Housing association not communicating and not doing repair no hot water or heating

[Deleted User]

Chris_m you mentioned that the part I posted a picture of that is leaking is a thermostatic blending valve.
I've just been reading up about thermostatic blending valves and what they are.
I found the following information


"A thermostatic mixing valve (TMV) bridges the hot water in your system and the water that comes out of taps or showers. It keeps your hot water system safe in a couple of ways, and can keep you safe, making it a crucial part of your home plumbing that your local plumber should always check.
First, it allows your system to store water at a high enough temperature to keep bacteria at bay. However, it also regulates the temperature of the water that you use.
When you turn on a tap or shower that connects to a TMV set-up, then the valve controls the release of hot water. Typically, it mixes hot and cold water together to reach a set temperature as dictated by its thermostat setting set by a plumber with a TMV licence. So, your water should never run so hot that it could scald or burnWhen all is well, the TMV works seamlessly. However, it might develop problems that prevent it from working as it should. What are the signs that your valve has a fault?
1. Your water temperature isn’t rightIf a TMV valve stops working correctly, then you may notice that your hot water suddenly starts to run hotter than it should. If the valve can’t regulate temperature correctly, it might not be able to cool hot water down enough to make it safe.
However, excess heat isn’t the only sign of trouble here. Sometimes, a failing TMV makes the water too cold. Or, water may not run at the right temperature consistently. It may fluctuate between being hot and cold.
In some cases, a faulty TMV can also affect your cold tap. Here, you might find that this tap runs warm or hot rather than cold.
Changes in water temperature have various causes. For example, the valve may be blocked or may have moved out of position. The thermostatic element might have stopped working or might have a problematic O-ring. Or, you might have a problem with water pressure or flow through the valve.
2. Your water doesn’t flow normallySometimes, the first sign of a TMV problem is a change in the way your water comes out of a tap. Typically, you see a reduction in flow or pressure here.
For example, your water might start to run sluggishly and slowly all the time. You might struggle to get the tap to give out more than a trickle of water. Or, your water might switch between working normally and running at a reduced pressure or flow.
Again, these problems can have various causes. Sometimes, water can’t run through a TMV freely because parts of its valves are gummed up with debris or scale. Older valves might also suffer from corrosion which blocks them up. Or, a valve might not have been fitted correctly in the first place.
3. You have leaks or dripsIf you have problems with a TMV, then you sometimes see outward signs that all isn’t well. For example, water might seep out of parts of the valve; you may even see some water on the floor under it. This might indicate a faulty seal or a corrosion problem."
Is it possible that the downstairs taps are connected to this thermostatic mixing valve and that that's faulty and causing no hot water downstairs?
There is no hot water downstairs, water pressure from hot taps downstairs is lower than upstairs and thermostatic mixing valve is leaking. What do you think?
Thanks again for your advice 
 

macman

You are getting sidetracked here. Based on the fault code (alternate red lights flashing), the issue is low pressure (or, if the sensor is faulty, the boiler thinks it has low pressure).
What is the gauge pressure now you have bled a rad? Is it back within the green zone? If it's not, carry on bleeding until it is. It's beyond me why 2 RGI's cannot carry out this simple procedure.
A diverter valve simply switches the hot water supply from the CH circuit to the DHW circuit when you open a hot tap. It's got nothing to do with your boiler problem.
Get the boiler running again, then you can address the other issue of uneven heating, which is a problem with the rads or heating circuit, not the boiler.
Did you verify that today's spanner-wielder was GSR?

chris_n

To be honest I hadn't linked the two problems but it is a possibility. If the mixing valve is allowing too much cold water through then it could certainly mean you don't have enough flow through the boiler to activate the flow switch.

[Deleted User]

Macmam as said in previous post Boiler is now running. Another boiler Engineer came out today and managed to get boiler to jump to life when checked pressure switch and wiggled it. 
I don't know how long the boiler will stay working but they are ordering a new pressure switch and will install once have it. 
So hopefully once they replace pressure switch there should be no more problems.

