Ravenheat Boiler ?problem

[Alison556]

I wonder if anyone can help.

I have a Ravenheat CSI85T condensing combi boiler, fitted almost two years ago.

My problem is this. I turn the hot tap on and (yes, I timed this, sad, I know) 68 seconds later, I'm starting to get sort of warm water through. It takes maybe another 20 seconds before it's what I'd class as hot.

However..................

If the central heating is on and I turn a tap on, I get almost instant scalding water and it takes 43 seconds before it cools down enough to actually be able to put your hand under it.

I don't know if this is normal or not. I would have thought that this shouldn't happen because surely that must be some kind of safety issue - if a child or elderly person turned a tap on and got scalded. I've had a few sore scalds myself from it.

When the gas man came out to service it, I mentioned this to him and his explanation went along the lines of......

When the central heating is on, there is some water from the central heating remaining inside the boiler. When I turn a tap on, this water from the central heating is diverted into the tap and has to be run off before the water will reach the temperature that is set with the thermostat.

Is he just fobbing me off with some rubbish?

My poor hands can't take much more of the burning water because no matter how hard I try, I automatically put my hand under the tap when I turn it on.

I'd appreciate some advice because I don't want to go back and say there's a problem and look like a right idiot!

Also, one of my radiators seems not to be as hot as the others - the room that this radiator is in always feels cold. Using what I'd class as logical thinking I'd say it was the second last radiator in the loop, but what is logical to me might not have been to the cowboy that fitted the heating system!! I don't think it's an airlock because there are no hot and cold patches, the entire radiator just isn't as hot as the rest.

All advice greatfully received.

Many thanks,

Alison

 

[bengasman]

Don’t know if this model has a mini thermal store, but if so, it could be turned off. Look in your manual if it says anything about this. The part about the big change when the heating is on, you got big difference could also mean your diverter is not working properly.
You could call ravenheat customer service and ask them

 

[Alison556]

Thank you.

I don't see anything in the manual about a thermal store. Could it be called anything else?

I'll phone Ravenheat in the morning.

 

[bengasman]

could be called anything i suppose. find the page(s) where you see a picture of the boiler contorls with all the buttons, and check what they are called. any name that you do not know immediately what it is for, check what it does.

 

[Alison556]

Thanks for your help. I've not had a chance to phone Ravenheat yet, so I'll have to try and do it on Monday. I don't know enough about 'em to know what half the things in it are!

 

[gas4you]

No thermal store.

You should have hot water within about 30 seconds.

In winter with ch on it is normal that HW will come through extra hot for a few seconds then go cool then come back to the set temperature.

Did your service engineer check the max and min burner pressures?

Did he check the working pressure at the gas meter?

As a side thought Ravenheat band A boilers come with a 3 year warranty.

Have you tried to call them to check if yours is covered by this?

Sounds like he is an installer who doesn't know how to service or set up a boiler to me

 

[Alison556]

No thermal store.

You should have hot water within about 30 seconds.

In winter with ch on it is normal that HW will come through extra hot for a few seconds then go cool then come back to the set temperature.

So the times I've given for hot water on it's own and water cooling down when the heating is on is longer than it should be?

Did your service engineer check the max and min burner pressures?

Did he check the working pressure at the gas meter?

I honestly don't know. He was only there about 10 minutes and when I mentioned the problems with the scalding water, he just told me that was normal.

As a side thought Ravenheat band A boilers come with a 3 year warranty.

I noticed that when I was on their website so it should still be under warranty - it was January 2006 that it was installed. I was wanting to phone Ravenheat today, but I didn't get the chance.

Sounds like he is an installer who doesn't know how to service or set up a boiler to me

The central heating system was done by the local Council as part of a central heating and rewiring programme. The company that did the work really have a bad name - even the guy from the Council that was organising the programme couldn't believe that they had used this company again - they'd had terrible problems with them before. My mum lives not far from me and she had the same work done and she had nothing but leaks - even up to last month she was still getting leaking radiators - and that was two years after they were put in! When she said the pressure kept dropping on the boiler, they said that it was normal for the pressure to drop every now and again.

We've got air in the system just now and the guy told me to bleed the radiators myself, but the boiler needs topped up after that and although I THINK I know how to do it, I don't think I should be trying to do it.

Heck, this company couldn't even wire up a smoke alarm! It took 5 electricians and 18 months of me complaining that everytime I switched the electric shower on the smoke alarm went off for them to discover that it had been wired up wrongly. And that was only found after they replaced the unit and it still did it and I asked them to actually check the wiring! They kept telling me it wouldn't be that - and it was!!

Sorry, went off on a rant there, but I really don't trust their work. Lots of dodgy goings on (when you switch the bathroom light off, the security light outside goes on!!).

I'll phone Ravenheat on Monday and let you know what they say.

Alison

 

[Alison556]

I phoned Ravenheat and spoke to a chap there. I have to say he sounded a wee bit vague but he assures me that the water temperature should be constant and there shouldn't be this scalding water coming through.

I told him that the gas engineer said that it was water sitting in the boiler from the heating that was coming through first and he says that the engineer was most likely trying to fob me off because the water from the heating and hot tap doesn't mix so there shouldn't be any heating water coming through the taps.

I'm now waiting on the central heating man to come out - hopefully this side of Christmas!! Because I have hot water (and boy, have I got hot water), it's not an emergency.