Faulty fan in boiler...again!

SeaFields

Would like some opinions on this one lads if ye wouldn't mind.

During the cold spell of Jan 2010, the fan in our gas boiler at home packed up. Plumber came out (his name was on the boiler - a Bord Gáis rep) ordered a new fan and replaced it. The new fan took three weeks to be ordered and delivered but it was installed and away we went

Fast forward to November and boiler made same noise, stopped working and diagnosis was fan gone again. Two weeks only this time and fan was delivered and installed and back to normality again. The plumber tried to get a discount on fan from supplier as it wasn't in that long to no avail he said.

Last week fan gone again!! Plumber out and "oh yeah, ill order a new one", he made a phone call and fan will be 3 weeks as it must come from UK. He pushed my father to get new boiler altogether as "its obviously the boiler thats breaking the fan" and "those boilers are notorious for being faulty". The boiler is less than ten years old.

(note the time from 2nd fan to 3rd fan included the summer where the boiler was essentially totally out of use.)

My father has already paid twice for a new fan and I dont want him paying a third time. €300 each time for parts and labour.

Any opinions would be most welcome. I'm a bit suspicious on the quality of the work. AFAIK most of the houses in the estate have the same boiler and I don't see plumbers calling to them every few months with new parts. My father is a fairly p!ssed off this time but seems to be taking the guy at his word.

youtheman

Not sure what type of boiler you have, but here's a summary of my experience on this subject.

My house was built in 1991, and originally had a 'Myson Potterton' gas boiler, as did all the houses in the estate. Any home owner I knew eventually had problems with the fan, including myself. I managed to 'baby it along' for ages, and I eventually had to replace it. I would have to take the cover off the boiler and apply lubrication to the fan bearings to get it going again.

The problem was in the design of the fan itself. The bearings overheated, and began to become tight and eventuallty there wasn't enough torque to get them going.

The replacement fan was an improved design in that there was a big 'heat sink' on top of the fan shaft. It looks like an aluminium disc, around 2" in diameter.

Not sure if you have seen the replacement fans that have been fitted, but check to see if there is any difference between the original and replacement units.

I eventually replacement my boiler, because as well as fan problems I could see that the fins on the heat exchanger were corroding, and this would be adversely affecting the boiler efficiency. So you need to decide if you are going to continue 'sinking' money into this boiler, or replace it altogether (you might get a grant for this).

yoshytoshy

There is twelve months guarantee on parts for gas boilers. If a replacement part goes in this time ,your covered.

Longest it takes me to get parts is a couple of hours ,for most boilers. Never heard of it taking three weeks to get a part ,to me that sounds like a sales push.

Joey the lips

I know a popular brand of boiler that takes 3 weeks to get part becauase the useless agent refused to stock the parks...

But anyway. I was selling potterton boilers for years. Was supplying them to a company fitting 5 a day so that works out a lot of boilers....

I was selling them since the boom started till roughly 2007 and i supplied anout 5 fans maybe... They dont go often....

Most bearings have sealed housings this i thought was a requirement.

I would believe one fan. I would belive maybe 2 but not 3.

I would be writing to the boiler manufacturer for start and using a different plumber just in case.


Perhaps a plumber could share some light on this but if i remember correctly an incorrectly fitted flue either lead to a circuit board fault of water onto the fan housing.....

yoshytoshy

Joey the lips wrote: »

I know a popular brand of boiler that takes 3 weeks to get part becauase the useless agent refused to stock the parks...

Joey if it's taking three weeks to get a fan ,it's not a popular boiler.
I can understand the likes of boilers that are sold in B&Q ,taking three weeks. But that just doesn't happen for boilers bought properly here in ireland.

Maybe it's because I work at this ,I can get parts handy enough though.

Joey the lips

yoshytoshy wrote: »

Joey if it's taking three weeks to get a fan ,it's not a popular boiler.
I can understand the likes of boilers that are sold in B&Q ,taking three weeks. But that just doesn't happen for boilers bought properly here in ireland.

Maybe it's because I work at this ,I can get parts handy enough though.

Are we in a play.... oh yes it does.....

yoshytoshy

Joey the lips wrote: »

Are we in a play.... oh yes it does.....

Stick to the shower doors joey.

Joey the lips

Joey the lips wrote: »

I would be writing to the boiler manufacturer for start and using a different plumber just in case.

Asper Joey, phone them tomorrow and talk to the technical department also see if they have any agents for a second opinion.
If you had rain water getting in to the boiler from the flue then it only takes a small amount of water to blow the windings on the fan.

FUNKY LOVER

SeaFields wrote: »

Would like some opinions on this one lads if ye wouldn't mind.

During the cold spell of Jan 2010, the fan in our gas boiler at home packed up. Plumber came out (his name was on the boiler - a Bord Gáis rep) ordered a new fan and replaced it. The new fan took three weeks to be ordered and delivered but it was installed and away we went

Fast forward to November and boiler made same noise, stopped working and diagnosis was fan gone again. Two weeks only this time and fan was delivered and installed and back to normality again. The plumber tried to get a discount on fan from supplier as it wasn't in that long to no avail he said.

Last week fan gone again!! Plumber out and "oh yeah, ill order a new one", he made a phone call and fan will be 3 weeks as it must come from UK. He pushed my father to get new boiler altogether as "its obviously the boiler thats breaking the fan" and "those boilers are notorious for being faulty". The boiler is less than ten years old.

(note the time from 2nd fan to 3rd fan included the summer where the boiler was essentially totally out of use.)

My father has already paid twice for a new fan and I dont want him paying a third time. €300 each time for parts and labour.

Any opinions would be most welcome. I'm a bit suspicious on the quality of the work. AFAIK most of the houses in the estate have the same boiler and I don't see plumbers calling to them every few months with new parts. My father is a fairly p!ssed off this time but seems to be taking the guy at his word.

thats probably your problem there,plumbers and boilers engineers just arent the same thing.

SeaFields

FUNKY LOVER wrote: »

thats probably your problem there,plumbers and boilers engineers just arent the same thing.

It was just a generic name i used to describe the lad. As i said his name is up on the boiler as a bord gais rep that services and fixes them


Thanks for all the info lads. I'll show this thread to my father and get his opinion (he doesnt do the old interwebz yet!)