Replacing old boiler

[andy_g]

My 15 year old boiler has sprung a leak and it puts out the flames in the burner. Curiously that is exactly what happened 15 years ago to the previous boiler. Both are the same make and type.

The leak is small, I presume, but when the burner starts the steam puts out the flames. On the rare occasion that the burner manages to carry on, if you place your hand over the exhaust, the hot air that is coming out is very humid like a steam iron.

This leak has been going on for a few months now, but we did not know it, even though we saw the steam coming out of the exhaust, never put 2 and 2 together.

The heat exchanger is cast iron. It has been put together with 4 vertical "slices" which are somehow held together, and you can see the vertical seams. Not only you can see the seams from top to bottom, but there is also white scale coming out from multiple places, evidence that the seams have leaked.

I suspect that it is a seam like that on the underside, right above the burner, that leaks.

Do you think it would be possible to plug this leak somehow, are there any pastes I could smear on the seam to try and seal it?

Many thanks

 

[Newboy]

The short answer - no!

As you have already opened the combustion chamber you need to stop using the boiler and get a Gassafe engineer to advise you.

 

[stardanny]

If the heat exchanger leak, it is knacker and end of life.

Replace the boiler.

And put back chamber cover, switch off gas and electric to boiler and arrange for a new boiler to replace it.

Daniel.

 

[andy_g]

There is no switch on the gas line to the boiler, and no way to isolate it, only at the main at the gas meter. Is this correct/common? Should I ask the plumber who will install the new boiler to also install a gas switch somewhere near the boiler?