What sort of tradesman do I need - a heating engineer or an electrician?

missbunbury

Right, the man has been, here's his verdict:

He took the bottom off the Baxi Bermuda fire thingy on the wall, then replicates the fusing and a massive blue spark came out of the bottom of the fire (I begin to suspect the "fire may actually be the boiler, I am such a know-nothing!) He poked around in there for a while (with me going "uh...don't get electrocuted...") and announced that it's a wire in there that's shorting out because the wire isn't heat proof. He is coming back on Tuesday with the relevant bit of wire and it'll cost about a hundred and fifty quid altogether (including today's visit.) He also ominously muttered something about checking whether the boiler is "sooted up" - this is a worry as it sounds like it will be another thing to pay for!

I totally need a new central heating system. And a re-wire of the whole house. For now though, at least it can be fixed so I can have an actual bath instead of boiling kettles!

gas4you

Something doesn't add up here.

Why would switching on the immersion cause the fuse to go, if it is a fault with the boiler wiring?

Canucklehead

Hi,

A bit like my comment.

Does it actually have an immersion heater wired in?

GSR.

missbunbury

The immersion switch only makes the fuse go if both the other switches are already on when you put the fuse back - in that case the fuse stays OK (which is weird now I think about it) but as soon as you switch the immersion switch on, the fuse goes again. As I said, all three switches have to be on before the water heats up and the radiators come on, and there has never been a way of getting hot water without heating so I suspect the immersion switch isn't quite as simple as it should be. In the past I've lived in houses with a similar ancient boiler and immersion set-up and I've always been able to heat the hot water tank with just the immersion switch, but not here. Anyway, I am leaving everything firmly off for now as I'm quite freaked about the possibility of starting a fire if there's a short (I may be a bit super-paranoid about fire.)

missbunbury

Oooh, so maybe that switch is not an immersion switch at all, but is controlling the whole thing? Except in that case, why does the fuse go if I leave that switch off and just switch on one of the two on the box?

The more I think about it the more I conclude I have the actual shonkiest house ever!

Canucklehead

Hi
If you could post a photo of the cylinder /cupboard, so I can sleep better, that would be good:)
Curious about it.


GSR.

garethgas

Hi first post here.
Please ignore ALL previous advice on this thread. If its a Baxi back boiler, then the Engineer that visited is absolutely correct. There is a 3 (or sometimes 4) core flex supplying the boiler that needs to be heat resistant. Its melted and caused a short circuit. Its a common fault and easily repaired.
As for the immersion, forget that, its probably being used as a supply).
Hope this helps.
Garethgas

plumb1_2

reading between the lines of the post's, there is prob not an imersion heater fitted.

The old neon switch was prob originaly used for the imersion heater, and then reused when the heating was installed many yrs ago, as it looks like a 6mm cable going into it.
With the fault on the boiler and the old switch not being fused, it will trip the main board out. After the the boiler is repaired, it is a must that the old switch is replaced with a 3amp fused spur/switch

missbunbury

Aaaaaargh it's happening again! The man replaced the wire in the boiler, all seemed good that day and the next. Now today I switched everything on and the same fuse blew again!

Canucklehead

Hi.

Post 27;)


Were you shown the boiler when he changed the cable. Was it clean, as in not sooted up as suggested by him?

GSR.