boiler woes....fell for patter

[KissingAFool]

We had a boiler surveyor around who told us we needed a combi 30kw.
Boiler arrived and was installed.

It is nothing as strong as we need, we have a big house and the water is not a great temp by the time it reaches upstairs. When I went on the manufacturer website we should have been given the one above judging by our size, imminent extension etc. Which I had explained fully.

When the put it in they forgot to reconnect the feed to the pump shower. So we had no shower. They came back and fixed it but admitted they would never have installed the boiler if they had realised it was a shower with a pump. Not suitable for our type of shower. Salesman should have Known this as he was here for two hours, trying out the Taps etc.

Lo and behold! 24 hours later I have a shower I cannot stop, it's just splashing away, wasting about 2l an hour. So they've buggered that.

So, dh is dealing with the complaint but how liable is the boiler salesman, because it was very much a site survey and we were given the one option, were told that was what we needed? I never signed or saw any t&c, were given no options. We feel that we were missold but think we may just be told we're gullible fools. Gulp.

[KissingAFool]

Please....I've been lying awake half the night partly because of splashing water. Partly fear and anger that I've chucked 3k down the drain.

[engineersthumb]

Hi
Sorry to ear you're having such a bad time. I'm not expert on boilers but I don't think that this shower issue is actually caused by the boiler. A pumped shower may have a higher flow rate than the boiler can handle, but I'd expect this to cause cycling or get cold not to fail to shut off. I've had a pumped shower do this and it was a perished diaphragm in the water shut off solenoid (mira shower). Try to relax, are you sure team boiler is too small? 30kw is quite large? Even if it is too small for pending extension there may be other options such as augmenting with solar or electric in less used areaa?

[engineersthumb]

It's also possible that the diaphragm failed now as it has dried out for a a couple of days.

[engineersthumb]

Having re-read have you checked the hot water temperature setting on the boiler. A larger boiler won't make the upstairs water hotter it can heat a greater flow rate and also run more rads. Cooler water upstairs tjan down stairs is the effectime of thermal losses on water pipes (assuming no pumps etc). If settings are OK it maybe that you could insulate your hot water pipes better, and uninsulated hot water pipe in a loft could make qutext some difference this time of year.

[KissingAFool]

Thats a good point about the diaphragm.....It's a mira and I'd say is about 10 years old, and yes. We never used the shower for the weekend. I've heard back from the company who say that the engineer complained to them that the boiler ordered was incompatible for our type of shower....im so grateful that he said that to them. We have five bedrooms and two bathrooms. I checked on the website it definitely should have been the size up.

I don't know where my responsibility for this mess starts.... Hopefully it won't be a case of caveat emptor. I'm really not sure of my rights.

We're asking for it to be switched with a tank like we had and they will replace our shower.

[engineersthumb]

I don't thinknow that they would be liable for the shower as it was probably just it's time to fail. Again if the rads are warm then it may well be of sufficient capacity. I can't see that a larger boiler is going to help the upstairs water temperature at all. The only sticking point is the suitability of a pumped shower on a combi system. The solenoid was about £20 from mira and eat to fit so at least you can have a shower again!

[engineersthumb]

Easy to fit...new predictive text fail!

[Testificateman]

It does sound like you have been missold the boiler. A lot of combi boilers are not compatible with power showers.
Contact your supplier and see what they are willing to do first before taking it any further.