Greenstar 30cdi system leaking under heat exchanger

[plumbgaspaul]

Customer called me after pressuring boiler to 1.5bar. Water started coming from casing. I attended, ran boiler for about 5 minutes - no issues, re pressurised to 1.5 water started coming from under heat exchanger on shelf. Spoke to Worcester they said to prove leak on HE top up pressure, isolate flow and return, disconnect condense trap and should see water from here if problem. I did this and could not see any clear signs but plenty of water coming on shelf holding HE. Could the issue be with the seal around the return pipe going into HE or could issue be on a pipe within the HE that is dripping externally. I opened access point for cleaning HE and it looked dry. Only seem to be a major issue when pressure gets around 1.5 bar upwards but system does lose pressure weekly. Is it worth trying to change return pipe connection or is it a damaged HE

 

[ShaunCorbs]

any signs of leak other than the puddle

 

[plumbgaspaul]

any signs of leak other than the puddle

No signs other than puddle and some drips coming down from top shelf where pipes go through and where HE is secured from below. These drips only occur when puddle formed.

 

[Harvest Fields]

Did you take pics?

 

[plumbgaspaul]

Did you take pics?

no - - you can't see where the water is coming from but appears o be coming from under Sump and HE on right hand side of boiler.

 

[plumbgaspaul]

Update - as the boiler was 9 years old and the HE had a 10 year warranty I advised customer to call Worcester. They are attending now and confirmed that the HE was indeed the main cause of the issue. Also said that there was a smaller issue with the Expansion Vessel but I am not 100% what issue was as was advised by customer. The cost apparently is £170 for call out (labour costs) and new HE. Worcester state that they take a holding cost of £315 so with the expansion vessel as well this is what the customer is expecting to be charged. Another year and they would have been left with a much larger bill and possibly a new boiler would have made more sense.

 

[Burger]

Thanks for the update. I don’t see why the cost is high for a warranty job?

 

[Harvest Fields]

Thanks for the update. I don’t see why the cost is high for a warranty job?

Because of the vessel issue.

 

[plumbgaspaul]

Because of the vessel issue.

I think the HE was covered under warranty but the labour wasn't? Also the extra was for replacement of vessel. All in I don't think the customer was going to get a better deal than £315 for a new HE, vessel and labour. Also looking at it the HE hadn't been cleaned in a good while and possibly never really maintained. A lot of other manufacturers would have found a reason to not accept HE replacement.