Boiler - what did I do?

Did you get to the bottom of what you did? My theory.... On the assumptio n that the flashing light is saying that the hot water sensor has detected the water/ heat is too hot.... Did you fill the steam just before the incid ent? Maybe from a tap on the same mains cold water circuit as the inlet to the boiler? If so, my theory is that you turned the water on, it temporaril y starved the boiler of sufficient water throughput so it locked out for a period of time to cool down. The effect of this would not be felt by your wife until the hot water already in the pipe between boiler and shower is e xhausted and she gets the cold through....

Any good?

Reply to
leenowell
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What is the make of the shower, Triton perhaps? You say it is connected to a tank in the loft, if that is the only connection then the shower has nothing to do with the boiler.

Richard

Reply to
Tricky Dicky

Not Cambridge but the vendor arranged a boiler inspection and some corrective work was carried out as a result. I contacted the company this morning before the fault rectified itself but I must have overrun their recording system so my phone number was lost. He has since said there is no point in coming out again to see something that is currently working - but if it is something failing I won't have long to wait.

Never had that problem with coal.

Reply to
AnthonyL

That would suit my wife who likes to slow rinse the washing up.

Thanks for that, very useful to know.

Reply to
AnthonyL

No - the steamer was filled from water already in a bottle.

Next?

Reply to
AnthonyL

How could you think that the steamer which is powered from an electrical socket could have anything to do with the boiler?

Reply to
Dave Baker

The shower in the utility room is driven by the boiler under mains pressure.

The shower in the bathroom is indeed a Triton and does have nothing to do with the boiler. I don't think I ever said it did.

However I don't think there is enough of a head to supply the required pressure to the electric shower to make it work and I wonder if it ever has worked. I can reach the ceiling with my hand - so 8' to the ceiling, and the tank can only be a couple of foot above that. Should that be enough?

My only experience with an electric shower is from my previous property - it was in an upstairs bathroom (of a 2 storey house) and mains pressure driven, but we were on a shared water supply so it didn't take much for there to be insufficient pressure for the shower to operate. Certainly if I could hold stop the flow of water from a tap with my finger it wouldn't work - and I can stop the water from the tap with my finger in this bathroom.

Reply to
AnthonyL

Anthony in your first post you mention a shower with a low pressure light f lashing. In your 14:42 post you mention an electric shower with a low press ure light flashing, connected to a tank above, no mention of where this ele ctric shower is located. A bit of confusion, so which shower is the problem ?

Richard

Reply to
Tricky Dicky

I *hate* combis. The 105 seems to date from 2009 and is now listed as discontinued although it *is* a condensing boiler so should be good for a few years.

I think their effectiveness depends a bit on the sort and size of house. I know a holiday cottage (small modern semi) where the combi is fine. I have two 18th century cottages knocked together, so long awkward pipe runs and six bedrooms. Never really got satisfactory hot water (both flow and temperature) with the first two combis, and they were both hopeless for showers. I now have a Vaillent "system" boiler, hot tank in the loft, pumped shower and pumped DHW. Immersion heater and wood-burner for emergencies.

Agreed.

Reply to
newshound

I agree with TNP on almost everything technical (just not his politics). The only comment I'd make about mains pressure tanks is that they are good for new build or major refurbishment, but not cheap, and need a bit of space. You can always get the flow rate up from an unpressurised tank with a single impeller pump.

Reply to
newshound

Sorry, that is nonsense. I have a perfectly fine combi boiler in Cambridge, and my mother has another in Wales. There *are* advantages to a hot water tank - but there are disadvantages too.

(General rule of thumb: "There is only one way to ..." is pretty much always nonsense.)

Reply to
Martin Bonner

If you want good flow rates and instant hot water and proper shower pressure no other solution works but a mains pressure tank.

The next best is hot tank and a pump, but its pretty rubbish really.

I have never ever been in a house with a vcombi that came anywhere near matching a proper tank

At best a combi suits a one or two person house without a bath

Unless its so huge that it costs more than a mains pressure tank and a system boiler

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Thermal store works fine here. Or at least none of the other problems it's had would have been solved by replacing it with a mains pressure tank. But I've lived in houses with perfectly adequate low pressure tank systems.

Reply to
Alan Braggins

If I water a pot plant someone else has allow to dry out and nearly die, I always get told it was perfect before and I almost killed it by the way I watered it.

Sigh.

Reply to
pamela

No he doesn't. Go back and read the first post.

Only in your head.

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

Just the timing of events I think. If the wiring is as dodgy as the plumbing, it's just possible that the load from the steamer may have dropped the voltage of something on the same circuit if there are any dodgy connections.

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

The first thing I would do is to close the mains stop c*ck and see what is supplied from the mains and what from the tank. If it was only the ex-hot water tank that was supplied then cold taps and cisterns should stop. If they keep working then they are tank fed. Hopefully they are mains fed but maybe not. Usually even if they are tank fed, the kitchen cold tap should come direct from the mains.

Once you've established what's what, see what your mains pressure is like with the stopcock fully open. It's possible that the property suffers from low mains pressure which may account for some of the bizarre plumbing.

If colds taps and cisterns are already in the mains supply and the electric shower is the only thing on the tank supply, it will be very easy to take the tank out of the circuit and use the tank inlet to pressurise the feed to the shower. Hard to fathom why whoever installed the combi didn't do this unless the owner specifically needed the tank for some purpose.

You don't say. ;-)

I'm sure you'll get a lot of pleasure out of sorting out all the c*ck-ups. ;-)

Incidentally, manuals for your boiler are easily available on-line. I couldn't identify a warning light quite as you described it.

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Tim

Reply to
Tim+

Absolutely. I much prefer a stored HW system but for two people, a combi can be perfectly adequate. You'll never be able to match the full output of stored system for showers but they certainly fall into the "good enough" category for most people.

My main objection is the lack of any "fall back position" in the event of a boiler malfunction. A house with no CH and no HW is an uncomfortable place to be. If you have HW (via a tank and immersion heater) it is still quite liveable.

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

Acapulco gold?

Reply to
Albert Zweistein

to a tank in the loft, if that is the only connection then the shower has n othing to do with the boiler.

The steamer is a red-herring its a batch process anyway and would only aff ect the boiler if there were very serious electrical issues. Perhaps the co mbi is fed from the cistern and the shower cold is from the mains that wou ld tie a lot of the symptoms toegther. Reverse input of cold water to a co mbi's outlet that would surely upset it.

Achilles heel of Baxi/Main/Potty 105 is the small differential pressure sen sor that detects the pump is alive and wet before firing. That's probably n ot what's going wrong here.

If I'm right about the tank fed combi then that would bring the entire ques tion of the boiler installation into question. Professional inspection reco mmended.

Reply to
ed

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