Ha-ha! Very funny. Not in the bake-bean way. No. Having had a host of problems at work with annoying heating problems through the month I was none to pleased to hear our Vaillantacting up again.
Okay, so here’s the unit’s history.
We had it installed when we moved into the house, what, ten years ago. It was fine. It was wonderful. It’s a big, old house but this boiler kept even the top most rooms warm. There was no problem with the heater for years.
What is the life expectancy of a central heating boiler? One year? Five years? Ten years? A life time?
Well, it took about five years before the boiler decided to rebel. The first signs of trouble were the noise - a loud growl from the heater. I’m no expert but I worry when the central heater starts to rumble and whine. You don’t have to be an expert to notice when the gauge arrow was pointing in the red danger zone. We called the gas people. They came. They fixed it.
Guess what, a few months later the heater started to protest again. The weather had taken a turn for the worse (I believe the colloquial term is “winter”) and it was such that the boiler was loosing the battle. We called the gas people. They came. They fixed it.
Everything was fine for... oh... about a year or so. Then the old troubles started again, the boiler would start to rumble and growl. The warning arrow would jump to the danger zone and the sticker on the inside panel still advised us to call the gas people.
Today, Christmas, the boiler must have celebrated too hard because it has started to whine and grumble and the arrow has dived straight into the danger zone.
I suppose it will be a good test of the gas board to see how speedy their reply to our call of distress is. We have been advised that should the arrow point in at the danger zone that we should call straight away.
On the other hand... this boiler is dead easy to use. As I’ve talked about above here it is easy to tell when everything is all right and when it is not. It is also easy to turn the heaters on an hour early should you decide it is necessary. The unit also seems easy to maintain, when the gas mechanics arrive the task of fixing the boiler is never a complex one, they just change a few settings, let out a little (okay, a lot) of the pressure and everything returns to normal.
If you’ve got a Vaillant in your home I would not worry. Despite the gauge and the arrow having announced that a big *kablam* was eminent the boiler has battled on and has not given up the ghost yet.
Oh, we’ve got the Vaillant Combi-Heater TSW.
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I have to say thanks for all the helpful comments this opinion has got! Thanks!
SimonJ 27.12.2000 21:28
Sorry to hear about your boiler problems Manx. Not what you need at this time of year!
Here's another opinion on top of all the others to confuse you. I'm guessing that the central heating side of the boiler has not been treated with a corrosion proofer. Mixed metals + water = corrosion (even in a sealed system like a combi). When metal corrodes, hydrogen is produced, which will build-up in the system until vented-off by the engineer when you call him out.
Ask the engineer when you next call him out if this is the problem. Flushing out the system with a chemical cleanser and then adding a corrosion proofer should sort out the problem.
Happy New Year
Simon (Corrosion expert?)
botmission 26.12.2000 20:01
Here is an engineer's opinion! When the pressure gauge is in the red, it is liable to let go water to the outside; presuming the pressure relief valve is piped to outside. If not a large puddle will appear underneath the boiler rather promptly. Oh yes and it is likely to be boiling water. So don't put the dog basket underneath the boiler just in case. Unless you like hot dogs. Yeah ok sorry. The water pressure goes up because the water expands when heated of course, but in a combi there is a expansion vessel to compensate for this, and so keep the pressure constant. The fault of too much pressure for no apparent reason is often put down to a faulty vessel, which then has to be repressurised or exchanged.
In my experience (20 years) boilers go drip, gurgle, groan, pop, rattle but rarely ka-boom.
Dec 25th, 2000
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