Gah! Boiler dying for christmas

Ancient Baxi Bermuda back boiler - during the storms a few weeks it went out. I put this down to the high winds and ignored it (doh). Last night it went out twice and I've just noticed it has died again.

Given that a) it's nearly Christmas so I'll not be able to get a plumber for under 1 million pounds (that seems to be about the rate around here at the best of times) and b) I'm planning on getting the whole system replaced in the spring anyway, I'm hoping for a quick (cheap) fix.

I'm guessing the quick-if-i'm-lucky fix is the thermocouple? I'll attempt to pick one up Fri (I assume plumbers mechants are open? Or would a B&Q warehouse stock these now?).

I've replaced one before on the firefront but never on the back boiler - is it possible to get at without fiddling with the gas or do I need to remove the entire front and disconnect the gas feed to the firefront?

And how the hell do they know a) it's christmas and b) I'm plotting it's demise??

Darren

Reply to
dmc
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I have never seen Baxi boiler spares on sale at B & Q, or at any other DIY shed. Your best bet is to phone local boiler servicing/repair companies, as listed in your Yellow Pages, and ask if they have a thermocouple in stock for your particular model. You have nothing to lose by phoning local plumbers; if they have the part and 30 minutes to spare, they may do it. How important is central heating and hot water to you during the next week or two? Good luck!

Reply to
Caustic

True - from what I remember the thermocouples are pretty standard though and tend to come in a bag full of generic bits to fit all/most boilers.

Of course, given my luck at the moment I suspect the only boiler they don't fit are the bermuda back boiler :)

Waiting on one plumber to get back to us - I'll try ringing around the others but past experience has shown they just aren't interested in small jobs like this at the best of time :-(

As for how much do we need the heating and hot water - I can get hot water with the immersion heater but heating would be nice in this foggy, damp weather as I currently have a 2 year old in bed with a chest infection :-(

I'm sure we'll cope if not. I still remember having to defrost the flannels before you could wash in the mornings etc etc ;-)

Darren

Reply to
dmc

You might be right.

The other possibility is that some dirt has fallen into the pilot light, so it's no longer playing on the thermocouple. This can happen at anytime, but it gets very much more likely when the boiler is overdue for a service and starts sooting up and producing carbon monoxide (it's the soot which falls back into the burners and pilot). Being an open flued boiler, this is potentially very serious, so when was it last serviced? If you can see the burner flames, what do they look like?

I've seen universal ones in B&Q and Wickes. HRPC (part of Plumb Center) would probably have the right part in stock.

Have you been neglecting it in the light of this?

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

...

You don't need to be plotting, a special time is good enough.

A gas cooker oven and a food mixer are among less essential things which have failed us on Christmas Eve. An oven element in the middle of a grandson making a special anniversay meal for us. The car on the way to a daughter's for New Year.

At least we're not befogged at Heathrow :-)

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

Wouldn't you need more of a heating engineer than a plumber?

If you can download a manual from somewhere, or if you have one, they usually have fault finding flowcharts which can be quite useful. Also if things get really bad and you have some idea what you're doing you can open up the boiler and over-ride the controls. I've bypassed the thermocouple before to be able to heat the house but I did stand by the boiler while it was on incase it went out. Actually in that instance I had to wire the pilot to stay on all the time. The "thermocouple" had gone bad but in fact it was a mercury temperature switch so not easily obtainable from B&Q etc.

Reply to
adder1969

It is slightly overdue a service - about 14 months now and yes, I have been putting it off due to plans to replace it :-/

I have been keeping an eye on the burner though - and it still looks as nice'n'blue as ever and there isn't much sign of soot. I've also got a CO gadget that is ok (although I don't like trusting that - it does go off if the window is open and the car backs up the drive though so It's measuring something :-)

Thought I had - will pop up wickes and collect one just in case. Do you have any idea if the thermocouple for the back boiler can be replaced without gas work? I know the fire front one can but the back burner looks a little more, well, in the back ;-)

Slightly - although as I say I've been keeping an eye on it.

I've had a plumber (who it turns out live 7 doors up so could be a handy contact...) who is going to ring me back apparantly. He sounds promising - if he wasn't going to ring I wouldn't have thought he would have told me he lived at number 85 :)

Cheers,

Darren

Reply to
dmc

Seems rare to find one who doesn't claim to be the other around here. Of course, I suspect many work to a different definition of "engineer" than I do :)

Failing to find one so far but I'm looking

Hmmm. Don't think I fancy that. I've got an old oil filled rad somewhere that will give enough heat - we aren't gonna freeze over xmas if I cant get it working but the way my luck is going christmas day will be the start of a month long extreme freeze or something!

Cheers,

Darren

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Reply to
dmc

They were until lunchtime....

I think the firefront has to come off, which isn't actually that difficult. And it gives you the chance to run the Henry over the dusty bits.

And I think the bit you need is a Tekni Long Life Universal Thermocouple Type 7002/900mm G C No. 384643. At least, that's the bit I (I mean my corgi) needed.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember snipped-for-privacy@ukc.ac.uk (dmc) saying something like:

That's the spirit. Hundreds of generations were raised without CH. It's somehow character-building to wake up in the morning and have to chisel the ice off the inside of the window before you can look out.

Bugger that for a game of sailors - best of luck sorting it.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

snipped-for-privacy@ukc.ac.uk (dmc) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@malfoy.ukc.ac.uk:

My experience of back boiler thermocouples (I've replaced at least 3) is that they fail totally, cut off the gas to the boiler (in earlier Baxis, to the firefront too (that's _really_ a bummer).

I agree with Andrew, as usual, an intermittent failiure like this, specially after a storm, is liable to be dislodged crud

mike

Reply to
mike

Interesting. Having restarted it maybe 6 times this morning it's now been fine all day is is happily gurgling away as I speak...

Well, hopefully it's fixed itself now (Plumber rang during the only 20mins that I had to pop out - sods law - and hasn't rung back since...)

fingers crossed :)

Darren

Reply to
dmc

If the problem is that the pilot light keeps going out then a new universal thermocouple will very likely sort out the problem.

As for compatibility about 3 million back boiler units were manufactured in their day. The Baxi Bermuda was the most popular model...

Reply to
Ed Sirett

I wanted one but we could never afford it so we stuck with the sturdy copper boiler behind the coal fire until we were converted.

Jehova's Witnesses?

No, North Sea Gas.

Ha ha - the old ones are the best - but it's true.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

Yep. It was the thermocouple. Now changed. Rather glad I got someone in to do it in the end - I've done the thermocouple in the firefront before but the one for the back boiler appeared to involve dismantling rather more of the boiler than I'd like! Still, it's now had a (final) service so the bloody thing should do us fine till we can work out what we want to replace it with.

Seemed good value considering for 70 quid (well, he said 60 but as he had several calls from his wife asking why he wasn't doing the shopping I figured he might need a drink... :))

Also discovered a slight leak in the firefront control valve - it lost

0-2mbar over 2 mins depending on how you jiggled the control knob before testing. Apparantly thats within allowed levels but given we never use it it's been turned off anyway.

The one our plumber had in his tool box was a bog standard universal one.

Darren

Reply to
dmc

On many of the fire fronts there is a small very very tiny pilot light.

Reply to
Ed Sirett

Nah, it's not one of those. This was a very small leak (not enough to smell) that we could just detect on a test over a couple o mins. Isolating the fire front stopped it completely - wiggling the control knob for the fire front altered it.

Cheers all,

Darren (and merry Christmas to all!)

Reply to
dmc

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