The Money Pit

Why The Boiler Died. Probably.

As a follow-up to the Dead Boiler post here's what I've worked out probably caused the problem.

As well as talking about it here I posted to the uk.d-i-y usenet group about it. One response talked about a boiler's fan going when the wall near the flue outlet was rendered and rubble made its way down the flue to the boiler. That hasn't happened to me, but something similar did.

Here's what our flue looks like:

Notice the elbow at the top is inline with the wall. Since then I've swivelled it round to be at about 30^o to the wall as the steam was making the wall damp and I feared long-term damage.

What I think has happened is that driving rain has entered the flue and made its way down to the fan, where it's shorted the circuits or some other damage was caused. The reason I think this happened is that on the morning it went there was a puddle beneath the boiler. Also I've noticed small damp patches there in the past. I've even seen it drip once or twice from within the main body of the boiler. Obviously last Wednesday night there was a storm and the rain was at the right angle to flood the fan. The more I think about the more it makes sense.

Next time it rains I'll keep an eye on it and see what happens. In the long run I need to change the flue to point downwards.

It was an expensive lesson to learn as it cost £160 to have the plumber who installed it fix the new fan. Not sure whose fault it was though. Is it a design fault or was it the installer's fault for not positioning the flue right? I'm surprised more boilers don't suffer the same fate.

Dead Boiler

Remember a year and a half ago we had a new boiler installed? Well, yesterday (my birthday!) we woke to find it had died. Completely. Not just a lack of hot water but the control panel and warning light were gone too. Doesn't take a genius to work out the PCBs have had it.

My first call was to the manufacturers, Glow-Worm, who, it appears, couldn't care less that it's winter and we're at home looking after a one month old baby with no heating and unable to wash either ourselves or his nappies.

Although I rang them on Thursday the soonest they could get an engineer out to look at it was going to be Wednesday. Six days without heating or washing?

So, I called the plumber who originally installed it and he offered to help out, as he knows people at Glow Worm and could probably get the bits off them. As far as I know he's doing the best he can to get this done ASAP. He's a nice bloke.

In the mean time I have a Glow Worm engineer booked in for next Tuesday (they managed to get one a day earlier in the end). The phone operator couldn't however give me any guarantee that he'd be able to fix it on the day or that he'd have the right PCB with him. This despite my telling them what model it is and that the problem is almost definitely with the PCBs. You'd think he might come with everything he might need and I live in hope.

The boiler itself is under warranty, but, as it's in the second year, only parts are covered and there's a £105 charge for labour! This to fix a £900 boiler that's less than two years old. Needless to say I'm a little pissed off about the whole thing.

If this were a Sky+ box on the blink I wouldn't be bothered about when an engineer could get out to see me. But this is a boiler. Something you take for granted until it's gone. Our well-being depends on it. It makes me wonder how many engineers Glow Worm have. Is it a team of dedicated people or one man who makes his way round the East Midlands as fast as he can!? You'd like to think that there'd be some urgency about matters concerning boilers in the winter where newborn babies are concerned. Obviously not though. You'd like to think the reply would be "We'll have somebody with you within the hour sir!" ala RAC-style roadside recovery. Instead you get a couldn't-care-less attitude from a company only to ready to make you wait and profit from it all in the end anyway.

The one blessing in all this is that we're saving a heap of money on the gas we're not using ;o)