Boiler stopped working

edellc

Since the cold weather we have had the heating on all day and it goes on for two hours in the night from 4am till 6am house is an ice box without anyway christmas eve got up and turned heating on at 9 everything was fine then around lunch time noticed it was getting very cold so i checked heating which was on but the boiler was reporting an error

we tried to restart it but to no avail rang landlord who said pipes where frozen to pour kettles of hotwater on pipe outside which we did six in total on a big pot full still nothing

rang landlord again he said it has to be pipes

has anyone else had this problem?? is it the pipes our boiler is attached to the outside wall in kitchen....and do we need a repair man to fix it or should it thaw out when it gets warmer???

also we ended up having to buy electric heater now not only will the gas bill be expensive but so will the electricity but no other option need to keep the baby warm three babygrows gloves had and slippers and still his little face is freezing not how i wanted his first christmas

Victor

Moved from Accommodation & Property. You may get better answers on Plumbing & Heating.

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Do you have water in the cold kitchen tap?

Is there water in the attic storage tank?

Is there a condensation pipe from the boiler that is blocked with ice?

Be wary of keeping baby too warm

edellc

Victor wrote: »

Moved from Accommodation & Property. You may get better answers on Plumbing & Heating.

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Do you have water in the cold kitchen tap?

Is there water in the attic storage tank?

Is there a condensation pipe from the boiler that is blocked with ice?

Be wary of keeping baby too warm

thanks for moving it to a more appropriate place

Yes I have cold water in the kitchen tap

dont know about the attic cant get up there

condensation pipe is clear of ice

and i am now worrying about baby

any suggestions as to what wrong the error light is on and it just wont catch and light yesterday it was turning on just for a minute or so and then turning itself off again
its a baxi solo boiler

gasguru

what the name on the boiler?
what fault code is coming up?

OhMyGod123

I have similar iissue/query

No water in the tank, taps are dry (nothing comne out)

Am I ok to use boiler? Worried about damaging boiler!!

Sparkpea

OhMyGod123 wrote: »

I have similar iissue/query

No water in the tank, taps are dry (nothing comne out)

Am I ok to use boiler? Worried about damaging boiler!!

yes its ok

OhMyGod123

I only have a heating system/hot water option on the boiler itself (baxi boiler) I don't have an option foe heating only

Still OK to use? What water is it using?

Sparkpea

what model is it? is there a feed and expansion tank in the loft? if not then its pressurised, eitherway heating systems rarely need the intake of fresh water and the heating system water is separate from the domestic cold/hot water so it shouldn't matter but if you can tell me the model I'll confirm that.

edellc

Sparkpea wrote: »

what model is it? is there a feed and expansion tank in the loft? if not then its pressurised, eitherway heating systems rarely need the intake of fresh water and the heating system water is separate from the domestic cold/hot water so it shouldn't matter but if you can tell me the model I'll confirm that.

its a baxi solo 18 he ie and its a pressurised model it should be at 1.5 and its not its under 1

the pipes arent frozen as far as i can see and have poured boiling water over them to make sure

it says no water pressure or reversed flow thats the error

do you think its broken and needs a plumber or will it just fix itself when it gets warmer sorry if thats a silly question but i have never had gas before

Sparkpea

sorry I mean't the post above me

however with your post.. check the flue is not blocked/obstructed in anyway at the outside incase some ice has formed around it. what distance from the boiler are the pipes outside? are they all on show or do they go underground etc? what makes u think that they are not frozen?

sorry I'm not that experienced at fault finding gas boiler faults

edellc

Sparkpea wrote: »

sorry I mean't the post above me

however with your post.. check the flue is not blocked/obstructed in anyway at the outside incase some ice has formed around it. what distance from the boiler are the pipes outside? are they all on show or do they go underground etc? what makes u think that they are not frozen?

sorry I'm not that experienced at fault finding gas boiler faults

oh sorry

its a new boiler only put in in april and the boiler is in kitchen in the press which is at the outside wall the pipe is directly outside but above ground
no ice around the flue and only reason i think its not frozen is because i have been pouring boiling water on the pipe since yesterday in the hope that if it was frozen it would thaw out

no problem it you cant help hopefully someone will read that can but thank you anyway for your reply hope you had a good christmas day

Sparkpea

thing about thawing pipes out is that if you dont get it all thawed once u start, the bits you did defrost is just going to freeze again. the ice can travel along the pipe, behind walls, under floors etc. and you cant thaw it out because you cant see it. pipes indoors can freeze too.

edellc

edellc wrote: »

it should be at 1.5 and its not its under 1

edellc wrote: »

it says no water pressure or reversed flow thats the error

As a guess you may find you have a water leak on your heating system or you have lost a bit of pressure and as the mains pressure has dropped off it is can't be increased or you have enough pressure and you need to find your filling loop and increase the water pressure.
you will get no heat until you increase the water pressure in the boiler as it telling you to with the fault code, it would be worth waiting for the thaw to see if things improve. good luck, Gary.

edellc

disaster today water all over the kitchen all coming from the boiler...john the boiler guy who installed it told me to turn the value in the hot press thus reversing the pressure now no pressure to hot tank but pressure to boiler and water has stopped pissing out everywhere...hope im not damaging the plumbing in the house???

however i am not going near boiler as water covered it and its electric thats for john the boiler guy to do not me

rang landlord no answer left a message when he did ring back he told me to turn the water supply to the house off...great no heating and now no water genius and its left to me to get it fixed wtf am i paying rent to this guy for only good thing as i couldnt get to bank his rent didnt go in this month so will use it to pay plumber

john the boiler guy said he may be able to get here tonight fingers crossed he can if not hopefully he will be here tomorrow and if not will get someone else

Buford T Justice

edellc wrote: »

disaster today water all over the kitchen all coming from the boiler...john the boiler guy who installed it told me to turn the value in the hot press thus reversing the pressure now no pressure to hot tank but pressure to boiler and water has stopped pissing out everywhere...hope im not damaging the plumbing in the house???

