Boilermate rubbish!

[gassafe]

Had my first encounter of a Gledhill boiler mate today... I have heard a few bad things about them before, but never been called to one!

the fault was boiler had tripped, leaking water yesterday!... It was a glowworm micron, it looked to have a leak on l/h side of heat exchanger, this has dropped onto the pcb and blown it! Not only that, the boiler must have taken out the Gledhill boilermate control board as I now have no power going to boiler from the boilermate which seems to control everything! I put a seperate 240volts onto glowworm inlet & it just made a small pop noise immediately... So I'm pretty sure it's the board!

the repair bill is looking silly tho, it will need a micron pcb, plus gledhill boilermate control board, then the micron heat exchanger leak needs fixing to stop it all happening again! Need to phone customer soon, I might recommend a British gas fixed price repair!?

A quick look online and it seems a common fault on the gledhill, and spike in power takes out the board!! Anyone familiar with these?

 

[villa_tom]

I BG fixed price repair only covers one major fault, not loads and loads of faults.

So you'd get the pcb changed but not the heat exchanger or control board, or you could have the heat ex changed but not the boards and so on and so on.

 

[gassafe]

I did think to repair the boilermate & recommends new boiler, its past its best this Micron! But with only a switched live neutral earth and the boiler pump controlled by the boilermate I have read new condensing boilers are not that suitable etc!

Nightmare job it seems

 

[Ermintrude]

Solo works fine with one. Just bang in a new system and unvented otherwise u will be on speed dial

 

[Kev the gas]

A friend of mine has just had a breakdown on his Gledhill, they informed him it wasn't covered on their homecare plan, there is no way they would cover the boiler and Gledhill on a one off fee.

 

[tamz]

You can stick anything on a boilermate. The over run is controlled by the boiler mate so you only need a SL.

 

[gassafe]

You can stick anything on a boilermate. The over run is controlled by the boiler mate so you only need a SL.

Sounds good, my favoured boiler is the Worcester Ri, but then we surely get into the whole 'not fitted to manufacturers spec' situation if I don't feed pump from boiler lol!

Do all boilermates have overrun of the boiler pump then? I did not check this one!

 

[tamz]

They all have an over run. You may wish to check with worcester to see what they say but personally i wouldn't loose any sleep whatever they say.
Only issue is the inbuilt frost protection won't work so if that was required you would need a separate frost stat wired from the boilermate too.
You'll also need an extra bottle or 2 of inhibitor but you can usually get away with a smaller boiler.

 

[tamz]

Btw here is a link to all boilermate models

Gledhill The Cylinder Specialist | Hot Water Cylinder Manufacturers

 

[gassafe]

They all have an over run. You may wish to check with worcester to see what they say but personally i wouldn't loose any sleep whatever they say.
Only issue is the inbuilt frost protection won't work so if that was required you would need a separate frost stat wired from the boilermate too.
You'll also need an extra bottle or 2 of inhibitor but you can usually get away with a smaller boiler.

Clever thinking with the frost stat! This is a kitchen so should not be an issue...

have you any experience on the condensing boiler & boilermate compatibility? I read there is no temp difference on the f & r so won't condense? I imagine it would still work tho lol!

 

[tamz]

Big temp difference on initial heating but after that very little and yo have to keep the flow temp turned up high. Boilermates weren't really designed for condensers but if thats all we can fit whats the difference.