Worcester Boiler Sludge query

mandersjohnson

Hi,

I have a Worcester Greenstar boiler. It is either 24i Junior or 28i Junior but (embarrassingly) I am not actually sure which...

I have noticed recently that sometimes (not always) the shower will go cold after a few minutes and then eventually warm up again. I got the boiler serviced as it was due anyway and the engineer said that it was most likely from a build up of sludge and that the plate heat exchanger would need replacing and a magna filter would need fitting. He recommended a power flush too but said it was not essential.

His quote (not including the power flush) was £535.82, broken down into:
Materials - £353.82
Labour - £200

My questions are:
1. Does that quote seem reasonable? (I live in South East London)
2. What are the consequences of not getting the work done?
3. Can it be kicked down the road a while as it is not a major inconvenience at the moment? Or is more serious damage to other parts in the boiler imminent if I don't get on the case?

My DIY skills are limited to say the least so it probably wouldn't be realistic (or safe!) to recommend that I do any of it myself!

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Nick

Alex1983

The quote seems reasonable, materials maybe slightly high and labour ok it's probably 2/3hrs work.

If you don't get something done the damage sludge will do could damage the boiler to the point where it's not economical to repair, if it damaged the main heat exchanger it would cost a lot of money to repair.

As long as it is just a blocked heat exchanger I would get it repaired and the filter fitted to try and protect the boiler from future problems, but if it is sludged bad then the only proper fix is a powerflush.

mandersjohnson

Thanks for the advice!

jk0

Hmm. But how could 'sludge' affect the hot water output of a combi boiler? Surely they are constantly fed with clean water?


Unless it's scale build-up caused by hard water, I don't think that's the problem with your shower. I suspect that the mains cold water is so warm at the moment, the shower user is using so little hot that the boiler thinks the tap has been turned off, so stops firing.


I suggest a water softener. This will clean out all the scale in your boiler and shower.

southcoastrgi

You would have to have a hard water supply to fill the heating side as you can't fill it with softened water.

It's the system side of the plate hex that might be sludged up