Stelrad Boiler faults again

[Rick Hughes]

My Stelrad Ideal Mexico failed again last night - the tie rod keeping the 3 water jacket castings had snapped - water pouring out of casting, out of house at time so came back to nice large brown puddle !

Luckily welded the rod - and refitted in about 1/2hr ... but a bitch as had only flushed system & refilled with 5Lit of Fernox 3 weeks ago !

This boiler has had some breakdowns in it's life .... in order:

gas valve failed - replaced ignitor failed - replaced thermocouple failed - replaced gas valve changed & boiler converted to main gas (not a fault I know) thermocouple failed again (always seem to happen after vacation shut down) tie rod snapped - welded Left hand side Thermocouple failed - replaced gas valve failed - changed (plus thermocouple to be on safe side) pump seals (facing seals) failed - (leaked) changed seals tie rod snapped - welded Right hand side

Last 4 items are in last 12 months, remainder over ~18 yrs of life

I know this is over a long period but are Stelrad normally this unreliable, I installed this in early 80's .... my corgi regstd mate says I should only expect 10 yrs form a boiler - I find that ridiculous.

Suppose I should expect another failure soon.

Rick

[IMM]

unreliable,

And this is an old cast iron clunker that is suposed to be reliable. 3 gas valves packed up! My, my. Best get rid and get a modern efficient condensing boiler. Your bills will drop by approx 40%. Longevity? Go for the top makes: Viesmman, ECO-Hometec (MAN), Keston, etc. But you pay!!! Or install two simple mid priced boilers, so that when one goes you still have backup. A superb heat up time and no down time.

See The Glow Worm condensing system boiler with the non-system cheaper. This has a stainless steel heat exchanger.

see the Ideal: £675. A good quality boiler

I saw in B&Q

that they are selling the cheapest condenser I have seen at £399. A Ravenheat CSI. This will be a straight swap for a Mexico as it is a basic open vented boiler and not a sealed system boiler with pump, vessel, etc. This boiler is not that bad, although not the most efficient condenser and much better than the Ravenheat combi's, which are a wash out. At £399 each you can fit two and no down time, so always heat for showers and CH.

[IMM]

If the boiler is fully pumped, it is best to have a strainer on the return to the boiler to catch crud before it goes into the heat exchanger and a full bore valve after that. On the flow have two full bore valves after the

3-way valve or two 2-way valves. No need for isolation valves on the pump, so just adaptors. This way all three valves can be turned off and:

1. The boiler.
2. Strainer
3. pump
4. zone vale(s)

Are all isolated and can easily be worked on. No restriction as the valves are full bore. The best way to go.

[Rick Hughes]

Don't fault that - but I put this in years ago ... and moving soon, so it ain't gonna change.