Tedious boiler problem. What to do?!

[Berenjena]

Had this in chat but didn't get any response, so I'm braving AIBU (eek!)

Our boiler's always been a bit eccentric but at the end of the day has always provided central heating and hot water. I had it serviced yesterday and metioned to the plumber that it sometimes loses pressure and has to be topped up before it will work again. This was not the main reason for having the service, but was an issue I wanted to raise during the service. I told him that this used to happen quite a lot last year but has only happened about 3 times in the last six months. So, he explained what might be causing that and topped up the expansion vessel (I have learnt a lot of boiler jargon in the last 24 hrs!).

Since yesterday the system has lots pressure every time the heating has come on (thermostat is set quite low so it comes on maybe two or three times a day and stays on for about 20 mins a time). Wah! So I phoned the company this morning and a different plumber came round straight away and tells me that the expansion vessel has burst and it will need a new one, costing a further £140 on top of the cost of the service.

I appreciate that it would have gone at some point but it had been working ok. I think that the original plumber's intentions were entirely honourable but I can't help but feel that they've 'broken' my boiler and now it's going to cost me £££ to fix it. Second plumber said that there was always a risk of the thing bursting but first plumber did not mention this risk. If he had mentioned this risk (and how much it would cost to fix it) I honestly don't know whether I would have asked him to go ahead with topping it up.

So, I really don't know if they've done anything wrong or not. Do I suck it up and pay the full amount or do I have grounds to try and negotiate a lower bill? If so, how do I argue this? I've got nobody to talk to about this in RL today and I really can't decide either way.

Arse.

Apologies for long and tedious post. Thank you very much if you got this far!

My hubby is a Gas Engineer. He says you couldn't really damage the expansion vessel on a service. He would have recommended bleeding all your radiators, make sure the pressure sits at 1.5 then if it drops there is a leak on the system. If it stays on 1.5 after 30 mins then it's fine, if not it needs looked at.

If the pressure goes up to 3 bar then drops then it's a problem with the PRV

Thanks for that Groovee (and Mr Groovee)

The second plumber said that the expansion vessel has defintely burst now and I need a new vessel and PRV at £140. Neither of them did anything with the radiators - should I have expected that they do this on a boiler service?

The first plumber inflated the expansion vessel with a hand pump and since then it has not worked - so did he damage it or was it already fatally flawed? It had lost pressure about three times in the last six months but otherwise was working fine.

Oh and the pressure is persistently very low now, so unfortunately I can't check the pressure readings as your DH suggests.

You can bleed the radiators yourself. He's away out so not sure, how to do it but he has a special key, but if you googled you would probably find a step by step.

If he tried to pump up the EV and it didn't work then it was already flawed. There could be water dripping out the back of the house and £140 is pretty reasonable to replace.

Oh and no you shouldn't expect the radiators to be bled on a service but had you called them out about the fault it probably would have been done to check the boiler and if it sorted the issue or if further investigation would need done.

Oh that's really helpful thanks - hearing that the EV was already flawed. I'll call them tomorrow and ask them to come and fit the new bits then and I'll stop thinking about the money!

Thanks so much - I know it's a silly thing but I just felt I hadn't got enough knowledge to decide whether they were being reasonable or not. Cheers for putting my mind at rest!