Advice needed re: British Gas Homecare

ollski

The inhibitor we use is brown, the water becomes tea coloured. Ferollis are terrible, their subcontracters will use any excuse they can not to repair them as they are aware they will undoubtably get recalled to them and lose payment. I think this is the model with an air seperator on it, these cause the problems you're having.

macman

Tell your LL to cut his losses and put in a proper boiler.

Dukester8

ollski wrote: »

The inhibitor we use is brown, the water becomes tea coloured. Ferollis are terrible, their subcontracters will use any excuse they can not to repair them as they are aware they will undoubtably get recalled to them and lose payment. I think this is the model with an air seperator on it, these cause the problems you're having.

The boiler in question is a Ferroli HE 31 C, the worst boiler ive ever known!

The inhibitor used according to the sticker is Sentinel X100, is that tea coloured? As the water that comes out the radiator is that sort of colour.

The company thats been fixing our boiler isn't a sub contractor for Ferroli (although your right they did send one and he deemed the warranty as void because he didn't want to work on it!) claiming the benchmark log wasnt filled in correctly..

macman wrote: »

Tell your LL to cut his losses and put in a proper boiler.

Fat chance of him doing that.. We don't have contact with the landlord other than through the agency, so they could tell us anything!

macman

He's obliged to supply you with reliable heating under the terms of your STA presumably-so enforce your rights!
It makes no difference whether you deal direct or through an agent-your contract is with him.

C_Mababejive

post #7...yes i was thinking that the problem had its roots in a poor quality install. Many a reasonable boiler is rubbished to high heaven simply because of poor design and install practices. Mind you,ive seen Worcesters and Vaillants die after 6 months if fitted badly to an existing system. Bring back the space saver i say..

southcoastrgi

Dukester8 wrote: »

How long does the inhibitor last? As theres a sticker on the boiler saying the landlord put it in there on 13th February 2011.

Should it have been replaced by now?

the level of it should be checked, but if you aren't losing any by taking off rads or leaks then inhibitor will last 60 yrs +

ollski wrote: »

The inhibitor we use is brown, the water becomes tea coloured

what inhibitor are you using ? all the ones i've seen are clear

Dukester8

southcoastrgi wrote: »

the level of it should be checked, but if you aren't losing any by taking off rads or leaks then inhibitor will last 60 yrs +

Just a thought would bleeding the radiators lose any of the inhibitor?

Anyway British Gas have come out 6 times so far to fit various parts on the Ferroli piece of garbage in the house i'm renting (yesterday was the 6th visit) those parts are,

2 new flow sensors,
New pump,
New pcb,
New pressure switch,
New motor,
New diverter valve.

So basically the job lot! Almost..

Initial diagnosis visit was 21st November - engineer came out and said the boiler needed a new pump and 2 new sensors.

First set of parts fitted were the pump and 2 new flow sensors on the 23rd November, When engineer switched boiler back on the pcb blew! So 24th November engineer came out and fitted new pcb/pressure switch (as pressure wasn't regulating properly either) anyway the boiler worked fine for 6 days then threw up the A3 fault again on the 30th of November, engineer came out again 1st of December said he couldn't find anything wrong, so noted ALL WORKING AT TIME OF VISIT.

7 days later boiler cut out again with same A3 fault again.. Engineer came round Sunday 9th of December to fit new motor and new diverter valve, didn't solve the problem, boiler has cut out 3 times since engineer called.

Today the engineer will be back again with another person to try and troubleshoot why the boiler keeps throwing up such an error (it's basically overheating, i.e. not getting rid of any excess heat after running a bath) so the boiler still thinks theres a call for hot water therefore keeps trying to supply the demand for hot water even though the tap is off! Eventually after 10 minutes the boiler decides it doesn't want to keep hold of the excess heat then switches! Dumps out the excess heat that built up and throws up the A3 fault.. Which stupidly is an overheating fault code! That comes up AFTER it dumps out the excess heat...

Now I know British Gas don't cover the heat exchanger with Homecare, but the engineer said to me today he thinks it's the 'domestic plate heat exchanger' on the boiler that could be causing the problem, something he says should have been checked on day one but never was!

So it's not the 'main' heat exchanger that the engineer believes is causing the problem.. It's the 'domestic plate heat exchanger' which is different right? I ask this because if you see here http://www.ferroli.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/brochures/archives/Optimax%20HE%2031%20C%20Manual.pdf on page 33 of the manual it says part number 161 is the heat exchanger and 194 is the domestic plate heat exchanger.

Surely that's covered isn't it? As British Gas homecare only says it doesn't cover the heat exchanger not the domestic heat exchanger which must be different to the main one? As the HE 31 C boiler has both.

It also says here http://www.ferroli-parts.co.uk/ferroli-heat-exchangers-plate-secondary-domestic that the domestic plate heat exchanger would cost £63.44 and the main heat exchanger would cost a whopping £329.04 !!

Sorry for the lengthy post, i'm just trying to tell the full story to get the best advice.

ollski

bg officially cover both heat exchangers unless they are blocked in which case they aren't covered as long as there has been previous advice given about sludge or blockages in the system. I, for one, would still be fuming about ferolli wriggling out of the warranty because they knew what a terrible job it was!

Dukester8

ollski wrote: »

bg officially cover both heat exchangers unless they are blocked in which case they aren't covered as long as there has been previous advice given about sludge or blockages in the system. I, for one, would still be fuming about ferolli wriggling out of the warranty because they knew what a terrible job it was!

Well here's where I stand at the moment.

British Gas came out today (for there 7th visit) and had some other BG engineer come out as well who spends more time on faults hard to diagnose, and they came to the conclusion it was 'probably' the heat exchanger at fault as there is nothing else they could replace but that!

They also issued a safety advice warning (again) because the boiler is superheating the water (DHW) and very hot water (think boiling) comes from the hot tap and could potentially scold me, but I can still use it because running the hot tap does dissipate the superheated water and the temperature drops rapidly (in seconds) from 113 degrees celsius (yes you read that right!) to about 55-60 degrees celsius.

The thing that baffled the engineers is the fact that when the demand for hot water is sent to the boiler the water comes out the tap at the right temperature, it's only when the tap is switched off the boiler goes mental! Superheating the water even when the flame has gone out! They even got onto Ferroli who were just as baffled because BG engineers ran the hot tap then turned off the gas !!!! to make sure the boiler didn't fire up to heat the water and the water still super heated!! Which is crazy.. Crazy enough for them to say is it nuclear powered LOL.

Anyway they (British Gas) turned round and said we'll either replace the heat exchanger OR offer your landlord a boiler replacement (they said a good one) but if my landlord did take them up on the new boiler offer he'd have to be willing to pay £600-£700 for a powerflush! In return for them putting in a new decent boiler.

BG said the system does have some muck in it (not enough to block anything up) but that the policy is that BG won't install a new boiler onto a system that's not 'clean' as it would defeat the object, which is fair enough.

Notes on the paperwork say,

Checked h/ex (dhw) + bypass, all ok - boiler still faulting!

Apparently as well because there have been 7 visits to my property now (6 of them recalls) that every meeting they have in the morning it gets brought up to be a priority job and they need it sorting! The problem is they're that baffled by it (as are the manufacturer) as no boiler should be able to superheat the water if the hot tap has been shut off, and also when the gas is turned off which guarantees it won't fire up!

macman

Ah, that old favourite every time. 'The man from BG, he say 'powerflush!'
Get the powerflush done for far less by a independent. Who will also charge around 40% less for a new boiler install.