gas pipe size and combi boiler failures.

heating-eng

bengasman wrote: »

Correct


Wrong, only bad installs. I have only once had to go out to ANY of my own installs ( my fault, I completely forgot I'd only done a temporary set up of the condensate ), and never had to go back to ANY that I corrected after they had frozen up.

You are wrong

Pincher

http://www.screwfix.com/c/heating-plumbing/copper-tube/cat831552?sortBy=price&cm_sp=Homepage-_-Side-_-CopperSingles

3 meters of 22mm copper pipe is £14.66inc VAT, if you buy 3 or more. The wall clips are dirt cheap in trade bags. So it's about £170 inc VAT labour, for an hour's work. Nice work if you can get it.

heating-eng

Pincher wrote: »

http://www.screwfix.com/c/heating-plumbing/copper-tube/cat831552?sortBy=price&cm_sp=Homepage-_-Side-_-CopperSingles

3 meters of 22mm copper pipe is £14.66inc VAT, if you buy 3 or more. The wall clips are dirt cheap in trade bags. So it's about £170 inc VAT labour, for an hour's work. Nice work if you can get it.

1 hours work ? You need to live in the real world. ( job will take a lot more than one hour)
Travel there and back to job, travel for quoting job, travel for getting materials, interest on money invested in van stock. Etc etc.

C_Mababejive

Would the OP kindly share with us the make and model of her /his existing boiler and also the nature of the failures which are occurring?

Who fitted the boiler?

RE pipe size,it is a requirement that there should be a max pressure loss between meter and appliance of 1mb.

To ensure that the pressure loss does not exceed this,the installer must design the installation to fit.

Having said that,many boilers will work fine even on lower pressures.

Condensate tracer..not required. Just run the drain internally

Dont,whatever you do,have a condensate pump.

I must admit, i think many combis are mis sold and many family homes would do well to have a high efficiency system boiler and retain a good foam lagged cylinder.

lemontart

heating-eng wrote: »

Thousands froze up over the winter from all types of installs.
I even went to a bath that froze.
All external pipes can freeze.

and internal ones.

We had thousands of calls for what turned out to be frozen pipes on these types of boilers so we gave out similar advise to that on the bg site link I posted and I know from speaking to agents for all of the suppliers over winter they were getting the same thing..............not good -

ihateyes

Yes....
A lot of boilers were installed to manufacturer guidelines, but there is a design fault there. If there wasnt then why the need for trace heates... lets be sceptical here... these were on the ready fo when te !!!!!! hit the fan.....

From my understanding BGS went out to customers to fix this, now read the T&C's of many other homecare competitors and they dont attend if pipe is frozen, only if it bursts as a result of being frozen... so hands up to them..

The frozen pipe was the cause of so many breakdowns as condensate boilers are very popular just now.
The problem is only coming to light in a big way, because we had such a cold winter.

roddydogs

"Very popular"? you cant fit any other!
Op should try this..........Turn Boiler off, put ALL the gas cooker on full, inc all hobs, set CH boiler to on (boiler firing) and watch the hobs to see if they fluctuate., if they do its the pipe size.

Pincher

SallyG wrote: »

British Gas quote after a survey includes installing "3m" length of 22mm copper gas pipe work £191.91
Does that seem reasonable?
Seems a bit steep for a pipe clipped to a garage wall - but in any case the gas meter's at the front of the garage just inside the door and the boiler's on the back wall - at least 6m away.
I think I'll get quotes from elsewhere for replacing the meter to boiler pipework and see if that works.

heating-eng wrote: »

1 hours work ? You need to live in the real world. ( job will take a lot more than one hour)
Travel there and back to job, travel for quoting job, travel for getting materials, interest on money invested in van stock. Etc etc.

If the job was ONLY replacing the pipe, £191.91 is fair. As part of the whole job, it's just hiding the profit margin.

Don't remind me of overheads, I call them builders and plumbers.;)

bengasman

heating-eng wrote: »

You are wrong

Then how come my installations ( bar the one I forgot to complete ) never freeze up?

Pincher

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Condensate tracer..not required. Just run the drain internally.

Had to buy a 1 meter masonry drill bit myself, because my builder won't buy one, and couldn't find someone to "borrow" from after a week. And then the plumber won't do it with the drill bit because he won't be responsible. So I had to do a diagonal hole at 15 degrees slope myself: success on second attempt.

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Dont,whatever you do,have a condensate pump.

In one house, I have a floor standing boiler, it comes with the condensate pump, and I don't think I can avoid using it.

C_Mababejive wrote: »

I must admit, i think many combis are mis sold and many family homes would do well to have a high efficiency system boiler and retain a good foam lagged cylinder.

Hear, hear. Combis bad.

For those with no space for a cylinder, there are gas water heaters, which are sadly out of fashion because housholders think combis are cheaper and more compact. They are right, until the damned thing breaks down, and it seems nobody can diagnose the fault because it's too complicated.

Rinnai do externally mounted water heaters and boilers, taking up ZERO internal space. You might as well run the gas pipe externally, which is safer any way.