inlet either if they wanted to.