Heat exchanger issue on a year old boiler

Cottage_Economy

I had a Glo-worm combi boiler fitted last year and up until a few nights ago it was fine. Then it started banging and making whining noises - it sounded like water was being forced through or past something under high pressure.

Last night I can't fill up the sink with hot enough water. First the boiler fires up and the water gets hot, then it shuts down and the water is cold, then it fires up etc etc. It does this several times a minute. My old boiler did exactly this once and it turned out to be the heat exchanger - we had it replaced and the whole system flushed and cleaned as it was caused by debris. I don't know if an inhibitor was used.

I'm a little miffed to be honest that so new a boiler can do this. The old Vailant boiler managed 12 years with one heat exchanger, and then once that went everything else started so at 15 years we replaced it. This new one has managed a year.

The new boiler came with a manufacturer guarantee against defective parts and the labour to replace them. In this case, if it is the heat exchanger is it possible to claim against this? Or will Glow-worm claim that the parts were not defective and that my system was responsible for causing the failure?

Has anyone had any experience of dealing with Glo-worm?

HappyMJ

New boilers don't last as long as they used to....10 years maybe 15 years average life. They'll fix it if you have kept to your servicing schedule.

Cottage_Economy

HappyMJ wrote: »

New boilers don't last as long as they used to....10 years maybe 15 years average life. They'll fix it if you have kept to your servicing schedule.

I've hadn't had a chance to get it serviced yet - it hasn't lasted that long. It's literally only just 12 months installed!

I usually have my boiler done once a year sometime between August to October depending on my engineer's availability and his annual holiday.

He is due out this week to do both my parent's and my boiler.

daveyjp

Just call the the number on your warranty. Glow worm will send out an engineer. I just hope the heating engineer who installed the new boiler flushed the system, otherwise the warranty may not be valid.

Cottage_Economy

I was thinking that to be honest Davey. I've been sitting here staring out the window for the last 30 minutes thinking "please let him have done it."

He's a very good engineer (Glo-worm approved installer) and we and other family and friends have used him for years. I know he doesn't like to flush too often (he said it can trigger more problems that it solves sometimes), but I assumed that he would have done it automatically for a new system. In fact, I would have thought it was standard installation procedure to clean everything out and not put a new boiler of any make on a dirty system.

I'll give him a ring tomorrow and chat to him. As he's Glo-worm approved anyway he may be able to shed some more light on the mater before I call Glo-worm.

If he did flush and it's bunged up again in less than 12 months then I'm wondering whether we need to replace the radiators? There's nine of them and they've been in for at least 8 years while we've been here and possibly a good five years before that I believe. We'd have to do it ourselves as we wouldn't have the budget to have someone do it - hubby's very good at DIY and has done a lot of plumbing over the years.

Just as I'm about to made redundant too AND leading into winter so no chance of putting off the job during a few warm summer months and saving up for it...:(

Cottage_Economy

Just gone and found the paperwork and our engineer's itemised quote. The system was flushed and an inhibitor used. Or at least that is what we've paid for.

Just spoke to a neighbour who lives next door. Our house is ex-council, sold in 1996, and his is still council owned. He looked at the radiators and said a) the ones in the council owned houses have not been done for nearly 25 years now and b) our radiators and piping are not the ones that are in the council houses, that ours are newer.

So we're looking at radiators that could be up to 17 years old.

HappyMJ

Cottage_Economy wrote: »

Just gone and found the paperwork and our engineer's itemised quote. The system was flushed and an inhibitor used. Or at least that is what we've paid for.

Just spoke to a neighbour who lives next door. Our house is ex-council, sold in 1996, and his is still council owned. He looked at the radiators and said a) the ones in the council owned houses have not been done for nearly 25 years now and b) our radiators and piping are not the ones that are in the council houses, that ours are newer.

So we're looking at radiators that could be up to 17 years old.

Radiators last much longer than boilers. Do they have the appearance of significant deterioration or rusting? The one in my bathroom does but all the others are fine. Mine are only about 18 years old.

Oh it's it's on the invoice then it's been done for warranty purposes...even though it may not have been. There is no proof it hasn't been done.

Cottage_Economy

HappyMJ wrote: »

Radiators last much longer than boilers. Do they have the appearance of significant deterioration or rusting? The one in my bathroom does but all the others are fine. Mine are only about 18 years old.

Oh it's it's on the invoice then it's been done for warranty purposes...even though it may not have been. There is no proof it hasn't been done.

Very true, but he is usually very honest and I've never caught him out being dodgy. I know that's no guarantee of anything and he may have skipped it if he was pushed for time. I hope not. He's a nice chap, but if he has skipped it and caused this problem I can't use him again.

The radiators all look pretty good from the outside, although here and there I have found little water spots underneath them that are red coloured, especially under one in the upstairs spare room. We've checked all round it but can't find an active drip from it at the moment.

The other option of course is that it could be caused by limescale. We do have very hard water. In that case, if it is going to be an issue with limescale furring the boiler up every year it might be worth looking at a mains water softener of some kind.

It does !!!!!! up the washing machine a lot - I have a replacement heating element in the cupboard waiting for when the one currently in use fails.

southcoastrgi

what model gw is it ?

Myser

Whenever the system was filled, inhibitor should have been added. This prevents/slows down the process of the radiators corroding from inside.

If you have since topped up the system a few times without replacing the inhibitor, the concentration will be reduced.

Cottage_Economy

southcoastrgi wrote: »

what model gw is it ?

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