Anybody good with boilers?

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These pipes are roasting within 5 mins.

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These pipes are in kitchen going upstairs. The one on the right gets hot.




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Yep same pipes the go up through the ceiling into cupboard to the hot water tank. In the picture with the pipes & tank the pipe with the 2 pipes attached are hot. The pipe with the red valve that's cold


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the pipe that comes out of the cylinder at the top that is corroded (22mm) if I can see it right both (15 mm) pipes are connected via a tee ???
 
i work for british gas doing exactly this thing everyday. If your being quoted for the powerflush, take it. It will need flushing as it is a Prima F. at least 20-25 years old.
The magnetic sludge is generated by the radiators and falls off in shards then travels round the system digging into any lips or restrictions inside the pipework. particularly to the bottom pipe coming out of the cylinder which is the heating return pipe. youll have no hot water as its struggling to circulate. It also sounds like the zone valve passing to the radiators. basically the whole systems done. It was never designed to last this long without maintenance but dont worry as it can be fixed.
A powerflush from BG can work if the water still has a circulation no matter how small and includes removal of blackages and comes with a lifetime warranty as long as you continue your maintenance contract so if were to happen again you get it flushed at no extra cost. Some systems do need reflushed. Your prima heat exchanger will also be choked gauranteed if sounding like a kettle boiling when thermostat set to max.

Personally i would get some extra work done to remove that awful top up vessel, replace the zone valve body or internal paddle, and powerflush. If done by BG then at least it will be done properly and you have someone to complain to if not satisfied. The price is so high as its 8 hrs labour minimum. anything less is not going to work. We also have infra red camera attachments for the iphone to see where circulation is bad but the powerflush guy has that. usually the use of magnets is to show where the pipework is restricted by the rust coating the inside of the pipe.
Any talk about fitting combis and the rest is just no good as the pipes will still be choked and you have a boiler already. Some of the parts are obsolete for it but generally still repairable. It wont be as simple as an airlock
 
I am no expert on this system ( I dont think there are any ) but I'm pretty sure that anything thats floating round in the CH system should be floating round in the hot water. In regards to value for money £850 for a power flush is a con it shouldn't cost half that as well as the other works ( heat exchanger swap by BG minimum £250 valve head swap £175 minimum, swapping that spartan £who knows £18 a month maintenace contract )you are suggesting it would be cheaper for a full swap to a condenser with full new rads and pipework (but not from british gas)
 
Valve head swap £175 ? £850 is not the price, the poster has posted the correct price for a flush which restores the pipework back to a clean state. How much would you quote far a days labour ?
You don't need a heat exchanger swap either. Nothing from the heating system floats around in the hot water. It's two separate water circuits. You can't wash in rusty water.
I never said anything about fitting a combi apart from it's not required and it won't be cheaper than the flush price certainly. I'd like to see someone else quote to repair this system properly. I can assure you that the quoting engineer has no interest in inflating prices or conning anybody. Money doesn't go in their pocket. All that matters is it's done correctly so they can move onto the next job and the power flush engineer fixes it. As I said, I do this work everyday
 
cant help for current problem, but are you/homeowner on any mean tested benefits? you might be able to get a ECO boiler grant your boiler would defo qualify.
 
paying almost a grand to repair something that is 20-25 years old is false economy.

A combi can be fitted by a small local plumber for not much more and it would do away with all that unnecesary plumbing.
I fitted one of these ten years ago and it still works:

https://www.heatingandbathrooms.com...boiler-pack?gclid=CO2DxYrY-dQCFW4R0wodZQEB0gg.

~£450 ish

it cost me £300 from b&q and I fitted it myself replacing an older combi that had packed in.
I don't suggest you fit it yourself unless you are confident you can do it correctly and safely.
A local plumber would fit it in less than a day and probably charge you 200-300 quid
 
And the first time you turn it on you wash all the rust in the pipes through your brand new heat exchanger.
The problem here is not with the boiler but the choked pipe work. £649 is a very reasonable price to repair.
 
£649 when the flushing pump can be hired by anyone for 24 hours for less than £100?

