dodgy boiler

[lizziej]

Hi can anyone help? I moved into a new house in December and have had trouble with the boiler ever since. It has got to the point now where my plumber doesn't even know what is wrong. he has put a new valve in but nothing seems to work.
It is a Saunier Duval combi boiler. everytime you run either a cold or hot tap it knocks the heating off and it takes a while for the pilot light to re-boot and the heating comes back on. Three of the radiators are now not working (I have tried bleeding them but that doesn't appear to be the problem) and some of the radiators are lukewarm. The timer doesn't work either.
previous to this a lot of water was coming out of the pipe leading from the boiler into my back yard. the boiler kept dropping pressure but that seems to have resolved itself.
Having forked out for plumbing work that hasn't solved the problem i'm wondering whether to cut my losses and get another boiler?
Though I don't want to pay out more money for a new boiler only to be faced with the same problems.
Can anyone advise me further?

 

[JohnD]

For a start, i'd find a new Gas engineer.

Lobbing money at someone who can't fix it and dpesn't know what's wrong is a bad move. Is he a Corgi man?

 

[lizziej]

yes. he has suggested getting a Saunier Duval engineer in to look at it because he says the problem now seems to be out of his remit!

 

[Agile]

You have not said how old it is.

Water coming out into the yard usually means you have left the filling loop open. That can cause a lot of damage in only a few days by rusting the inside of the rads.

It sounds to me as if the boiler is now seriously blocked with sludge and is immediately over heating when you try HW.

Any competent boiler engineer would be able to diagnose that quickly. I can do that from 200 miles away. However you did say he was a plumber!

The boiler probably needs serious work to clean it out and the rads will probably need to be power flushed.

Alternatively, as you say it goes off even if you use cold water then perhaps the filling loop is still open and the system pressure is falling too low to operate the boiler.

Tony

 

[lizziej]

Thanks for that. Unfortunately I don't know how old the boiler is as I only bought my property in December and there was no documentation with it.

 

[Soggy_weetabix]

Is the boiler leaking?

If not then why care if its working or not. Its a saunier not leaking!

I surprised you even got a heating engineer to look at it, but there are a few mad ones amongst us that work on those boilers.

But, not me. I think you may have a restiction...oh I be honest...Tony bang on. Sludge.

Who's that bloke who loves sludge?

David

 

[lizziej]

yeah I know they are dodgy boilers but I bought the house not the boiler. can you recommend a decent make that will heat a large 3 bed house?

 

[Soggy_weetabix]

All heating engineers have different opinions. I mostly repair boilers so look for easiest to work on when installing as I offer maintence contracts once installed.

Plus, customer service is helpful and technical help if I need it.

Reliabilty will come from the cleanliness of the system your boiler has been installed on.

Worcester and Ferrolli's tick my boxes, but we all have our own opinion.

David

 

[corgiman]

WB are mine cuppa

Love the ex Ideal luvver