Combi boiler broken down within a week of a smart meter installation

[Dandelionrarrrr]

Hi,
I’m looking for help. We have a Glow worm beta 24c combi boiler. It was here when we moved in around 5 years ago. All fine had the occasional issue with pressure but nothing concerning.

We have swapped our energy providers to OVO and part of the requirements was to get a smart meter installed. Wasn’t overly keen but it was a requirement. OVO engineer came around and replaced both our gas and electric meter a week ago.

Since he installed it our boiler has been temperamental and cut out randomly with a flashing light. I managed to restart it and all was fine for a couple of hours. Only to cut out again.

We have bled the radiators and checked the boiler pressure. The fault light that flashes is a ‘fault on air pressure switch’ (70).

I called OVO to see if they could help but they say it’s nothing to do with their installation and we need to get a gas engineer in. Seems a bit too coincidental. I also read online that some boilers aren’t suited to smart meters due to their age. Problems can occur because of air bubbles.

Just wondering if there was any suggestions on here.

most unlikely.

the boiler doesn't know what sort of meter you have

there is a faint chance, in some areas, that old pipes might have had dust or rust particles in them that got disturbed and blown into the burner jets, your boiler mender should be able to see.

The idea of air bubbles in the gas pipe doesn't make sense, and the gas meter change doesn't include doing anything to your water pipes.

There was a thread a while ago with the same problem.

When our meter was changed, the fitter bled the air out of the gas supply pipe before relighting the boiler.

From my experience with caravans, I know air in the system can cause problems but it usually means the boiler or stove won't light at all and isn't intermittent.

Yes, maybe I used the wrong terminology.

I found this posted by someone with a similar experience:
It sounds like your gas supply needed bleeding after the installation. Sometimes, if the gas pipes in your property haven't been touched for a very long time, and then the supply is suddenly interrupted, this can allow air into the pipes and it'll need bleeding after. This could be from having a new boiler fitted, or having your meter changed.

If this is the case would I/should I get the engineer in or try to follow up with the energy company?

My gas hob works fine too

This happened to me a couple of years ago. Only recently I've seen several articles confirming that there is a link. Eg. www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/money/2020/nov/23/smart-meter-wrecked-our-boiler-but-eon-wont-pay

In our case it worked out OK. Our boiler was over 20 years old and we qualified for one of the energy saver govt. Grants for a new boiler. It's a top rated brand and the cost to us including firing was £250. It wasn't easy to find the grant though. Ours was from EOn and you don't need to be their customer to qualify. You do need to be on a relatively low income though and have an old boiler.

That should say fitting not firing! Also to add, we spent a lot trying to get the old boiler fixed before we found out about the grant. So if you qualify for one of these grants and the boiler it may be worth cutting losses.