Worcester 9.24 Electronic-BF boiler - Pilot Light?

[Didi63]

HI Glasgowgas,

Thanks for your message.

We will hang on for further advice first, because money is short at the moment, if we can learn from others first we would rather do it this way. However, at the same time, if it becomes too troublesome we may have to call someone in, but for the moment, we would like to try and work things out for ourselves.

If of course, you would like to enlighten us on the differences between open-air system and a pressurised system, then we would really appreciate it.

Thanks for your help.

Regards,


Didi63

 

[holty]

i know moneys short but it will get even shorter if you carry on.as said parts for this are near non existant.you need to find the filling loop, top up to 1 bar .thing is with very old worcesters they have a tendancy for leaking at valves when repressurised.id seriously bite the bullit and get someone out.with the type of boiler this age, its were experience tells you a simple rad change turns out to be a nightmare. and trust me every plumber will have or eventually come across problems like this.

 

[Didi63]

Hi Holty,

Thanks for your message.

This is all a bit of a headache to be honest. I understand what you and glasgowgas are saying about calling a qualified argi, but if we can get to understand it ourselves first then, it may save us.

Since our last message from Glasgowgas we now understand the difference between an open-vented system and a sealed/pressurized system. My partner who is not a plumber, suspected that my sister (whose house we're in at the moment, because we are decorating for her) had a pressurized system and has a little common knowledge about bleeding radiator's, and purging them etc.., however, he, nor I are/were very familiar with her central heating system - this Worcester 9.24 Electronic-BF system.

However, we can now honestly say, that she has a pressurized system after reading up on the differences and finding out a general description of the two. For example, in the boiler there is a red sealed type vessel which must be the Feed and expansion Tank and, at the side of the boiler on the wall, we have noticed a silver like braided loop, which must be the 'filling loop'. We understand that we need to open the valves on this loop to let the pressure go back up on the gauge to 1.0 bar. Also, it will fill the F&E tank back up with water, will it not?

We won't be doing it tonight now, cos it's a little late, but we will have a try tomorrow. If there is any further problems then, we will stop and get someone out, but thanks all the same for your advice.

Kind regards,


Didi63

 

[mattylad]

That red bulbous tank is the expansion tank.

Just open the stop valve on the braided loop until the pressure comes back to 1 on the dial then close the valve.
You reduced the water pressure when you removed the radiator.

The Thermocouple is on the end of that copper pipe that goes from the gas valve (the thing with the Grey button on) through the back of the big steel chamber with the little pilot light window in it to right next to the pilot light, the pilot light will heat it up to tell the gas valve that it is on.

Mine had a loose connection where it comes into the gas valve, that may not be your problem & I'm not advising you to tighten it a little.

The overheat thermostat is on the right hand side, up top on the silver pipes that come out of the area that the burner & flames will be, it has 2 white wires, one of which returns to the bottom of the thermocouple so if that has tripped then the pilot light will not stay alight.

IF the thermostat has failed then they are still available & an RGI (when he/she has finished claiming it is now obsolete & the whole thing needs replacing) will be able to get one & replace it.

Is your flu clear too.

I am NOT advising you to remove the combustion chamber cover or repair it yourself esp as your bf does not know how... (disclaimer)

 

[Agile]

Is your flu clear too.

I did not see her say that she had flu!

Hopefully its the swine type which clears up in a few days.

Anyone reading this must remember not to drain any part of a heating system unless the boiler has had mains power turned off and you know how to repressurise it afterwards.

The pressure gauge is there for a purpose, to show the system pressure. You would not expect your car to run if the petrol gauge was at zero ! Similarly a boiler needs at least 1 Bar and should normally be pressurised to 1.5 Bar which will give some scope for pressure loss which always occurs over a few months.

Tony

 

[Didi63]

Hi Mattylad,

Thanks for coming back to us today and picking up on all the explanations that everyone has so kindly given us so far. We are just starting to get back and look at this problem again now as earlier today, we had to get on with the rest of the decorating.

Anyhow, we understand what you are advising us so far, thanks for that, especially with regards to your first two points on your last message. We are going to have another look shortly to see if we can see the Thermocouple and the overheat Thermostat. I believe our problem of not originally being able to light the pilot was because of the overheat Thermostat wire had tripped because when we opened the front main panel up to look inside where the pilot was located, a white wire was lose. And, as soon as my partner put it back in the pilot lit-up. But, as you know, we now have to put the pressure back-up to 1.5 bar by opening the filling loop valve, to get pressure back in the expansion vessel. We are about to have a go of this shortly.

We don't know anything about the flu as you mentioned. Is this another area that we should also check? If so, where is this located?

Thanks, big time, for all your help.

Kind regards,


Didi63

 

[Didi63]

Hi Agile (Tony),

Thanks for your last message and your advice.

