HELP - Boiler (Fix or get new one)

notabob

Hi all - some help is needed please!

I have a alpha CB24x boiler (a combi)

Basically about a month ago it stopped working, wouldn't come on - we got someone out to look at it and he spent over an hour looking at radiators and at the boiler. He fixed something on so we could re-pressurise easier as there is usually a switch but ours had come off before we bought the house.

He said either a valve is broken or the vessel is broken but there is no way of telling which - we could get it fixed, first by replacing the valve which would cost about £65 including his costs, but it might be the vessel which would cost about £200 to have fixed. He also turned one radiator off to use as an 'overflow' expansion vessel, but this might not help it last long (it didn't).

Since then we are having to repressurise every day (unless you leave the central heating on) or the boiler won’t work at all.
He had also mentioned it might be that we were having the central heating on too high and this was causing the pressure to increase which was making it 'blow' out of the back which would make it collapse down to nearly no pressure.. But this doesn't appear to be happening.. After you re-pressurise the pressure just tends to drop over the next day from 1.5 (or whatever you put it on) to 0.5 when it stops working.

Also you shouldn't keep re-pressuring over a long period,, or you will get orange residue in the radiators???!

He says he wouldn't generally recommend spending £265 on a old boiler… and he says a new boiler would around £1,000.

Also sometimes out of the back of the house it does appear to be leaking..

How do I tell if it is worth getting a new boiler?!

Thanks.:)

gas4you

From your post I can only deduce that basically the boiler is losing pressure daily and you are getting water out of the safety discharge pipe outside.

When you put the ch on, does the pressure quickly rise to over 3 bar? If so the exp vessel is either flat or perished internally. If the air valve on the top of the exp valve is pressed and water comes out, it has had it. If nothing, then it just needs re-pressurising.

If it needs a new exp vessel you have two choices. Have the one on the boiler replaced, expensive as it is an Alpha and possibly time consuming, can't tell without seeing the boiler/job, or have a seperate external expansion vessel fitted to the heating return pipr as near as possible to the boiler. This would look unsightly though, unless it can be fixed in a cupboard.

Neither of the above would warrant having a new boiler fitted though!

notabob

Thanks, that is useful, I have told him we just want if fixing,as opposed to a whole new one!

No when the central heating goes on it doesn't go quickly to over 3. It takes an initial drop of maybe 0.3-0.4 from whatever it was on before, and then it slowly increases up to higher than it's starting point.

Then throughout the next, say, 24 hours, it was generally tail off to around 0.5. If the central heating then goes off for a few hours you won't be able to turn it back on without first re-pressuring.

If instead you keep the heating on it may last 3 days before it stops working and re-pressurisation is required - is keeping it on for this long causing damage to the system (sometimes you can hear the radiators making funnny water noices, not sure how normal this is!)?

So from your reply I am hopeful it is just the valve that needs fixing as opposed to the vessel - the guy mentioned what you said about a new vessel being unslightly.

Also, how bad is having to re-pressurise every day - he said eventually you would get orange stuff in the radiator systems! This is just if you had to do it every day for a long period, e.g. a year?!

Thanks

macman

Was this 'someone' a proper GSR RGI?
He only seems to be interested in flogging you a new boiler, not diagnosing the problem.
Anyone offering you a new boiler and install for £1000 is going to be taking a lot of shortcuts somewhere.

notabob

Someone we know well who had used him before gave us his number, so I didn't ask for ID etc (i assume that is what your abbreviation means?).. Also he has a part-time job teaching boiler-stuff.. suppose that doesn't mean anything though:eek:?

To be fair he was quite happy to fix instead of getting a new one... the prices I mentioned that were quoted to fix the boiler don't sound unreasonable, or do they?

Someone else mentioned that they could install a new boiler for £350 (plus the cost of the boiler)!

macman

Is he Gas Safe Registered?
Di you ask for his ID or at least check him out on the GSR website?

notabob

I think so, I didn't personally ask him, but apparently he is.

I need an ID number to check on that website don't I?

macman

No, you can search by name.
'Apparently' is not really sufficient when it's your home and safety at stake.