Safety Lockout

[Penster]

Hi,
Have a Halstead Finest combi boiler and the safety lockout randomly trips. Very annoying as you can imagine. Doesn\\\'t seem to be any pattern to it tripping out, and sometime will need to be reset over ten times in a row before it\\\'ll work again.

Know nothing about boilers or DIY so don\\\'t want to attempt to fix it myself. But, just wanted to know what it was, and if it was a major job and therefore costly to repair.

(Have had British Gas out to look at it but they said it was working fine ).

 

[corgiman]

get a corgi chap to check the venturi

they will know what i am on about

 

[Penster]

Thanks Corgiman.

Is it a big job or is it relatively straight forward and will I need to win the lottery in order to pay the gasman to do it for me?

 

[Agile]

If we came within our normal operating area we would charge a fixed price of £84 and come as many times as was required, but any spare parts extra.

Its often the PCB which seems to give that problem on your model.

Tony Glazier

 

[ChrisR]

...and if it IS the pcb, you WILL need to win the lottery. rrp £250 from memory. Venturi would just be a callout. Pcb cracks becasue it's long and thin. have resoldered several. You can often isolate fault to pcb by pushing the knobs in which bends it a bit and makes the problem go/come.

 

[coxo]

Check out shukerr's post and replies on Oct 11th this year.

 

[Penster]

Well, I've had a nightmare today. The boiler continuously locked out so I called British Gas out as I've got a service agreement with them. A BG guy came over and I told him to check the venturi and he just laughed at me! He said there wasn't enough gas pressure coming in and it was up to transco to fix. Transco came over and measured the gas from the meter and found that the pressure was fine. So, a phone call and a few hours later BG are back. Again measuring the pressure and telling me its too low. I'm pulling my hair out at this point because I'm getting pushed from pillar to post and there is sod all I can do about it. He insists the pressure is too low and says to wait for Transco to come over. Transco come over and guess what......the pressure is fine. He changes the regulator (he admits just to amuse me) but doesn't think it'll help. And sure enough it hasn't. The boiler is still locking out and all I want to do is scream!

I don't know what to do. I only moved in a few weeks ago and BG said that if they have to come back then I will have to start paying because its been less than a month. I don't want to pay a fortune for it to be fixed and I'm wondering why I'm paying £18 a month for a service agreement when the damn thing doesn't work!

Apologies for ranting and raving. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[chrishutt]

Presumably the Transco guy measures the gas pressure at the gas meter outlet while the boiler is running. this should register 21 mb.

Does the BG guy measure the gas pressure at the same point, or at the boiler? If the pressure at the boiler inlet is too low despite being Ok at meter, the problem is with your gas pipework, not the pressure at meter.

Knowing BG by reputation, my money is on them being responsible for problem here. But can you answer my questions first?

 

[ollski]

I don't know what to do. I only moved in a few weeks ago and BG said that if they have to come back then I will have to start paying because its been less than a month. I don't want to pay a fortune for it to be fixed and I'm wondering why I'm paying £18 a month for a service agreement when the damn thing doesn't work!

Apologies for ranting and raving. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

What a load of craap, if the engineer told you that himself to save him a recall then ask BG to send you out a different engineer or put in a complaint, on the other hand if you pressure is too low at the inlet of the appliance but fine at the outlet of the meter you would seem to have a blockage in the gas supply pipe between the two which wont be covered by BG or transco.

 

[Penster]

Presumably the Transco guy measures the gas pressure at the gas meter outlet while the boiler is running. this should register 21 mb.

Does the BG guy measure the gas pressure at the same point, or at the boiler? If the pressure at the boiler inlet is too low despite being Ok at meter, the problem is with your gas pipework, not the pressure at meter.

Knowing BG by reputation, my money is on them being responsible for problem here. But can you answer my questions first?

Yep, Transco measured at the gas meter whilst boiler was running. It was 20 before, and then after the regulator was changed it was 21.5.

The BG guy measured at the boiler.

Does that mean the pipework is dodgey? If so, that sounds like major work? And what do you mean BG are responsible for the problem?

Cheers for your help

 

[Penster]

if you pressure is too low at the inlet of the appliance but fine at the outlet of the meter you would seem to have a blockage in the gas supply pipe between the two which wont be covered by BG or transco.

So who would be able to unblock the supply? And please tell me its not a case of ripping up floors and walls and replacing pipes?

And do you think its worth asking BG to clean or change the venturi or does this sound like something totally different?

 

[chrishutt]

The BG guy measured at the boiler.

Another example of BG incompetence. Any gas engineer worthy of the name should know that only reduced pressure at the meter is Transco responsibility.

BG have persistently misinformed you about the nature of the problem due to the incompetence of their operative(s). You are entitled to get very stroppy about this and demand that they send someone competent out or refund all your service contract payments!

If the pressure really is too low at boiler, the most likely cause is undersized gas supply pipework (blockage is unlikely). But since BG have pi$$ed you around, you could demand that they sort it out.

 

[ollski]

Hmmm I'm sure BG would do the gas supply but it wont be cheap as it isn't covered on contract. Be interesting to know what the gas pressure at the inlet is as it sounds like a bit of a cop out....ask for a different engineer but don't worry about suggesting problems, the engineer will have the knowledge to sort it.

 

[Penster]

If the pressure really is too low at boiler, the most likely cause is undersized gas supply pipework (blockage is unlikely). But since BG have p**sed you around, you could demand that they sort it out.

Oh God! This just gets worse
Does this mean that I'll need to get all the pipework changed? And if the pipework was undersized, wouldn't the lockout be constantly on?

 

[Penster]

Hmmm I'm sure BG would do the gas supply but it wont be cheap as it isn't covered on contract. Be interesting to know what the gas pressure at the inlet is as it sounds like a bit of a cop out....ask for a different engineer but don't worry about suggesting problems, the engineer will have the knowledge to sort it.

Is the inlet the boiler? If so, I think the BG guy said it should be at least 15 (working) but it was dropping below this and the fluctation was causing the lockout.