Boiler blowout....

[Mickymoody]

Hi all, I've had boiler trouble before, and it was fixed by Warmfront, by a new boiler..now this new boiler decides to provide no central heating. In the middle of winter. Then it decides that hot water isn't available, but heating is available. So I get an engineer in, and he replaces the sensor, to no avail, and then another engineer replaces the diaphramn to no avail.

But after this second engineer visit, when the system is pressurised, and central heating works, it will randomly leak water from the bowels of the boiler, all over my kitchen. Even if the boiler is not functioning at the time, water spews, and the boiler turns itself on! Many leaks. Many floods.

So in the space of 10 years I've had two boilers that have failed. I'm told that an integral part of the boiler needs to be replaced (divertor valve?) @ over £100+fitting; are boilers THAT unreliable? I know people that have 25 year old boilers, so why make something that won't last 5 years?

So a boiler that won't provide central heating, then does, then won't provide hot water, and less than 5 years old, and the manufacturer doesn't care? Apart from buying a house, or car, surely buying a central heating system is the next most expensive purchase of your life?

An engineer attempts a repair and fails, but leaves the appliance leaking water all over my kitchen, and refuses to fix that? It didn't leak before he came. He 'supposedly' replaced a part, that was obviously broken, but I am left to mop up the mess.

 

[regsmyth]

i reckon you must be on list of perfect customers....

But you're also a victim of the "built in obsolescence" culture that many manufacturers strive towards [ make it break down the day after the guarantee expires]. (I was wondering about this earlier with regard to tools - compare a Hilti to a B&Q.

You also suffer from the belief that others are responsible for solving your problems, whereas you might do better getting yourself gemmed up on how your boiler system works.

This isn't easy, especially if you gave up thinking when you left school (or uni ....). Unfortunately many of us have fallen to this. I believe they're called "sheeple".

We have almost unlimited access to information at the moment with the internet. But that might change, so don't take it for granted.

Anyway, if technological advances such as those made by Tesla about a hundred years ago hadn't been smothered and hidden from the public by the powers that be, we wouldn't need crXppy unreliable boilers at all.

Sorry to hear of your problems though.

 

[Mickymoody]

No, not at all, since leaving school, I worked for the council, based at a local collage, and trained alongside doing my job, even repairing electrical items for the tutors that taught electronics.

I've worked since then on electro-mechanical equipment, so boiler repair is not that far removed, just the legalities of working on such equipment, so as to keep it legal and safe.

The end user manual for the boiler gives detailed instruction, and veng diagrams of failures, and how to resolve them, I wish TV manuals had the same information!

But posting on a forum, can lead to misinformation, and lead down a road to the wrong conclusion, as there seem to be people out there willing to post for the hell of it, regardless of their technical ability, or IQ.

So now, due to bad advice, I could have replaced the diaphram, and it would be sorted, but the manifold itself is duff. Now the part costs £120? and fitting it, well plumbing isn't my bag. I can fix your telly, but attaching two pipes together, not my thing. One quote 'mates rates' is £500 to repair.

Often. the interweb isn't the holy grail it's purported to be, a mate asked me to repair his Philips TV at the weekend, nothing obvious, it come on for 5 minutes, then shuts down, then restarts, then shuts down...could be anything; psu, video processing, tube, anything, and as it isn't a solid fault, can't be found by cold checking it either! The internet suggested a possible cause, but only one likely suspect from the billions of data out there.

 

[regsmyth]

Well I've eaten my hat. It was disgusting. Sorry for jumping to conclusions. I wish I had your expertise in electrical stuff.
I wonder how many other people have piles of electronic goods in the loft that are probably quite easily repairable, if only we knew which little bit was wrong.

Anyway, guess what - my boiler packed up this morning....

 

[Mickymoody]

Well I've eaten my hat. It was disgusting. Sorry for jumping to conclusions. I wish I had your expertise in electrical stuff.
I wonder how many other people have piles of electronic goods in the loft that are probably quite easily repairable, if only we knew which little bit was wrong.

Anyway, guess what - my boiler packed up this morning....

Nah - don't be like that, I was trained by a major manufacturer to repair one type of equipment, and there were others that specialised in theirs, but slowly, training was rolled out so everyone had to cover everything. I likened it at the time as teaching someone that could fix a biplane, to suddenly repair a helicopter, the info is there, the background is there, but the experience and knowledge isn't. I can take a computer motherboard apart, and repair it, but if I'm messing inside a boiler, probably illegally, and something is wrong, then it may have dire consequences. A computer going pop, means having another go, a boiler going pop = death.

I have a microvitec monitor in the loft, used to fix them in 5 mins for toffee, but no service manual, and that long since I repaired one, I can't fix it.

 

[evsy01]

What's the make and model of your boiler?

 

[Mickymoody]

What's the make and model of your boiler?

Ravenheat LS80. The divertor valve is faulty/leaking. £150 to replace, £150 to repair, so £300 repair, that I can't afford. Brrr cold water.

