Boiler grant but boiler doesn’t work! Please help’

kasqueak

Have you tried bleeding the rads? My combi boiler often loses pressure and that can help. Check all your rads for leaks as well. The smallest drip can cause the system to lose pressure. 

Since having a combi I’ve found them very sensitive! 

But regardless, surely it came with a manufacturer guarantee so if there’s an issue it should be covered.

Ectophile

kasqueak said:

Have you tried bleeding the rads? My combi boiler often loses pressure and that can help. Check all your rads for leaks as well. The smallest drip can cause the system to lose pressure. 

Since having a combi I’ve found them very sensitive! 

But regardless, surely it came with a manufacturer guarantee so if there’s an issue it should be covered.

It'll only be covered by the guarantee if the leak is inside the boiler.  The pipework connected to it is nothing to do with the manufacturer.

Section62

andie_h said:

And with the floor boards they’ve already made a hole previously for the insulation. But im guessing they’ll have to lift up a fair amount of the floorboards to get the to root of it. As long as it’s fixed that’s the main thing! Cannot thank you enough for all your help, im a complete novice and I’ve learned a lot. Just wish I knew before hand that existing pipe work may be affected as a result! 

If all the pipework isn't readily accessible then a sensible approach for the plumber to take would be to drain down and then temporarily divide the system into sections (e.g. isolating one part from the rest) to carry out air pressure tests.

Air leaks out more readily than water, so by a process of isolating and testing it is relatively quick to find out which section(s) of the system is leaking.

Once the area of the leak is identified the plumber should then apply some lateral thought before lifting all the floorboards to replace the pipe - for example, could a plastic pipe be threaded through the existing holes, could the pipe be run a different different way which involves less disturbance, etc.  It may be more cost effective to just replace a whole section of pipework than spend hours trying to find the exact location of the leak.

So it should be possible to find and repair the fault without going crazy on floorboard lifting.

The installer should ideally be warning customers that their existing pipework might not be adequate to cope with a pressurised system before work starts, rather than pushing sealed systems as the bees knees and only option.

I also believe it should become mandatory for an air pressure test of the system to be offered (particularly before a still-functioning old boiler is removed), so the householder would know about pre-existing faults (and the cost of repair) at a point where they could still change their mind.  Typically the faults are only picked up once the customer is over a barrel and either has to stump up more money than they expected, or go without heating and hot water.

Obviously the fault might need to be repaired at some point, but I believe the customer should be given the equivalent of a cooling-off opportunity where they could back out of the boiler replacement if they are facing what could be significantly increased costs and disruption they hadn't budgeted for.

I hope they are able to find the fault in your system quickly and without too much work.

comeandgo

If there is a leak would your insurance pay any of the damage or repairs?