Plumber messed up by fitting wrong Boiler (wrong size Gas supply pipe). Advice?

Aubrey_Thicket

Floors are all laminate but even worse... under that the floors are ply. Just don't fancy the upheavel if we don't need to.

phil24_7

roddydogs wrote: »

Surely, a new condenser combi will use less gas, not more.& how would it cause a noise?

Maybe this boiler is a higher rating for hotter or more hot water? The old may even have been under spec'd for the size of the property?

phoenix_w

phil24_7 wrote: »

Maybe this boiler is a higher rating for hotter or more hot water? The old may even have been under spec'd for the size of the property?

More likely they've changed from a conventional to combi-boiler, where on-demand hot water needs a lot more energy to produce and hence a beefier gas supply.

Aubrey_Thicket

Basically on discussing the Boiler he asked me what I wanted. My reply was "Well, the current Boiler is on its last legs so just replace it with the best Boiler you reckon and that has a good warranty". His reply was to suggest this Boiler because it was "Bulletproof and has a cracking warranty". Therefore, I left it to him to suggest the Boiler. If he would have told me the best Boiler was an xyz I would have trusted him and told him to install that one.

Aubrey_Thicket

The Old Boiler was a combi Boiler too but it was over 7 years old

TheCyclingProgrammer

Aubrey_Thicket wrote: »

One thing I didn't mention is that when the Potterton guy had our brand new installation warranty manual in his hand he said to me "Look. This is not good. The Fitter is supposed to fill in this section here and write down the pressures etc. He hasn't completed this section".

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess he hasn't registered it with Gas Safe either (who will notify building control)?

DaftyDuck

I'm no expert, but have met this as a problem in having new boilers installed, once in a rental, once in my own home. In both cases, I think it was 22mm pipe installed, and 28mm required. One case the plumber spotted the problem before fitting, the other only on boiler installation. Both boilers were large Vaillant 937's, from memory).

There's no realistic way to "fix" the circuit board to accept the lower gas flow. You can fit a lower-rated boiler that'll possibly cope, but that's not ideal either. The only realistic solution is to fit a new gas pipe. It's possible that a full run of 28mm isn't required, firstly if you have any other gas appliance (fire, cooker), running as far as that may do. Secondly, odd though it may sound, running 28mm for the first half/two-thirds may prove sufficient. It may reduce the resistance enough to provide sufficient capacity.

Unless the boiler receives sufficient gas, it won't run correctly, and should be a simple fail on testing. If so, it can't be registered with BC, and can't be signed off for guarantee. If it's botched now, you face having it fail at a later date, when this plumber is no longer about.

He needs to fix it, one way or another, and I'd say running a supply in 22mm or 28mm as required (and all the way, really), is the only solution.

chappers

is there really no other route say under the floor on the ground floor and then up.
One way or another you're going to have to get this sorted and if you're otherwise happy with his work, get him to sort it at his expense rather than getting someone else in and maybe salvage your relationship with him. It sounds like he realises his mistake. Whats another engineer going to be able to do that he can't.

southcoastrgi

2 points I have noticed, potterton while certainly not a bad make they aren't at the top end of the market, £1000 is way too cheap for a boiler swap & that's been reflected in the job not being done correctly & the boiler chosen

unclebulgaria

I agree with SCRGI. Also you've not mentioned what size boiler was removed and what size boiler was installed?