Boiler Nightmare - urgent advice needed -

The story started many weeks ago, but the boiler seemed to be working fine so I was taking my time investigating replacements etc. I think its come to head today at the worst possible time, my wife and 2.5 yr old some return from holidays on Sunday and seems the system is well n truly goosed.

Went out in the evening, only to coem back to find a bit of water dripping from the bottom of the cylinder. I switched it off, took the front panel off, then then the steel plate behind it, as which quite, quite a bit of water rushed out.



I don't know much about boilers, but it looks like the internals or the HExchanger have developed a leak. I checked the piping going in and out of the boiler and that seems fine until it disappears inside the boiler.

Edit: I also closed the main gas valve on the meter and lit a stove to remove any gas inside the house.

Queries:

a) Is it safe to disconnect power to the boiler or is there anything else I should do.
b) Would it be OK to use the electrical immersion heater to get h/water?
c) Would doing (b) potentially cause more leakage from the boiler?. Is there any wat to isolate the water going in and out of the boiler?. I suppose I could close the isolating valves on the pump to close of the discharge side, is there a similar valving arrangement on the inlet?.



Thanks for any help. I gotta call the heating company I've been talking to to see whats the earliest I can get this sorted, have a feeling I've severely undermined my position to haggle a reduction in price
Riz

a) Is it safe to disconnect power to the boiler or is there anything else I should do.
b) Would it be OK to use the electrical immersion heater to get h/water?
c) Would doing (b) potentially cause more leakage from the boiler?. Is there any wat to isolate the water going in and out of the boiler?. I suppose I could close the isolating valves on the pump to close of the discharge side, is there a similar valving arrangement on the inlet?.

Click to expand...

a] There should be an isolation point where you can turn off the power
b] Yes
c] No
c1] Yes Drain the Primary and CH water from the system [Assuming your cylinder is not a 'primatic' aka single feed and vent type]
c2] Supposed wrong = NO

Thanks Slug.

For c1, where would I islate the incoming water into the CH system?. I'm only assuming there is an incoming water stream into the CH side, didn't see many of these system growing up in Karachi ...

So, to use h/water through the immersion heater, I'll need to drain the system?. I just went into the loft and closed the valve shown in this picture:



Would the boiler keep leaking until I've drained it?.

Rizwan

If the heat exchanger has gone it will keepleaking until you drain it.
You are looking for a small feed and expansion tank about 2ft long x 18 inches high x 14 inches wide. find a valve going into it or coming out of it. Failing that put a stick over it and tie the ballvalve up with a bootlace / string.
It will be found above the heght of the cylinder

Would it be the on this picture:



This valve is on the line that comes out of the bigger tank in the loft, where it branches off, one branch goes god knows where, the other one then ties-into this valve which then enters the much smaller tank which has the ballvalve at the inlet (this valve is in line with the ballvalve).

So, I should either close the valve, or if it is seized, raise the ball valve with a string so its tight shut off, and then draint he system using the drain cock below the boiler, its after the 2 actuated valves and the pump shown in this picture:



Am I on the right track?

Thanks for all your help.

Just hope B&Q is open tomorrow so I can get some hose to drain the system.

I went up again and pushed the ball valve down, water started flowing into the small tank. I then closed valve on the inlet to the small tank, pushed the ballvalve down and got no water. Does it mean I've now isolated fresh water supply to the heating circuit and can drain the system?.

Would this still allow me to use hot water from the cylinder using the immersion heater?.

Yes x 2

Dont get too excited about draining the CH system. As long as you can catch the water dripping from the old boiler thats all you actually NEED to do at this stage.

You should be able to turn off the gas under under the boiler, usually a quarter turn square bit or screwdriver slot where the gas pipe joins the boiler. Then you can turn the gas back on to do cooking.

PLEASE DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO RUN THE COOKER TO WARM THE HOUSE AS IT HAS INSUFFICIENT VENTILATION AND MAY KILL YOU FROM MONOXIDE.

You should have an electric immersion heater switch to heat the water. It will take 2-3 hours to become hot.

Use electric fan heaters to warm the essential rooms but dont overdo it or you will blow the electric supply.

Dont be tempted to rush to the first person to fit a boiler. Come to a reasoned choice of boiler and installer.

Tony

Agile,

Given the system won't probably get re-instated for atleast a week or more, I wasn't too keen on draing the CH system for fear (maybe just me being paranoid) of air ingress causing corrosion!!!.. having isolated the supply side from the loft, and the discharge side at the pump, I've put two buckets under the boiler and they've collected literally a ccouple of thimble fulls since 7am today when I finally went to bed!!!.

The h/w cylinder immersion heater works fine, its a 100 litre cylinder and literally gets hot in 20 mins or so!!!... however, Aberdeen is so darn cold just now even the fan heaters didn't work for me so I've moved out to a friends house. The thought of using the stove for heating never occurred to me, had it had, I'm sure it would've seemed like a good idea!!!, so, thanks for the heads-up, I'll keep it in mind for future

I've been in touch with a few companies for a couple of weeks, so, its not altogether a blind decision!!!... though, with my level of knowledge, it'll probably always will be!!!