Plumber vs Electrician - advise needed!

eleMental

Hi All. I'm currently living in one of the 2-beds in the Grove. About a month ago I had some issues with the hot water not working (or the radiators) and had a plumber out. He replaced a small red box in the hot press (my understanding is that its a valve / pump that allows the water to heat?). Given his reaction he said the part looked quite cheap and he was surprised it had lasted as long as it had.

All worked perfectly for a month.

Two days ago I came home to find that the boiler inside the front door had died (nothing on the display, wouldnt turn on etc). I had a gas repairman come out today to both service and fix the boiler. He advised that the thermostat (a circular dial one thats on the wall outside the upstairs bathroom door which (I believe!) is what triggers the aforementioned red pump box in the hotpress) is tripping the fuse in the boiler every time he tried to turn the boiler back on. As soon as the thermostat was dialled back to 0-10 the boiler worked perfectly.

So my questions are....
Is this (like so many other house problems in Charlesland!) a known issue, has anyone else had this problem and how or who did you use?
If its not a known issue is there anyone out there with some plumbing / electrical experience who knows if I'm better off getting a plumber or electrician to look at it next. (Obviously I'll go back to the guys who replaced the pump first) but just generally does this sound electrical or plumbingy?

Any and all advise really, really appreciated. It feel likes every life-critical applicance and supply in my house has broken this year so trying to not spend money on unnecessary analysis?

Thanks All

pixbyjohn

When the boiler is on now what is it heating......the domestic hot water only or hot water & radiators?
More than likely the boiler is only heating the water to the taps and not the rads.
So the thermostat is controlling the pump which heats the rads. So with the thermostat turned down it does not turn the pump on so maybe the fault is in the pump. There is another possibility and that is the thermostat activates a zone valve which opens when stat is turned up to allow water to circulate to the rads.
2 items to look at zone valve and pump. Most plumbers should be able to sort the problem without the need for an electrician I would think.

recedite

Get the plumber back again, or get someone else and send him the bill. The motorised valve he installed/repaired now has a live wire connecting the power onto your water pipes.
Your tripswitches have done a good job in preventing you from being electrocuted.
He's complaining about the way the houses were built, while doing a shoddy job himself; that's standard operating procedure for a cowboy
In an ideal world, the valve would be installed by a plumber and wired up by an electrician. But more often than not the plumber does both.

pixbyjohn

eleMental, when you get it sorted please let us know what the problem was. It might help others in the future.

eleMental

thanks for the advice all. the original plumber came back out today and re-replaced the small red box at the back of the hotpress. i think its the valve that controls the pump for the hot water to the rads?? anyway he said it was blowing the fuse in the fusebox downstairs next to the boiler and then the power would go. since replacing that red box with another new one everything seems to be working fine and the heats back on. he said the red box was an unusual model and he was surprised the one that was there originally had lasted so long. he reckons the first replacement one was just faulty. i wasnt charged anything so fingers crossed that its sorted now.

recedite

eleMental wrote: »

he reckons the first replacement one was just faulty.

Faulty unit or else wired incorrectly, but you'll never know which.
If he had tested it on day one, it would have tripped the power straight away. He should have turned the wall thermostat up to test it in the first place, before billing you and leaving the house. The only reason the problem did not appear for a while is because you weren't using the heating during the summer.

This is a motorised valve that diverts hot water to the radiators when the wall thermostat "calls" for heat, whereas when the house is warm enough already, the hot water from the boiler can only go to the hot water cylinder.

Anyone who is wondering what this is, if you go to the hot press and listen carefully while somebody else slowly turns the wall thermostat all the way up to the max, and then back down to zero again, you should hear a buzzing noise which is the motor in the valve activating.