Help!! …I feel like I’m being ripped off after my Halstead gas boiler broke down…

gray.fs

I feel like I might be being ripped off, but I’m really not sure and I really don’t know what to do about it!

Our boiler broke down last week, it’s been used for about 5 years and could have been in the empty new build for between 1-4 years before we bought. Hot water works fine but the heating ‘fires up’ for just a few minutes then switches itself off. I have spoken to 7 different local plumbers and every one literally refuses to work on this make of boiler; Halstead! Their only offer is to install a new boiler of a different make.

I feel torn between understanding that this boiler may be very difficult to work with and hard to get parts for and thus they are all helpfully offering (forcing) me along a more cost effective path for me…

Vs

…does the installation of a new boiler make them more money and is it common practice to scrap a 5/6 year old boiler to make more per hours work?!

Please please don’t take this as an attack on plumbers, I know nothing about plumbing so cant help be suspicious- the fact that I have been told the same thing from all 7 makes me 99% sure the builder put in the cheapest thing he could find and these guys are the ones having to deal with angry customers annoyed at costly bills when they’re just trying to help get it going again… I just can’t shake the worry that I’m being ripped off is all.

espresso

It would help if you gave the specific Halstead model.

When the heating is fired up, does the pump operate and circulate the water?

Halstead website here

ollski

Just keep trying until you get someone decent. Bg will do a fixed price repair with a guarantee which will be cheaper than the price of a fan which it might well end up needing.

gray.fs

Hi thank you, it's the Ace/Ace High, at first I thought the pump wasn’t circulating but I turned off all but one radiator and whist the heating was managing to run, that one radiator warmed up slightly. The boiler then just shuts off.

Usually though the heating won't fire up at all, like when the pressure falls too low, but I have the pressure at just over 1 bar and have bled every radiator- there was no air and the bleed water was clean.

I have checked the thermostat which is in the hall upstairs just in case it had been knocked to 0 degrees or something silly.

espresso

Does the Lockout LED illuminate?

gray.fs

Nope the lockout doesn't illuminate, I watched until the point at which the boiler switches itself off: the 'burner on' and 'heating' lights go out and even with the timer switch set permanently 'on' the heating will not fire up again, I left it for 4hrs and nothing.

ihateyes

Halstead are a cheap and nasty boiler.
Most builders use them as they are cheap, you can also buy the in B&Q.

rubbish boilers.