We are going to have another look shortly, but we will keep in mind to turn everything off (mains switch etc.) before we do. However, we did switch everything off before we drained the radiator in the first place, this does seem like common sense to us. It was after that that we uncovered these subsequent problems.

Thank you all the same for your advice, we do appreciate yours and everyone else's help on this.

Regards,


Didi63

 

[Agile]

You only need to turn off the power while the boiler is de-pressurised.

That is to eliminate the chance of the boiler firing with no pressure and overheating and tripping the o/h stat.

Tony

 

[Rosy]

We have a Worcester Bosh Combi the size of a washing machine and had exactly the same problem, the pilot light kept going out.

I set up a contract, its only 9 pounds a month and you get a yearly service and all callouts are free of any charges however many you have.

Anyway first engineer visit following setting up of contract came out, fitted a new thermocouple and told me the gas pressure was too high and that he had turned it down.

The next day we had a gas smell from the flue outside, no hot water and the pilot light still going out immediately after relighting.

Called engineer back, he ordered loads of new parts and came back again the next day and fitted them together with another new thermocouple, still the same problem.

Next day called again and requested a different engineer who came out was on telephone to Worcester and his boss and after shutting himself in the boiler room for about an hour came out smiling.

Apparently, the first engineer, when he had taken the boiler to pieces on his first visit had not only turned the gas pressure down to half its preset pressure, he had undone the flue wall fixings.

So this engineer just turned the pressure back up, fixed the flue back to how it was originally and hey presto it has all been ok since.

I didnt complain because it cost me nothing and I had loads to new bits fitted to the boiler.

 

[Didi63]

Hey Tony (Agile), Rosy, Mattylad, Holty, Namsag and all of you for helping us with our Pilot Light Problem.

Since I sent my last message to you, we had a go at putting the pressure back-up by opening the valve on the filling loop and, as a result the pressure first of all shot up to 3 bar. We then opened the small valve at the back of the radiator to release the air and the excess pressure until the bar gauge read 1.5. After this was done, we had a go at igniting the pilot light again and, hey presto, it lit-up straight away and stayed alight when we released the grey button. We then switched the mains point back on and switched the green button (on the boiler) - 'Heater and Hot Water' button, and turned the green dial switch next to it, to maximum, and also, we put the Hot Water and Heater buttons on, on the wall Thermostat controls. We let all these run for awhile, while at the same time I went around the house to check all the radiators to see if they were coming on and to check if there were any cold-spots on the radiators, just in case any of them were showing signs of not working properly or, being unbalanced. We also let the hot water taps run and after a couple of minutes, they were all spouting out with hot water. We continued to keep everything on for about an hour and, we're happy to say that no more problems have arisen since. Everything seems to be working fine now, so the problem must have been down to the overheat Thermastat wire being lose and of course, we complicated things by taking the one of the radiators off the wall to re-decorate.

Therefore, I would just like to thank everyone who has responded to our messages and have given us the best help by way of advice, thank you so much. My partner and I have certainly learnt an awful lot about this particular central heating system and, central heating systems in general. What seems to be a straight forward job, is not so straight forward afterall and, I don't think that we will be removing radiators from walls for decoration purposes, in a hurry again!

In the meantime, I would just like to thank Rosy for coming in on the messages and sharing her experiences with this type of CH system. This is my sister's house Rosy that we were doing work in which led us to having this problem, so I will be sure to let her know about the contract that you have with the engineers, just in case she would like to take on a similar one.

Thanks again all of you for your help.

Kind regards,


Didi63

 

[Agile]

I am glad that we managed to help you in the end although it was a bit of a struggle.

Rosy seems to have a Highflow 400. I doubt that you would find BG will take on a 9.24 because so many parts are obsolete.

Worcester have ceased any support for the 400 now a client has told me. Although she has called their staff engineer out privately a couple of times until she met me.

Tony

 

[mattylad]

BG will not take on the 9.24, because they were made obsolete over ten years ago, let alone any boiler being 10 years old

And besides, every BG engineer that calls will condemn it & tell you that you need a new one.

yayyyy its working again....good job.

 

[Rosy]

Our Worcester 400 is 9 years old, not old for the size of boiler so we've been told, we've never had it serviced and this was the first problem we had ever had with it and Worcester were going to charge the earth to come out and deal with the pilot light problem, thats what got me looking on the internet at BG. Worcester have a standard charge of 210 pounds every callout, parts and labour included, daylight robbery.

Would definately recommend the BG contract to anyone.

 

[mattylad]

Rosy, check the specifics of your contract.
You may find that once the boiler is 10 years old then they may not honour it.

 

[Rosy]

Just checked - on BG plans it says - There's no age limit as long as the essential working parts for your boiler are available.