New washing machine causing boiler problems!

Faith

I'm living in a rented flat. We have a gas boiler. About 2 weeks ago, we got a new washing machine installed. We were away at the time. When we came back, we noticed that the pressure on the boiler was increasing to unsafe levels when the heating was on. The boiler started shutting itself off. On Monday, a handyman came around and bled our radiators, lowered the pressure and all seemed fine. A couple of hours later, I simultaneously turned on the new washing machine and the hot tap. The boiler immediately started acting up (pilot light flickering on and off until the boiler shut off and the fault light came on). The problem continued whenever we turned on the hot water.

On Tuesday, a plumber came out and I mentioned the washing machine to him. He dismissed it, as washing machines are supposed to run on the cold water system. He fiddled with a few things and left, saying he'd probably be back. He left the heating on and it was fine. Shortly after, I turned on the hot tap and the whole system crashed again. Since then, we haven't been able to use the hot water at all without the boiler going mad, but the heating works okay as long as the hot taps aren't touched. The plumber came back yesterday to tell us he'd be putting a new boiler in on Friday.

So to this morning! The heating was on and fine, until 5 minutes ago when I put the washing machine on a quick rinse cycle. Immediately the boiler had the same issue and shut off!

Has anyone ever encountered a washing machine interfering with a boiler like that? We're getting the new boiler in the morning, but I want to be sure the plumber knows that the washing machine is related to the problems. I can only assume that the washing machine was installed incorrectly, perhaps?

Could the washing machine installer have connected the machine to the central heating system by mistake.

If the heating system goes ape whenever the washing machine is running that sounds quite possible.

coylemj

Some models of washing machine can take hot and cold water, these are typically models intended for the UK and Ireland market where homes have stored hot water i.e. immersion tanks. It's possible that your machine has been connected to the hot water supply and I suspect that the gas boiler is not able to supply sufficient flow to the washing machine so when the washing machine is switched on, it starts to draw hot water at too fast a rate for the boiler and things are going tits up as you've described.

On the continent where people typically do not have stored hot water and draw all their hot water from gas boilers, all of the washing machines take cold water only, that should tell you that a washing machine can't take water from a regular domestic gas boiler.

Check the user guide for your washing machine, there's probably a setting to tell it to draw only cold water, then see if you can turn off the hot water supply going into the machine, that should sort the problem.

Faith

Thanks for the replies. I just checked the manual and it's definitely cold water only. Could it be accidentally connected to the hot water still?

Joey the lips

i can think of no situation where a washing machine would cause the pressure on a boiler to raise.

However i suspect the reason the pressure keeps rising is the system has a pressure relief valve and its open to much. to be honest it should not be open at all if this is the case.