Help help, please please help!!

[QueenofVenus]

My hot water isnt working, it runs hot for about 30 seconds and then goes freezing cold and after about 5 MINUTES it finally runs hot again, but only for about 30 seconds and then goes cold again! FINALLY got a plumber out this afternoon by some sheer miracle and he turned the tap on and it only bloody stayed hot FFS he tried a few things and even went on to ask if i knew the difference between all the hot water/central heating switches! Jeez (sigh) In the end he left and said it all seemed fine to him, have just tried running a bath for my kids and its bloody doing it again! FREEZING cold water, with VERY short bursts of hot how am i supposed to sort/fix this???? HELP!!!!!!! ANY help at all! Please

Is it a combi boiler? ours does this in very cold weather unless we have the water running really slowly (almost a trickle). This is because it is heating the water as it goes along, and the water is so cold to begin with that it can only heat a gentle flow.

Is it the same from all the taps in the house? or are some running ok? Our kitchen taps do better because they are nearer the boiler.

My combi boiler did this it turned out that the heat exchange valve thingy had gone. It was not an easy fix am sorry to say. Have you checked the pressure? If the pressure has dropped try repressurising. If you have a reset button on the boiler try pressing that sometimes that can work miracles!

ours has just done this and it's exactly like sam2cats said the temp thingy in the boilet is on it's way out

we had a plumber out the other day and he just turned the stop cock down a bit so the water comes out more slowly and though you have to wait for a bit for the bath to fill up at least it's hot

we had thought it was something to do with the pipes as it didn't seem to be doing it downstairs but it was he said ....our sink is also next to the boiler

he said that it would cost £50 for him to replace the valve that's including parts so nothing hugely major

hth

Oh thankyou for getting back to me! It is a combi boiler - a Vokera compact HE??? I know absolutley nothing about these things How do i repressurise? check the pressure? It is the same from all the taps in the house, well its a bungalow, and the boiler was only installed new end of last year! Have just had the shower from hell - wash rinse for 10/20 seconds and stand away from it as it runs FREEZING cold for about 2 minutes lol! Doubt very much i will be able to get the plumber out again now How do i find the stop cock?? Sorry, im more then abit useless with anything like this! I like to learn tho

If you installed it only last year there is a good chance it is still under guarantee - have you got the operation book? Check it and give Vokera a ring they should send someone out to you. If it is that new it shouldn't really be the heat exchange, in my case there was a problem with the installation which caused the boiler to completely fur up stopping the heat exchange from working, so perhaps something like that is going on. We had to do a chemical flush which is a pain.....
www.vokera.co.uk/
sorry don't know how to do links, have a look at their website, also you could have a look on the internet under vokera boiler problems, all sorts of folk chatting about it!

Ok, with a combi boiler it heats the water inside the boiler, but in winter as the cold water coming in is SO much colder it struggles if you put a tap on full blast.

As we have had snow etc the water coming in will be ridiculously cold (maybe when plumber came outside temps were up a few degrees)

Way to deal with it is run the tap very slowly. Usually you can hear it sounds different when you run it more slowly. This way the boiler has the water in it for longer so can heat it to the required temp.

I have learnt this, we have a bloody Worcester Bosch and I now know to either buy a boiler where you can adjust the temperature of the water coming in or get a boiler (which I am doing for the next house) where it does have it's own little tank where is preheats the water and stores it in there thereby giving it time to heat more water as you are draining the tank.

Re repressurising, your instruction booklet should look like this

www.avhleeds.org.uk/files/SSEHL/2008/.../vokera%20compact.pdf

and it is on page 4, think item 2.4 (i have had wine but it is definitely on page 4)

So repressurize it, run the water slowly and see if that helps. If you haven't ever repressurized it the plumber should have done it for you. I need to do mine every 4-6 months or so.

Oh bless you all! Thankyou so so much, will try these things, and the Vokera site! - will THOROUGHLY investigate it Ugh, such an ultra-advanced technological world we live in, and a girl cant even get a bl**dy hot shower! pfff!

Queen - it was the reason we put an electric shower in our en-suite because we were sick of fluctuating temperatures when showering. Good luck. Let us know how you get on.