Breakdown cover.

[jockskinner]

Thanks for the reply,
I totally agree..the service i am paying for (Homserve and Worcester Bosch) is pretty pathetic and I dont think any of the two of them come out of this with glowing reputations.
The heating has decided to come on at the moment and I am just trying to nurse it along as whilst it is AR according to worcester bosch and condemned....I may qualify for a heating grant for another system up to £4000. So you can see why a am reluctant to spend a lot of money until things become clearer. I have had the property survey so await the arrival of BG to say if it condemned or not and if so...then advance to the next stage of the process.
I am still confused though how one company condemns the boiler and onother seem quite happy to work away on it without complaint...very strange.

 

[nogoodatfaultfinding]

This in my humble opinion could be one of three things.

1. Pump Fault (the pump does not need as much use on HW as on CH)
2. Gas Valve (Prob unlikely as you HW works but i have seen them work on HW only)
3. Your room stat or clock is shot (most likely if you are getting hot water) and i have been to alot of cases where the clock/ room stat is tripping in and out which WILL stop the CH running.

Was at one the other day where it was coming on in the morning as told but not in the evening, been to loads of others where they just do as they please.

If im wrong im sorry but i would start with your programmer( assuming you have one).
If you have a programmer which includes batteries which alot do then it may just be a simple case of changing them, as if the batteries are kinda flat then they will be able over time to charge and fire your boiler, its a bit like an old remote control where the red light would flash but the telly would do nowt.

 

[jockskinner]

Thanks for the reply,

Pump seems to work but gets very hot, to hot to hold your hand on but so is my radiators when they eventually fire up.
Couldnt say about the gas valve but the heating sometimes starts clicking on and off even when its been on for an hour or so.

No room thermostat fitted.

There isnt a external programmer, its an older 240 system.

When the worcester bosch visited he said it might be the CH sensor?

Jock.

 

[nogoodatfaultfinding]

Its a hard case to diagnose due to age of boiler, lack of litreature and not actually being hands on.

Could well be a CH sensor as WB man said and if is so and your desperate then phone joe local and tell him that your CH Sensor is shot and get him to replace ( its a five minute job). If this works then go down the recourse of refunds.
If your pump is red hot however this tends to state a blockage in your heat exchanger which would be cheaper to get WB back out to.

 

[jockskinner]

Hi again,

I am usually very good at faultfinding, unfortunately boilers are not my thing but I am picking up rapidly. I ordered a service manual from WB online and I just had to download it and print it.
I priced the CH sensor online and it costs about a tenner including heatsink. Two screws ,two connectors and a skim of heatsink...5 min job, its just a bit awkward due to the lack of working room in the heating cupboard.
Homeserve's agents Thomas Graham were to phone back in a couple of hours but as usual....didn't
Jock.

 

[jockskinner]

General update...

Needless to say ...Thomas Graham engineer did not phone back on Friday afternoon so we have had intermittent heating over the weekend.
Its now Monday and STILL no phonecall from Thomas Graham/dalgetty bay. Had to phone them again and they have said that hopefully their engineer "might swing round my way later" we are not holding our breath and we have now got in electric heaters incase I cannot get the heating on later. How can these suppose boiler engineers get away with level of service???

Jock.

 

[nickso]

getting a bit ridiculous, bin them now, a fixed price repair from BG is going to be cheaper and quicker than this nonsense.

 

[jockskinner]

Thus could probably be one of the last posts.

It took me about an hour to get the heating on this afternoon. About an hour later the Thomas Graham engineer popped in. Unfortunately the heating was still going fine so gave us the usual story. He switched it on and off about a dozen times without failure. I told him that a couple of hours earlier we couldnt get the heating to switch on after numerous attempts....thay it was the same fault we have been having for over a month now. The PCB he replaced had made no difference. He went on the phone to someone for advice (he said it was worcester bosch) but they supposedly couldn't help him. He has now said that this is as much as he can do and unless the boiler comletely dies a death.
So the bottom line is that Thomas Graham have abandond us.

Jock.