Throw in a few bottles of flushing cleaners etc, say...about, what, another £100? - probably a lot less.

it's hardly surprising you are pushing this service, not saying you get the remaining £449 profit, even though it's closer to £549 as BG don't pay £100 to hire the flushing pumps, but realistically, would you pay me £550 for a day's work? - obviously not.

just googled power flush cleaning fluids...£18 - £25
 
Anything less is a temporary repair and or bodge.
Certainly if the op wants to do that himself then remember to blank off the header tank, disconnect the cylinder and scrape out the return pipe on the cylinder and the pipe work itself, treat each radiator individually for 30 mins at a time finishing off with a rattling across the face with the rubber mallet and then a thermal image and then flush the system as a whole.
Takes all day hence the labour cost.
I replaced the inlaws prima with a second hand water damaged Worcester junior. Cost £95 for a gas valve.
Took me all day to replace boiler and disconnect header tank, cylinder / alter pipe work and would certainly not do that for £200-300. Combi replacement maybe £500 .
Guess where it was choked before the flush, round about the hw cylinder.
There you go pl1976 based on the information you posted here that's the advice from a heating engineer. Wouldn't use any advice from others on this thread as it's no where near the correct solution and as you said the plumber you got out fixed bugger all but you still had to pay for the privilege.
 
If a combi was installed, most of that offending pipework would be removed, along with the sludge.
And the HW cylinder.
And the loft tank.
And all associated pipework.

Yes, the central heating side of the system would need flushing, but a brief google tells me this can be done by a qualified plumber for £175.

So to recap:
New boiler £445
Power flush of old CH system £175
A day for a plumber to fit new boiler £300

Grand total : £920

Or save yourself £170 and pay £850 to repair a twenty-five year old boiler.

You said in an earlier post:

'Any talk about fitting combis and the rest is just no good as the pipes will still be choked and you have a boiler already. '

He's already stated that the main blockage is near the immersion tank.
Where on a combi system would you place the immersion tank? - I've never seen one myself but I'm not a BG plumber, I just assumed with a combi that the mains cold water goes in one side and comes out hot at the other side when you run the hot tap?
 
£645 is his total price further up the post. I would imagine the spartan heat recovery would get removed also, I know I would do it. Just a big rust trap there.
I don't know any plumbers round about here that would take £300 for a days labour fitting a boiler, removingcylinder and pipework and certainly none that would spend a day power flushing for £175. Can't even get it done as a homer for that.
Pay peanuts, get monkeys. I think your labour estimations are a bit of ignorance tbh.
A woman I went to had 2 choked rads. I took the pump out and showed her flakes of rust falling off the impeller. Quoted £1150 to powerflush, replace pump head and repipe rads if they didn't clear. Back in those days you quoted per rad for labour time and she had 16. She decided to use the guy that had been next door because he was £200.
She phoned me 2 days later saying what I had suggested didn't work. I went round and took the pump head off again, still rusty. I asked her how long the guy spent doing it. 2 hrs to drain it and fill back up again. I had quoted for 1.5 days timewise. I quoted again and laughed to myself. It worked of course after that but £200 flushed down the drain.
 
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Another wife with a mansion had 2 separate heating circuits which were both combis. One for each floor. Upstairs had 25 radiators, 5 of which were in her ballroom and 3 didn't work, 17 radiators downstairs of which 2 didn't work. She paid a guy to powerflush the 2 systems over 3 days. Still doesn't work. He then tells her it's the pump in the downstairs combi, calls out BG for a new pump. She's paid £2400.
I look at it for over an hour and quote her. 2 guys doing 5 days labour, 2 powerflush machines, repipe rads using a joiner for her ballroom floor and fit new pump head for peace of mind. £2200 and everything now works.
Contrary to belief, engineers at bg know how to repair and quote accordingly and it's not always the most expensive or rip it out and fit a combi solution.
 
I think you are living in a dream world.
I work on building sites all the time and all the plumbers I know charge between £150 to £200 a day, so when you say 'charging £300 a day for fitting a boiler' is irrelevant, he charges £180 a day whether he's fitting a boiler or picking his nose.
Just google power flushing prices and only one of the prices is anywhere near £600, all the rest are £300 or less:

http://www.plumbwise.net/power-flushing/#.WWD3lCmAMmw

Power Flushing Costs
A power flush of your central heating system including all the chemicals, power flushed to BS7593 standards will cost £250.00 for up to five radiators and £35.00 per radiator thereafter.
###########
http://www.merseyflush.co.uk/index.htm

Combi Boiler Systems
up to 7 radiators
inc chemicals and inhibitor
only £200
No hidden extras
 
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