Central Heating Boiler or System

coldguy

Central Heating sometimes works sometimes doesn't, currently it won’t fire up.
When it does work the radiators don’t get up to normal temperature.

I spoke to the boiler manufacturers, Vaillant, and had a guy out who told me it was a system problem and probably a blockage and the wiring to the boiler had not been installed properly. The boiler has however worked fine for 8 years up until this autumn.

I had the system power flushed but this hasn’t sorted the problem.

Not sure what to do next, any help appreciated.

WIAWSNB

Blimey, talk about a blank sheet of possibilities!

Oookkkaaaay, the boiler is 8 years old? That ain't old. How old is the rest of the system - the rads and pipes?

Does the boiler have a pressure gauge? Do you have a hot water cylinder? 

And... does the boiler have a magnetic filter fitted to the return pipe before it enters the boiler? If so, when was it last checked? Do you know how to do this? The content of that filter should be very informative. 

coldguy

Thanks for that:
Rads and pipes are mixture some quite old some recent.
not a pressurised system and does have a cylinder.
No magnetic filter.

coldguy

Also it has just been working for 2 days, not quite at full power, but now wont start up again. 

WIAWSNB

You had a Vaillant guy out, and he couldn't diagnose the problem? Lawdie.
Could we have a nice pic of the hot cylinder and surrounding pipework, please?
What controls do you have to operate the CH and DHW?

coldguy

Vaillant guy said it was a system problem not a boiler problem. I have attached pics below. Have had another guy out who says it is a problem with an air bubble in the system.
He proposes pressurising it to flush it out but concerned because its old pipes. Wouldnt fire up last night but did this morning.

WIAWSNB

The third pic of the boiler display, any chance of a non-blurred version?

shiraz99

coldguy said:

Thanks for that:
Rads and pipes are mixture some quite old some recent.
not a pressurised system and does have a cylinder.
No magnetic filter.

Yes it does have a magna filter, it's the black thing pictured above, to the right of your cylinder.

You need to get a heating engineer out to fully diagnose, and more importantly FIX, the problem.

coldguy

Really helpful comment have had 3 out so far and spent approx £2000, too much shiraz?

shiraz99

coldguy said:

Really helpful comment have had 3 out so far and spent approx £2000, too much shiraz?

If you had 3 guys out and they've charged you that much without fixing the issue then I'd argue it is too much.

Are you getting any heat to your radiators at all? Can you post a pic of the boiler display showing the central heating temperature and if you can the current boiler pressure reading. As an aside you might want to increase the temperature of your hot water as that's a bit low to be using with a cylinder.

WIAWSNB

coldguy said:

Really helpful comment have had 3 out so far and spent approx £2000, too much shiraz?

£2k for what?
Exactly. What did each one do?
And where do you live?