To think someone can fix this?

[twinkybelle]

We have a problem with our central heating.
It’s a fairly new boiler on a 30 year old system boiler system.
I’ve done everything I should, had it serviced every year, power flush last year, magnaclean thing attached to keep pipes clean, had a new pump and a new 3 port valve in the last month and it still doesn’t work.
So heating has been a bit weird for a while. Only some radiators work. Don’t think water is circulating properly.
We’ve now had 4 plumbers out in the past month. From 4 firms.
Some have advised new pump, new programmer, new 3 port valve which we have had done. Others come out and spend an hour banging around and say it’s beyond their knowledge or capability, run away and never return.
I’ve spoken to another couple on the phone that upon hearing 4 plumbers have looked and can’t fix it, never return my calls or are suddenly too busy to deal with it.
The plumbers say get an electrician to look, the electricians say we need a heating engineer.
Who the bloody hell do I get to fix my heating???

Should also say I’ve tried big companies, small one man bands.
I’m willing to pay for what needs to be done but no one will help me.

Husband says it’s not worth someone’s time if they are spending days trying to fix something with no end result when they could be earning more money on other jobs. Also plumbers don’t want the hassle of it when they can pick and choose jobs.

A new boiler?

I use British Gas, and they are great at working out problems and fixing them. They are not the cheapest though. I eventually got a new boiler and now have a service plan so when things go wrong I call them up and they come out almost immediately.

British Gas repair and cover

www.britishgas.co.uk/home-services/boilers-and-heating/boiler-and-heating-repair.html?cid=PPC_OD_UK_Brand_BG_OD_-_Misspells_Exact&gclid=Cj0KCQjwudb3BRC9ARIsAEa-vUv-h9CuTG8tIOf6Nl5AfOaXLxuAxT7iSQmhihhSvzbzB91Syhll0vsaAuscEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Whenever I need cover, I call British Gas. I take the deal whereby I pay them a certain amount, maybe 99 pounds or something like that, and sign up for one years cover. I then always cancel the cover at the end of the year, and do no maintenance until the next time it stops working.

In theory they have three different fixed prices they charge for a repair, depending on how many hours it takes, but I've never gone wrong in assuming that it's going to be the longest option.

The overall cost works out in the same ball-park, a bit more expensive, than they charge for their longest fixed price repair. So a few hundred pounds. But by signing up for a years cover, if the repair doesn't work, I can keep calling them up for as many times as it takes, until the problem is actually fixed.

To be fair to British Gas engineers, I've had the same (expensive) boiler problem fixed several times over a 20 year period, and only one time did they not fix it properly the first time. That one time, they did eventually do the expensive repair I guessed was required, after a couple of call-backs.

On the most recent occasion, they determined from their database that the cause of needing the boiler circuit board replacing was an incompatibility with a pump they had installed several years earlier, so they replaced the board and the pump.

"Whenever I need a repair" is how my previous post should have stared.

The "repair and cover" option in the link that Aposterhasnoname gave. It looks slightly more expensive than the other option, but it means you can call them as many times as necessary over the period of a year, for either the original problem (if the fix was inadequate) or anything else that happens.

It's a £403 total cost, but it should guarantee a fix. I would only not use that option if I was sure the problem was something that could be fixed for less than half the price.

Ok. So I think I now know the issue. Previous owners added a 2 story rear extension. According to a friend that knows previous owners there are problems in the house because they’ve connected the new central heating to the old central heating but cowboys did it and it all needs ripping out and redoing.
Would British Gas cover this? I very much doubt it.

British Gas would look at all that and tell you what was needed to put it right and the costs.

Some random thoughts, apologies if you’ve tried all these.

The pump should have three speed settings, have you tried it on the highest to see if it can get the water around the now extended system?

You have bled all the radiators?

The lockshield valves on the radiators, they’re the ones at the opposite end of the thermostat valve/+ or - valve, close them all ( clockwise ) then open them all half a turn.

Yep @tanstaafl thank you tho.

I'm a heating engineer and a pretty good one. Where about do you live?

Have you asked on the site ..diynot….? something like www. diynot.co.uk
It is a large site. there is also the Institute of Plumbing and Heating.

Turn the radiators off in the extension and see if the CH system works as normal.

If it doesn’t , it’s not a problem caused by the extension ?

Done that @tanstaafl Still doesn’t work. Like some radiators work some of the time. But doesn’t fix the problem.

If there is a chance of the water not moving in a circuit, this might be your problem. New house, previous owner a BG engineer.

Our plumber took 3 goes to sort it out as BG former owner made an extra circuit from upstairs bedroom down to dining room and then back up. It confused the boiler so heated both rooms when the plumber was here, but then only the bed room, next time boiler came on. Also made the boiler 'think', tgat the under stairs cupboard where the boiler was, should be a radiator.

Took a lot of brain power and lifting floor board a. Wish I could recommend our plumber. Did an excellent job.

@SewingWarriorQueen76 sounds like it might be something very similar to this.
But numerous plumbers just don’t want the hassle or can’t work it out and never come back.
I think they’re hesitant about pulling up floorboards if that may not be the issue. But yes the whole system is playing up. Electrics and pipe work by the sound of it.
I’ve gone for another tactic and having a builder out to look next as they don’t seem scared of lifting floors!

Also along with it being a plumbing problem the electrics are apparently a bit dodgy? Randomly turning things on they shouldn’t and doing weird things. So I think it’s going to be a plumbing and wiring issue. Plumbers say they struggle because it’s electrical and electricians can’t touch it because they don’t knows the ins and outs of boilers!