Already feeling the cold.... naughty boiler

[r brooks]

Have a Worcester-bosh greenstar ri boiler. Its been turned off for a few days and now its expected to come on again, it decides only to fire up for half a minute at a time every four or five minutes.

Rolling up my sleeves for a bit of D-i-y I confidently get out the instruction manuel, and the ego takes a knock as i realise just how much out of my depth I am.

It's in north london and although cold its not been freezing. Is there any simple things that i could try doing?

If I call out an expert is it worth paying a lot extra for the Bosh man to come out? Or is it something my local gas qualified chap could reasonable take on? Grateful for advice please, we are already feeling the cold.

[Tim+]

Check and see if the pump is running. If it's failed, the boiler will quick cut out due to overheating. Just a thought.

Tim

[Brian Gaff]

Give pump smart bang with block of hardwood. Works every time for my neighbour. Brian

[Farmer Giles]

Que?

[Roger Mills]

Is that the one written by Basil Fawlty?

[stuart noble]

If someone has to take a day off work, get the WB engineer. At least they carry all the parts,

[tony sayer]

In article , Brian Gaff scribeth thus

On some, most pumps, theres a large screw, sort of, at the end undo that and check if its turning or try moving it with your screwdriver you might find some water coming out this is normal...

FWIW is the hot water working at all?.

[Andrew Gabriel]

but make sure it won't drip onto the control boards or worse...

[tony sayer]

In article , Andrew Gabriel scribeth thus

Well the chances of that aligning seem quite remote!..

Least in the five installations I am responsible for!..

[John Rumm]

Got a feeling the Ri is a heating only boiler rather than a combi or system...

[djc]

Worcester_Bosch do a very good service for a fixed fee of £250 inc VAT which includes all parts. I used it when the hot water stopped working in the summer. They will try to sell you the monthly direct-debit maintenance contract which (on the face of it) is not that much more expensive. Personally I prefer to take my chance that on average I will not be calling them out every year.

[Bob Minchin]

You are correct John. I've just fitted a Greenstar 24Ri

It will shut down on over heat in the heat exchanger or over pressure in the flue or flue over heat.

Each sensor is a normally closed switch and all three are wired in series to the control board. Simple meter test will show which one is causing the shut down and point to the cause.

[stuart noble]

IIRC they replace "up to" 3 parts. In my case that meant they replaced the faulty part plus the two most likely to fail next. As I said, the main advantage is you know it'll be up and running within the hour. Outfits like Homeserve and British Gas can string it out for a week while they order parts etc. Not ideal in the winter

[r brooks]

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The pump seemed to be spinning (screwdriver used as a sounding rod) but i gave it a few taps as advised anyway. So then just left the boiler to get on with its stopping and starting routine.

Told the wife in the kitchen that i had posted to uk. d-i-y and i think the boiler must have overheard. It probably feared it might get a visit from one of the hairy minders on this group, since this morning it worked perfectly. Life's not easy.................

Thanks to all.