Flavel Caress HE gas fire?

[alan_m]

Are you the home owner or just renting?

[Tim+]

If it?s not rented property you don?t need to be a registered installer. Competence can be gained though a bit of basic research.

This IS a DIY forum. Why ask for advice here if you?re not prepared to consider a DIY option?

Tim

[Gareth's was W7 now W10 Downst]

Because there might have been anecdotal experience from other, polite, posters.

As it happens, it now seems that I'm due a free remedy by Flavel themselves ...

... having had the thing serviced regularly since installation.

[Gareth's was W7 now W10 Downst]

My wife owns the home; I suppose that you might consider me to be the lodger :-)

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Tim+ was thinking very hard :

+1 There's a lot of it about..

[Thomas Prufer]

Naah, it's the current that creates the magnetic field.

Check the thermocouple is getting hot, possibly by using an external gas torch.

Thomas Prufer

[spuorgelgoog]

Or the kept man :-)

Owain

[alan_m]

That says that you would have had to paid for a oxy-pilot assembly every year as part of the service.

If the oxy-pilot assembly hasn't been changed in the previous 4 years then this guarantee is void.

The fact that they want you to change the pilot assembly every year suggests that is the weak point in the system.

[charles]

if it's your own, you may - it's only when you charge someone for your services that a qualificxation comes into it.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

The current operates the solenoid, but the solenoid is not able to operate the valve, the solenoid is only able to retain the valve in the open position. The appliance operator provides the effort needed to open the valve, the solenoid can then latch it.

[Gareth's was W7 now W10 Downst]

Interesting

[Steph]

It will be the oxypilot that needs a good clean and try a new battery (duracell). The oxypilot will be £40-50 to buy and not a fiver as an earlier post. Oxypilots are a calibrated pilot assembly specific to that appliance. Get a second opinion as it may well be something and nothing. Im Gas Safe registered

[Tim+]

Nobody has said than an oxypilot was only a fiver.

Tim

[alan_m]

Surely the battery is only the power source for the spark to initially light the pilot. Once lit it's the thermocouple that provides the power to keep the valve open

The oxypilot will be £40-50 to buy and not a fiver as an

An oxipilot appears to just be an assembly that contains a thermocouple, a pilot jet and a (spark) electrode.

Its only an individual thermocouple that has been quoted as a fiver.

What do the manufacturers calibrate? It just appears that the one piece replacement containing 3 separate items is functionally no different to what has previously fitted to boilers for many decades that didn't require any calibration other than the correct physical positioning to get the thermocouple tip in the flame.

For the professional gas technician replacing all items as a combined unit may be cost effective as it could cure 3 potential different "faults" in one go and most of the cost will be the call out and labour.

What the manufacture may have done in a Oxypilot is to make the whole pilot assembly it cheaper to manufacture by crimping components to a bracket rather than using screws/nuts and hence making it difficult or impossible to disassemble.

Wouldn't the second opinion be based on the same educated guesses and any home visit to do otherwise cost the OP money probably to the amount previously quoted?

[Cynic]

The oxypilot is carefully factory set so the flame just impinges on the tip of the thermocouple. If the oxygen content of the available air reduces (flue gases spill back into the roomspace) the flame lifts off the tube seeking oxygen and in so doing ceases to contact the thermocouple. The thermocouple cools and the gas valve closed. The assembly must be kept clean as the slightest obstruction will prevent the thermocouple heating during the initial light up of the appliance.

[Tim+]

Well yes, but it?s not rocket science and nor is it ?calibrated?. It?s just manufactured to hold the thermocouple in the right place without needing any post-installation alignment.

If it were mine and it had a faulty thermocouple, I?d try fitting a universal thermocouple in its place. Clearly a step to far for the OP though.

Tim

[Gareth's was W7 now W10 Downst]

Being the OP (and victim :-) ) in this matter, I've been doing a lot of reading around, and this is my understanding ...

In normal operation the pilot flame plays over the thermocouple as expected.

In low oxygen situations, the gas leaves the pilot hole but does not actually burn until it has passed the end of the thermocouple so cooling it down.

Quite a clever pseudo-mechanical invention.

The cost of calibration is that the thermocoouple has to be accurately position with respect to the pilot hole to ensure correct safe operation as above.

HTH

(I knew nothing at all about this only a week ago)

[Cynic]

In most cases I encountered while working, the thermocouple was solidly mounted into the assembly thus precluding sticking a generic thermocouple in as a replacement. If cleaning doesn't solve the problem you will have to fork out for a correct replacement part.

[Tim+]

Well if you?d had one in your hands then I guess it might not be possible. Looking at the Oxypilot assembly, it doesn?t look that solidly mounted.

Tim

[Commander Kinsey]

I was told I'm not supposed to move/replace my gas piping (as in the supply line between the meter and the boiler/fire/cooker) in my own house (which I obviously ignored).