Help with GLEDHILL PULSACOIL boiler

scottydoguk

Hi.

I have had a new boiler installed but im not really getting the hang of how to work it. I know it has an off peak which is connected to a timer but im not getting a lot of hot water in the morning for my shower. I have it set to come on between 3-4am but the water turned cold on me this morning (not nice).

Im unable to find a friendly user guide so im opening it up to you.

I work between 7am - 3pm so what time combinations should i be using? I dont have a shower in the evening, only use the water to wash dishes etc. I thought an hour would have been long enough to heat it up but i was clearly wrong.

Thanks
Scott

JohnG500

Gledhill actually provide a really detailed booklet called "An Insight into the Gledhill PulsaCoil" which answers loads of questions about how to get the best from your appliance. Call and get a copy.

There are a couple of potential issues...

1) You haven't got an off peak power supply from your energy supplier!

2) You haven't set your timer to conincide with the off peak period

3) You simply haven't allowed the boiler sufficient time to charge.

You should allow the appliance to heat during the full off peak period as the unit will stop charging itself once up to the optimum tempertaure. You won't waste energy by doing this as any surplus hot water is simply stored for use later on in a highly insulated tank.

If you only allow the appliance to heat for a couple of hours you may find that the unit can't get enough energy to heat the store of water inside. Hence, you run out of hot water very quickly in the morning.

If you suffer from a lack of hot water or it runs out after a shower, you may also want to check the flow rates through your shower head. Installing a flow restrictor can really reduce the amount of hot water which runs through a shower, meaning that there is more energy (hot water) left for use later in the day.

Hope this helps!

Pincher

The Pulsacoil is a nightmare.

It's good for the developer because they don't have to run a pressure release drain path. It's supposed to be good for the landlord, because it's not pressurised, so you don't need to do a service once a year.

In practice, the high temperature encourages limescale attack, so it clogs the mixer valve, and corrodes the cylinder. The office conversion flat I bought had a Pulsacoil, like every other flat. They all failed around the ten year mark, loads of flooded apartments.

JohnG500

The PulsaCoil hasn't been made with a mixer valve for around 9 years and if you have a PC2000 or PC A Class you definitely haven't got a mixer valve.

However, you never get limescale build up within any PulsaCoil appliance as it does not contain fresh water. The water inside the cylinder is the same water it was filled up with originally as it is only used to heat the plate heat exchanger. You can get scale build up in the plate heat exchanger, but change the plate heat exchanger and the appliance is fully restored.

Pincher

The replacement the iphe engineer put in in Dec 2008 was a Gledhill Torrent Direct 210 Litre, which has a mixer valve in the picture on the front cover of the Installation Instructions. In any case, how can it not have a mixer valve, considering the temperature of unmixed output.

I was forced to go for the Gledhill again because otherwise I would have to rip out half the kitchen to run a sealed drain. Unfortunately I didn't find out about the cylinder tray until afterwards, so there will probably be another scream down the telephone line in ten years time.

After ten years, there was lots of scale at the bottom of the old Pulsacoil. The evaporation on top means new water come in gradually. I did put in an electronic scale reducer at the stopcock this time, but since the storage water doesn't go anywhere, it will stay at the bottom until replacement. Should have put it on top of a cylinder tray with a flood alarm, but found out too late.