 

[newbuildinstaller]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i see the problem! happens all the time with Raveheat boilers, the problem is that its a Ravenheat boiler and not a real boiler made by a quality manufacture (Baxi, Main. Worcester Bosch, Veiessmann Atag etc) If you buy a cheap boiler you get a cheap boiler. Think sony Bravia TV next to a Digitrex TV

 

[Mickymoody]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i see the problem! happens all the time with Raveheat boilers, the problem is that its a Ravenheat boiler and not a real boiler made by a quality manufacture (Baxi, Main. Worcester Bosch, Veiessmann Atag etc) If you buy a cheap boiler you get a cheap boiler. Think sony Bravia TV next to a Digitrex TV

Didn't buy it, it was suggested to me, and installed. And is now broke. And the scheme that replaced it now fails to replace or repair it. So fix cheap, suffer the consequence.

 

[electronicsuk]

Why don't you take a look at your rights on the government's consumer direct and go from there? Manufacturer's are obliged to provide much more than a years cover on many of their products, regardless or the warranty period or whether or not you have purchased an extended warranty. If you're willing to take some time and put your concerns in writing to the manufacturer (or at least their distributor in this country) then you might have a chance. It's unlikely they will admit to any design flaw or built-in obsolescence with the boiler, but they may fix the fault as a 'gesture of goodwill', to pacify you if nothing else.

 

[Mickymoody]

Why don't you take a look at your rights on the government's consumer direct and go from there? Manufacturer's are obliged to provide much more than a years cover on many of their products, regardless or the warranty period or whether or not you have purchased an extended warranty. If you're willing to take some time and put your concerns in writing to the manufacturer (or at least their distributor in this country) then you might have a chance. It's unlikely they will admit to any design flaw or built-in obsolescence with the boiler, but they may fix the fault as a 'gesture of goodwill', to pacify you if nothing else.

I did initially contact the manufacturer, and expressed my dismay at the demise of my previous boiler, then this, in such a short time period, for such an expensive item, and they gave me short shrift, just dismissed me, and referred me back to Warmfront/the installers. And I didn't get anywhere with them. They make stuff to last x amount of years, then get extra trade by selling parts, and discontinuing the model, so they sell more. Rather than the old British adage - built to last.

 

[electronicsuk]

Perhaps you need to work your way through the sale of goods act, assuming it applies to this type of purchase, and see if there's anything there you can use for ammunition. You may get nowhere, but if you're able to quote a relevant part of the act then it may be enough to get their attention.

 

[Franciszek]

Why don't you take a look at your rights on the government's consumer direct and go from there? Manufacturer's are obliged to provide much more than a years cover on many of their products, regardless or the warranty period or whether or not you have purchased an extended warranty. If you're willing to take some time and put your concerns in writing to the manufacturer (or at least their distributor in this country) then you might have a chance. It's unlikely they will admit to any design flaw or built-in obsolescence with the boiler, but they may fix the fault as a 'gesture of goodwill', to pacify you if nothing else.

I did initially contact the manufacturer, and expressed my dismay at the demise of my previous boiler, then this, in such a short time period, for such an expensive item, and they gave me short shrift, just dismissed me, and referred me back to Warmfront/the installers. And I didn't get anywhere with them. They make stuff to last x amount of years, then get extra trade by selling parts, and discontinuing the model, so they sell more. Rather than the old British adage - built to last.

Once did a powerflushing course at Ravenheat and i asked one of their managers why were spare parts so expensive.His reply was that compared to the price of a new boiler in Europe the UK was cheaper so he said you might as well just buy a new boiler. Just the throw away culture we seemed to have adopted.

 

[Mickymoody]

Why don't you take a look at your rights on the government's consumer direct and go from there? Manufacturer's are obliged to provide much more than a years cover on many of their products, regardless or the warranty period or whether or not you have purchased an extended warranty. If you're willing to take some time and put your concerns in writing to the manufacturer (or at least their distributor in this country) then you might have a chance. It's unlikely they will admit to any design flaw or built-in obsolescence with the boiler, but they may fix the fault as a 'gesture of goodwill', to pacify you if nothing else.

I did initially contact the manufacturer, and expressed my dismay at the demise of my previous boiler, then this, in such a short time period, for such an expensive item, and they gave me short shrift, just dismissed me, and referred me back to Warmfront/the installers. And I didn't get anywhere with them. They make stuff to last x amount of years, then get extra trade by selling parts, and discontinuing the model, so they sell more. Rather than the old British adage - built to last.

Once did a powerflushing course at Ravenheat and i asked one of their managers why were spare parts so expensive.His reply was that compared to the price of a new boiler in Europe the UK was cheaper so he said you might as well just buy a new boiler. Just the throw away culture we seemed to have adopted.

I must enrol on one of those courses, so that I can ask the same, and lamp him one! A few years ago, the TV set was the most expensive thing, outside a house and a car, and you got a man in to repair it, now they are mass produced and throwaway, now it seems a £2000+ boiler is deemed to be throwaway? (as my last one was), £250 for a part that isn't guaranteed to fix it, after all the money that has been spent....

 

[sterowley]

Why don't you take a look at your rights on the government's consumer direct and go from there? Manufacturer's are obliged to provide much more than a years cover on many of their products,

Manufactures are obliged to do sod all. Under SOGA your contract is with the supplier not the manufacture.

After 6 mounts of purchase its down to the consumer to to prove the fault inherent and not due to fair wear and tear. They're no set down rules on how long things last but the limit for claims is 6 years.

Repair/replacement/refund are the choices for remedy but which ever is chosen must not be of significant cost to the supplier.

So to presume warm front you need to get your repair block to write a report saying that the fault is inherent with the item and not though fair ware and tear.