The pressure is back in the green.

So right now I have heating everywhere and hot water upstairs but no hot water down stairs. I'm now trying to work out why there is no hot water downstairs. So I'm not trying to jump ahead or getting side tracked just trying to work out second problem of why no hot water down stairs. 

And yes I did verify that the engineer that came today was GSR.

Chris_M thanks for your reply Ill keep trying to get them to look in to that it's worth them checking even  if it isn't that as thermostatic mixing valve is leaking and so needs to be fixed or replaced either way. 

macman

How far away from the boiler is the downstairs hot tap? Unless the boiler is upstairs, then the upstairs tap is presumably further away from the boiler?
What is the flow rate and pressure like on the hot tap that only runs cold? Do you have only one downstairs hot water outlet?
When did the downstairs HW cease to work? Prior to the boiler pressure issue?
When you open the hot tap, does the boiler fire up, or try to?
Since the boiler is responding to hot water demand upstairs, it can really only be some obstruction on the downstairs supply flow from the boiler to the hot tap.

diystarter7

[Deleted User] said:

Macmam as said in previous post Boiler is now running. Another boiler Engineer came out today and managed to get boiler to jump to life when checked pressure switch and wiggled it. 
I don't know how long the boiler will stay working but they are ordering a new pressure switch and will install once have it. 
So hopefully once they replace pressure switch there should be no more problems.

The pressure is back in the green.

So right now I have heating everywhere and hot water upstairs but no hot water down stairs. I'm now trying to work out why there is no hot water downstairs. So I'm not trying to jump ahead or getting side tracked just trying to work out second problem of why no hot water down stairs. 

And yes I did verify that the engineer that came today was GSR.

Chris_M thanks for your reply Ill keep trying to get them to look in to that it's worth them checking even  if it isn't that as thermostatic mixing valve is leaking and so needs to be fixed or replaced either way. 

Pleased to read its been fixed, at least for now and hoping its soon fixed for good

[Deleted User]

Macman. I'll try my best to explain layout. Boiler is in a cuboard in kitchen, right as you come in kitchen door, its to the right with tank next to it in same cuboard. Bathroom is directly above boiler. 

I would say roughly straight up and about 2 meters to the left is bath tap and sink is right next to bath.

Kitchen tap is over the other side of kitchen. Kitchen is about 5 meters across to where kitchen tap is maybe a bit more. And there is a wet room next to kitchen. Obviously I have no idea where the pipes run in this house but all pipes seem to go up towards bathroom upstairs from boiler.  I can't get hot water from kitchen tap or hot tap in wet room downstairs.

I hope that all makes sense.

Not being able to get hot water downstairs started originally about 6 months ago, I reported the problem and they got boiler engineer to have a look when he did a boiler service plus safety check.

He did something  and got hot water working downstairs again, he said he cleaned something in cuboard where boiler was. 

Every thing was working fine until 2 weeks ago. Then we lost hot water downstairs again, then the boiler stopped working completely. 

When I turn on kitchen hot tap or downstairs wet room hot tap it does not seem to kick boiler on and I just get cold water.

I've tried turning downstairs hot taps on when heating is on but still no hot water from these taps.

macman

I can't really visualise this, But I was just trying to get a rough idea of which tap was nearer. It makes no difference if the CH is on or not when you open the hot tap. With a combi, the CH does not work with the hot tap open, as all the heat goes to the hot water circuit. If you left the hot tap running constantly, you would soon have no heat in the CH circuit. That's what the diverter valve does.
What is the flow and pressure like on the downstairs hot taps? It has to be enough to trigger the boiler into firing. Sounds like the sink and then the wet room are on one feed from the boiler and that is where the fault must be. Maybe post a pic of the boiler cupboard to see what was 'cleaned'.

chris_n

Why is there a tank, I thought this was a combi boiler system? 

macman

Some more pics would really help with this.