Sounds to me like he got you to turn off the mains supply to the heating system possibly through an auto filling loop, otherwise it doesn't make sense to me.

edellc

yep mains to boiler turned off no heating

rang a gas rgi registered man and one came out day after stephens day and made the following assessments
1. who ever put in the boiler was a cowboy boiler is too big for where it is and not enough room for the pipes

2. no protection over the pipes so yes they did freeze so he insulated them so that wouldn't happen again

no manual was left by the original installer so when this guy took the cover off he wasn't familiar with boiler but it turns out that an actual piece of metal (think it is a condenser) which would be welded onto the inside of boiler has come clean off!!!! the inside of the boiler is soaking needs to dry out and also because guy wasn't sure what the bit did he didn't want to fire up the boiler in case we blew ourselves up

so the rgi registered guy left a message on the cowboys phone (i had rang him twice that day no answer then turned his phone off...nice) telling him that as boiler was installed in april it was still under guarantee and it was his responsibility to inform landlord of where he got the boiler

I rang LL told him it all cost 80euro which wasn't bad and that boiler was under guarantee that he get baxi to fix it or we pay this guy to come back and do it but it looks like a new boiler is needed don't see them welding this bit back on some how

Landlord did try blame me for braking it however i did expain that I am not in the habit of removing covers from boilers and taking a sledge hammer to it in the middle of the coldest weather this winter and also at christmas when I have a four month old who needs to be kept warm! this shut him up and he said he would ring baxi

today I rang the LL as he wasnt getting back to me he said it would be the new year before anything is done as everyone is on holidays :mad: I know its the holidays but now baba has a cold from being indoors and the cost of running the electric heaters is scaring me tbh LL has now apologised but is not forthcoming with discussing compensation regarding heating bill

so if the 3rd of jan is a bank holiday roll on the 4th :rolleyes: lets hope the temperature drop predicted over the weekend isnt too bad and to top it all with the water restrictions in place we get in a 24hr period only 4 hours of actual running cold water...it gets very busy sorting out baby bottles

Buford T Justice

I'd be suggesting that the landlord takes all of this into consideration when it comes to paying the rent next month.

edellc

update on the boiler situation Yes its still going on I know wtf it broke on christmas eve!!!!

Baxi came out on the 8th and fixed the boiler it worked for two days and broke again but the man from baxi left a message for my LL saying the plumber needed to come out and have a look at the air block in the system.....LL didnt do that as the heating was working

Informed him that the boiler broke again two days later he rang Baxi who said it was up to the plumber who installed it in the first place to come and look at it now this fecker is a lazy waste of oxygen and from the 11th until 17th all I got was answer machine, however did ring the LL and went totally mental on the phone to him so today the plumber turns up said boiler broken no **** sherlock ???? and we need a new one so he has to get in touch with Baxi to order a new one

its been 24 days without heating if i wasnt fuming i'd be cold :cool:

edellc

day 35 still not heating :mad:

NATURALENERGY

Hi
Get the landlord to put special heating system antifreeze into the system so it dosent happen again good luck...

Buford T Justice

NATURALENERGY wrote: »

Hi
Get the landlord to put special heating system antifreeze into the system so it dosent happen again good luck...

Doesn't fix the current problem.

Gently remind the landlord that the rent is due fairly soon and the heating still isn't working. Should make him take notice

NATURALENERGY

sorry i dint read the whole thread properly, if you tell the landlord your not paying rent until the heating is sorted, as fingers wrote. If he takes you to court, the court will take your side.
Plumbing point of few 90% of boilers can be fixed its just parts labour somtimes just cheaper to install a new one, even that dosent take 30 days........ best of luck:D:D

edellc

I am refusing to ring LL anymore as each time i do he fobs me off and wants me to ring this and that person and thats not my job to do
I know what i am going to do but i not going to post it on here as its not what is recommended
36 days of no heating

I just wish i could post his name here to out him for being a **** LL who shouldnt be allowed rent property

edellc

day 42 of no heating what a joke

tommy21

edellc wrote: »

day 42 of no heating what a joke

"Your landlord must, by law, ensure that your home complies with certain minimum standards (e.g. free from damp, in good structural repair, hot and cold water, adequate means of heating and ventilation, appliances in good working order, electrical wiring, gas, pipes in good repair). If your home does not comply with these standards, report it to your local authority or the Private Residential Tenancies Board. An inspection will be carried out and the landlord ordered to do any necessary repairs. Contact Threshold, the Private Residential Tenancies Board or your local authority for further advice."

http://www.threshold.ie/page.asp?menu=70&page=240

Up to you, just report him straight away or else give him one last chance and show him the letter you are sending to them if it is not fixed in the next 3 working days etc.

yoshytoshy

Do not pay any rent and also anything else that needs to be done in the house ,make a list and hand it to the landlord.