PLEASE help - Boiler/hot water issue

Vindiesel

Hi All,

I wonder if anyone can help with this problem. The hot water from my shower and bathroom tap keeps dropping in temperature so low that the water is barely lukewarm. It has done this very occasionally for the last two years (three times).

The shower is a 2 year old thermostatic mixer, feeding off a gas condensing boiler which itself, is 3 years old. I have spoken to the plumber who fitted the shower last year whom advised me to tweak the screws controlling the water flow, to the cold water inlet which is under the bathroom sink. This did work once last year but to no avail this year. The other occasion last year, it simply 'sorted itself out' after a coupls of days!

Since then, as part of my annual boiler service, I have raised the issue and been advised that there must be some cold water 'entering the system'.

So I have had a tweak of the valves underneath the boiler itself to no avail and the screws underneath the bathroom sink but that is no good either.
It is worth mentioning that the hot water out of the bath is intermittent and the kitchen sink tap temperature is also intermittent. (This is right next to the boiler).


Can anyone shed some light on it? I cannot afford to call a plumber out and so any expert advice or suggestions would be really appreciated.

Thanks,

V

gas4you

Make and model of boiler would help as a starting point.

Vindiesel

Thats a good question.

Apologies, it's early!

It's certainly a Baxi (gas powered), it IS a Platinum Combi HE A .

Thanks

ormus

maybe the priority/diverter valve faulty, or the heat exchanger faulty?
how is the CH working?

Vindiesel

CH works fine.

how would i locate the heat exchange valve?

cheers

gas4you

I would check the plate HE for blockage if you mean the hot water is cycling hot/cold/hot/cold roughly every 20-30seconds.

Your servicing chap should have been more helpful I would say.

Vindiesel

Thats great, thanks.

I should say, I am not familiar with boilers so please can your tell me what exactly I am looking at/ for and how I would identify it?

cheers

Vindiesel

UPDATE:
since my last post, i seem to have sorted the issue - by turning on the bath's hot tap, this seems to have released some trapped air or something as all taps incl shower are back to normal.

I am still no closer to knowing what the problem is but it looks like it has gone!

blackshirtuk

could be the boiler is heating the water too much then shutting down and then restarting. This is a safety feature to stop the boiler overheating. You could try turning the hot water heating control down to the minimum. If the water doesn't get hot enough turn it up slightly. I had a very similar problem with an older boiler and this solved it for me.