Feel like ripping my Combi boiler off the wall.

tea and coffee

Thanks to whoever it was answered my post of yesterday morning- unfortunately it is gone the way of the electrons after the airsoft crash.
Basically, we had a new heating system installed in the summer. A combi boiler. What the plumber failed to mention is that if there is a problem you are left with nothing- we currently have no heating, no hot water, no working toilets and only a mains cold water in the kitchen in a house full of kids.
Apparently there is a leak somewhere in the one little bit he didn't replace and so nothing is working.
The pressure has been dropping in the boiler since we moved in to the house in NOvember, and I have had to top up the boiler about 30 or 40 times. Now there isn't even enough water to do that. The radiators upstairs only partially worked and one never worked at all.
When someone turns on a tap in the house the shower pressure drops noticably.
I also had an electric shower installed for this sort of eventuality- and guess what- the pump on the system is too powerful and there is no restrictor fitted on the electric shower so it doesnt have time to heat the water.

Comedy of f&*ing errors.

Oh how I wish I hadn't let him talk me into this sh&t system. And because the builder let me down at the end (long story) the plumber decided he wouldnt tell me about the leak, even though he knew about it before he finished up.

DGOBS

Why would your combi boiler be related to no working toilets?

The news also gets better, continuously topping fresh water into your leaking system will kill your boiler and the rest of your heating system from corrosion caused by the constant supply of fresh water.

Can you not get your plumber back to see to these issues?

Why was there not enough water to top the combi boiler back up again?

I know you had to vent with that first post, but lets take each issue one by one, lots of good lads here willing to help you

tea and coffee

As far as I understand it, he fed everything off the tank inc toilets. I dont know why as we discussed having toilets off the mains.
Basically the whole system shut down kit and kaboodle on Fri night. There is a F1 on the boiler, there is no water in any bathroom tap and the toilet downstairs fills up slowly-maybe 2ce a day. Upstairs not at all.
Normally I could turn the little nozzles under the boiler and you cld hear water rushing in and the pressure dial wld rise.
Now when I do it there is no noise and nothing happens.

The plumber was subbied to the builder who quit on me, which I wld prefer not to get into. The plumber said that he couldn't come back as builder had quit. He was paid and all from my end so not sure the issue. We spoke on Fri a.m. ironically and he said he wld call me today but he didnt. I rang him but he didnt answer

jimf

post what area you are in lot of good lads on here may be able to help

shane0007

Is there water in the feed tank?

deandean

Sheesh thats a terrible story. Sounds like you need a very knowledgable plumber to sort you out, you probably have several issues that need to be sorted. And you'll need to pay As he'll presumably have no relation to the original insstaller.

BTW nowadays only an RGI is allowed to rip a gas boiler off the wall.

tea and coffee

OK, so the no water issue was actually a fuse in the pump. Easily solved thank goodness- and thanks to the electrician for sorting that out.

I can get a restrictor valve on the boiler to keep the pressure up but then the fresh water will constantly flow through the boiler which will be an expensive problem down the line.

What I really need is some way to find the leak and get the system sorted properly, once and for all. THink it could be a case of " 9 stiches in time saves 9" as the cost of finding the leak could be as expensive as replacing the boiler down the line. sigh

You have a problem, if you deal with it you can have closure if you put it on the long finger it will haunt you and your wallet, as painful as it is I think its best to put it to bed, what's a quite life worth?

Irish Steve

FWIW, Depending on where you are in the country, I had to try and resolve a problem for a friend who had a big leak under a cement floor. I did some asking around, and was pointed in the direction of a local plumber who specialises in finding leaks in hard to trace places, so he has acoustic and infra red equipment that is very good at tracking leaks. We had a go at the one I was looking for, and in a relatively short time, it was localised to an area the size of a dining room table, and if some air pressure in the nearest rad hadn't closed it up temporarily again, we'd have had it pinned down very quickly.

It was found a few days later less than 2 Ft from the point we thought it was at, a pipe had completely blown out of the fitting (plastic Acorn fitting), a new longer piece of pipe and appropriate fittings sorted it.

Approx cost €150, end of problem.

Worth considering, as the potential damage to the boiler from too much fresh water going where fresh water is not supposed to go would be a lot more expensive to fix.