Biasi combi boiler problems

dewdropsandsunshine

Hi all

I wonder if any of you lovely people can help me. :j

My husband and I have recently moved into our first property and we are experiencing problems with the boiler. I have contacted the estate agents (who have contacted the vendors) who confirm they had had it serviced recently and it was working fine for them (....I suppose they would say that.) The rest of the house is absolutely fine and in perfect condition.

I find the only way I can get hot water is by turning the central heating on.

When I turn the dial to hot water only, I find the boiler lights up for a few seconds (as though water is heating up) and suddenly a red light pops up and the water is cold.

I've followed the instructions on the boiler, tried Google'ing and looking on YouTube but no luck.

Are there any gas people here who would know what the problem is and how much it would cost to resolve?

Thanking you in advance.

Eric_Disley

If you've got the model number you can often find and download a user manual, although I'm not sure if this is a "standard" error that will appear in the troubleshooting section.

Failing that, there are plumbers forums on the web where you might get a more informed opinion than on here.

CashStrapped

Methinks you have spent too much time around combi boilers.

You may have a traditional "heat only" or regular boiler.

This is probably an older semi-pumped system. This means, ultimately, that if you have the central heating on, the hot water will also be on.

This is (or was) quite common (there will be many boilers out there that do this), as my 40 year old boiler does the same thing. All that happens is the hot water tank will be kept hot whenever your heating is on. It was common practice up to the mid to late 90s I think.

A modern version of this set-up (fully pumped) would include a 3 way valve which means you can choose either heating and/or hot water. It is not a requirement though and you boiler will work perfectly fine as it is. It may be a bit less efficient. But, once the tank is up to temperature, and as long as it is well insulated, the loss in efficiency is reduced as it is not constantly heating a cold tank. If you have no insulation on the tank, get some.

You just need to be more careful with your water temperature selection on the boiler. The temperature you have set for the radiators will determine how hot the water gets inside the tank.

So if you set the radiator temp to 60 degrees, the hot water in the tank will warm up to 60 degrees.

I like my radiators warm to hot for longer periods, rather then burning hot for short periods.This means the hot water tank never gets too hot, maybe around the 60- 70 degree mark max. At the moment I can bath and shower without adding too much cold (the most efficient way to heat the tank) so it must be around the 50- 60 degree mark.

You will get used to it!