Need gas boiler help***URGENT***

Hellrazer

Looking for some help urgently.Gas heating just packed up--well it didnt I booked a service with Bord Gais and they wont touch the system and told me it has to be "decommisioned" and have told me that my meter will be "locked" if its not sorted.
Its an ancient nu-way burner which I believe is an oil system converted to gas on an open system.Its in the centre of the house with flue running from the ground floor through the house and out through the roof--hence the need to move the boiler.

New boiler will have to be moved 10 feet across the room by laying roughly 10 feet of pipe under the floor and mounting the boiler on the wall.

I need an 80,000 btu system boiler that will work on an open system.

Ive had prices ranging from 3000-5000 euros for this job and to be totally honest I dont have that kind of cash at the minute and feel that Im being ripped off.

My dad has an account with C+f Quadrant,Heatmerchants and Dublin Providers and I can get a new boiler for roughly 900 incl vat(which my dad wont charge me if I get it on his account)

Im looking for a recommendation for a boiler and possibly someone to install this as a nixer

I can lay the pipes myself under the floor and do the electrics so I feel that 5000 is a bit much considering I can buy an sei approved boiler for the above price.

Anyone got an opinion on a Baxi 3580 system boiler or a Glowworm Flexicom 30sx??
These are the ones Ive been recommended by a few installers.

Im under serious pressure to get this sorted as Ive a one year old in the house and a new one on the way in 6 weeks and Ive a tile installer booked for next week to come and fit tiles.

Im willing to pay the going rate for someone just to install a recommended system.

Cheers
Richie.

JamesM

In Dublin, I find Breretons very good - 01 4962637
Jim.

Hellrazer

Just to update and another small bit of help needed.

Got a new boiler fitted--Baxi 35/80 80000 btu and it was working great up till this morning(well yesterday evening)

Got a new fitted kitchen yesterday and apparently the fitters (who are not plumbers) turned off every valve in the hot press and now I have no heating downstairs unless I turn the valve to the coil in the hot tank to "off"--then I get no hot water

Rang the bloke who fitted it and he reckons the kitchen fitters have upset the "balance" of the system and/or air locked it and it will have to be balanced from scratch again and he wont touch it as its not a "warranty" issue(since Im getting heat upstairs and the boilers working) unless I want to pay him for the job.

The kitchen fitters wont touch it as they say they didnt do anything wrong.

So Im stuffed.

Anyone know how to balance a system??
Recommend a good plumber in Maynooth??

Richie.

JamesM

Unless he got nasty and you don't want him back, the guy who fitted the boilen is the one who knows most about your system - it might be better to get him than someone who hasn't even seen it. Usually if there is no heat downstairs, it is the circulating pump that is the problem, but if turning off the hot water circuit gets heat downstairs, this may not be it. It sounds like very bad circulation more than just balancing.
Jim.

landydef

the valve to the coil only needs to be turned on one or two circulations so turn it all the way off then on one circulation and check if the coil is heating,

311

What JamesM has said is bang on ,you won't get beter service than the guy who helped you out already.
Maybe give the invoice to the kitchen crowd ,when your plumber knows exactly what happened.

If the plumber was a neighbour he probably would have done it FOC ,but he's probably a distance away and it will take him an hour travelling there and back.
Don't mess with anything yourself,otherwise you won't be able to pass the invoice on to someone else.

JamesM

landydef wrote: »

the valve to the coil only needs to be turned on one or two circulations so turn it all the way off then on one circulation and check if the coil is heating,

I know what you are saying, but the system shouldn't have been installed in a way that fully opening the valve to the coil would stop the downstairs rads heating.

Maybe the speed control on the circulating pump is at the lowest speed, and the hot water is rising to the cylinder coil by gravity, but not pumping around downstairs unless the cylinder valve is off.
Jim.

311

Make sure no one has powered down anything on you. I often have call outs like these and trust me ,the more you mess around with it ,the less chance you will have of pointing the finger at someone.


The main reason for things like this is thermostats turned down ,lever valves been turned off and feed valves been shut

To be perfectly honest ,it's just ridiculous for someone to try and suggest to you how to fix it without actually seeing your system and how it's done.
Your plumber obviously thinks someone has made a b@lls of something .

Hellrazer

JamesM wrote: »

Unless he got nasty and you don't want him back, the guy who fitted the boilen is the one who knows most about your system - it might be better to get him than someone who hasn't even seen it. Usually if there is no heat downstairs, it is the circulating pump that is the problem, but if turning off the hot water circuit gets heat downstairs, this may not be it. It sounds like very bad circulation more than just balancing.
Jim.

Cheers Jamesm--you were spot on with the pump diagnosis alright.

It just get worse and worse and he is getting nasty--after hearing what the independant engineer told me it looks like this bloke knew what was wrong all along and just doesnt want to touch it again--hes not even taking my calls this morning.


Independant engineer came out last night and it turns out the pump is sludged up(all the filters are blocked) and a stone is caught in the fins after only 1 week and the only way to fix it is to drain,chemical flush the system and then rebalance the whole lot.
The bloke who fitted it assured me the system was chemically flushed but according to this other bloke theres no way did he power flush it--theres even no inhibitor in it.He also turned up the pressure to 3 bar to cover it up when it should be at 1-1.5

This explains why only upstairs is working.No heat downstairs is a sign of pump problems alright.

The problem was absolutely nothing to do with the kitchen crowd--by turning off the feed and then turning it back on fully all they did was basically push all the crap up to the pump through pressure and it would have happened anyway within weeks-or so Im told.

Its going to cost me another 300 to get it power flushed and rebalanced which Im going to chase the first bloke for.And if I get no joy its the small claims court.

Talk about being pi**ed off.



***Edit***Engineer just finished--took 28 stones out of the pump,flushed the system,put inhibitor in and the heating is 100%.
He reckons the installer let the stones get in when he was running the pipes under the floor.
Anyway heating is sorted now.

311

Hellrazer wrote: »

I can lay the pipes myself under the floor and do the electrics so I feel that 5000 is a bit much considering I can buy an sei approved boiler for the above price.

Im willing to pay the going rate for someone just to install a recommended system.

Cheers
Richie.

You should have laid the pipes yourself