i need some help with my central heating!

[denyason]

hi members, here's the scenario....
i live in a 5 year old house(very new), i have a service plan with a company for my central heating. various issues, been fixing etc... my potterton he always needs resetting. the water works but the radiators don't. the radiators sometimes work(rare) but not to much heat and not fully to the cycle. the engineers when they are here can get it to work fine (and hot) but as soon as they leave it is faulty. they say it needs a flush. they say they won't fit a device(£500) onto my boiler till i have it flushed! i'm thinkin they just don't want to fix it because the plan is only £300 a yr. when they did get the heating to work, only 2 of the 20 radiators didn't give full heat. surely that should be ok. powerflush seems very expensive and probably won't solve the issue. i feel it is an excuse not to fix the boiler!
like i said it was working fine until he left. i don't know why the water works. the water always works after i reset the boiler. the boiler goes red everyday...

help would be great as i don't want to waste 600 quid on a flush which i feel isn't the problem.

 

[HoodedClaw]

hi denyason,

What is the device they want to fit at £500?

20 rads! That's one big house! What's is the potterton model? Is it up to spec for house size?

 

[Toddyplumb]

This sounds like the Suprima problem

 

[moony]

what system are you on?

i assume its either unvented or vented - as a combi would struggle on 20 rads (probably means youve got a few bathrooms with a house that size!)

you can get it powerflushed by another firm for half that price and the device they fit for 500 lol could be fitted for 150-200 i even offer a magnaclean free with a flush for lot less than 600.

 

[denyason]

thanks people.
i'm not very clued up about central heating- the operation of the thermo timer was about manageable. the model is a potterton powermax he. as for the £500 equipment i'm not sure but the engineer was here to initially fix the "valve"(attached to a pipe communictaes with thermo ) as the sleeping quarters thermo was not communicating with the boiler so radiaters only worked downstairs (living area). since he came radiators don't work at all although when he was fixing it all radiaters were on. now they have stated they will not add this device until we flush it. they say the sludge may damage the new equipment. we have actually 23 radiators in total. 5 toilets...
5 yr old boiler shouldn't be this faulty. i really what it sorted for the winter. we're not big users as the heater is only only 4 hrs a day total this summer.

 

[diesel_ltd]

the £500 part is prob a new heat exchanger and your engineer will not fit it if he thinks your system is full of sluge, is your rad warm at the top and cold at the bottom?

 

[diesel_ltd]

**sludge

 

[Bernie2]

Hmm!

Something sounds a bit strange to me!

How come it can work properly when the engineer is there but stops when he goes?

Surely if it was sludge the problem would be there all the time, not go away and then come back?

Its seems to me it needs further investigation.

 

[diesel_ltd]

easy to prove this take a rad off and flush it out with mains water if the water is complete black then you need a power flush, if your system wasn't flush and treated when the boiler was being commisisioned it could very easly be clugged

 

[Toddyplumb]

You would be better off phoning Baxi/Potterton getting their fixed price repair