Boiler Problems, Eon Heating care, power flush & parts

champion99

Hi All,

I have a ICI Caldaie Solar 80E boiler and have many problems over the past year where the boiler works, hot water only works or the whole thing just wont work!

Luckily I joined Eon central heating care when I first moved into my new house. For the first few months my boiler worked fine, but then I have had a numerous amount of problems.

I am part of the Eon heating scheme where I can have unlimited calls out through out the year and this has helped a few times but usually what happens is the boiler packs up again after a few weeks.

Recently, I have had a new pump fitted and the engineer has told me that I need a power flush (£275+vat) and that the following parts which I have to pay for as they are not covered by the agreement,

a new heat exchanger as it is blocked £156.93 plus vat

a new heat exchanger as blocked £153.41 plus vat

and then 8 hours labour at £65 p/h (sounds like a rip off to me!!)

a grand total of £1105.34 + vat

Now I am annoyed that when previous engineers have come and fixed my boiler, not one of them has mentioned I need a power flush and now I am being told I need to pay for the power flush and for the parts damaged by the sludge.


This is the 3rd week I have been without hot water or heating as I can not afford to have this work done.

I have been reading up about 'power flush' and it seems that the obvious sign is where your radiators are cold at the bottom and hot at the top. Now, when my radiators do work, I have checked all radiators and they are hot all over. So I don’t think I need a power flush at all and it sounds like Eon are trying to rip me off.

aboard_epsilon

Are you capable of taking the rads off yourself ..
if so, rads can be taken off, put on trestles outside ..remove plugs and flush with hose all ways..this is better than a power flush and costs you nothing ..filling and draining a few times should also clean the pipes out .

you then want to fit a magnetic cleaner ..and fill the system with corrosion inhibitor

if it had had this inhibitor and magnetic cleaner module in from new ..then possibly all this sludge could have been avoided.

how old is the new system ..
how old are the rads and the rest

all the best.markj

champion99

Hi,

I have read about this and i have never taken off a radiator before but im sure i could manage it as i do like to attempt DIY tasks myself.

However, i have read that a power flush will also clean out the pipes...which is where i think my problem is as when the heating does work all raditaors warm up and there are no cold spots on them.

I brought the house last year so do not know how old the boiler or radiators are.

Does anyone know how much a boiler and a few radiators would cost?

gasmanmartin

champion99 wrote: »

Hi,

when the heating does work all raditaors warm up and there are no cold spots on them.

It sounds unlikely that you need a powerflush then. Also unlikely that your heat exchanger is blocked. I would be asking them to send a different/more experienced engineer to re-diagnose the fault!

keystone

The fact that it keeps going wrong again after each visit says everything you need to know about your heating scheme.

The tech who diagnosed blocked HE, powerflush required etc is probably guessing.

History says that getting another Eon person in is unlikely to change the guesswork process.

Bite the bullet and pay for an independent local RGI to come in, don't give him the Eon history and ask him to tell you whats wrong with your system.

Cheers

champion99

It does seem like guess work with the Eon engineers!

I am going to attempt a manual flush this weekend as i have been thinking that it could just be sludge that keeps going through the boiler causing it to break down.

I then have another Eon engineer booked in for next week to look over the boiler again and will see what he has to say.

I rang up four different engineers yesterday and they all said that they think it could be something else and not the water in the system. But when i told them the make of the boiler (ICI Caladai Solar 80E) they all told me to save my money and not pay for a power flush/manual flush and put it towards a new boiler as it is known to be 'one of the worst boilers' and if it does break down parts are very expensive which is where i am lucky as Eon cover all parts for the boiler (unless damaged by sludge).

keystone

champion99 wrote: »

I rang up four different engineers yesterday and they all said that they think it could be something else and not the water in the system.

Bit of a clue there really.

..........where i am lucky as Eon cover all parts for the boiler (unless damaged by sludge).

So why do they want you to pay for replacement HEx before they even know if it is "sludged damaged" or even "blocked" as suggested both of which aree guesswork anyway at this stage.

You are going to have to continue to fight your corner with this puppy.

Cheers

mattmk6

you need both heat exchangers??

very doubtful. 2 thermometers with 1 on the flow pipe and 1 on the return will prove any blockages inside the boiler

what are the symptoms? will the boiler attempt to ignite? does it make any noise when you put a demand on the boiler?

At worst a magnetic filter on the central heating return will be fine.