Came home last night to a cold house. No joy from the boiler.

Got someone from Yellow Pages, and they spent 2 hours today, claimed
it was the valve, not the boiler.

Chappie has removed the electrical box, to get a new one, and
cross-connected some wires in the meantime.

Has take £150 already, and reckons on another £150 when he returns.

Would I be better off telling him to poke it, and get one of these
valve units myself? - They're £60 new, not £120 as quoted by the
fitter. Their T&C allows for this mark-up.

Will the lack of CH be just down to a faulty valve, or is more
involved?

Boiler is a GlowWorm Economy Plus EP50F, and the valve is a
"Individual V4073A 1039 22mm mid position valve" in the airing
cupboard.

As I say, he didn't attempt to change the valve, just the control
box/motor thing.

All assistance gratefully received, before I get on the 'phone
tomorrow, and become a bit "shouty".

On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 21:11:41 +0000, Salad Dodger
wrote:

Came home last night to a cold house. No joy from the boiler.

Got someone from Yellow Pages, and they spent 2 hours today, claimed
it was the valve, not the boiler.

Chappie has removed the electrical box, to get a new one, and
cross-connected some wires in the meantime.

Has take £150 already, and reckons on another £150 when he returns.

Taken is the right word. You, and for a ride.

£150 might be reasonable for supply and fit, but £300 is excessive.



Would I be better off telling him to poke it, and get one of these
valve units myself? - They're £60 new, not £120 as quoted by the
fitter. Their T&C allows for this mark-up.

You can buy a complete valve for £50.



Will the lack of CH be just down to a faulty valve, or is more
involved?

Boiler is a GlowWorm Economy Plus EP50F, and the valve is a
"Individual V4073A 1039 22mm mid position valve" in the airing
cupboard.

As I say, he didn't attempt to change the valve, just the control
box/motor thing.

All assistance gratefully received, before I get on the 'phone
tomorrow, and become a bit "shouty".

The component is a Honeywell motorised valve head. You should check
that the spindle of the valve can be turned reasonably easliy with
your fingers or the new motor will break as well. If it can't, then
the whole valve should be changed.




..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Salad Dodger wrote:

Came home last night to a cold house. No joy from the boiler.

Got someone from Yellow Pages, and they spent 2 hours today, claimed
it was the valve, not the boiler.

Chappie has removed the electrical box, to get a new one, and
cross-connected some wires in the meantime.

Has take £150 already, and reckons on another £150 when he returns.

Would I be better off telling him to poke it, and get one of these
valve units myself? - They're £60 new, not £120 as quoted by the
fitter. Their T&C allows for this mark-up.

Will the lack of CH be just down to a faulty valve, or is more
involved?

Boiler is a GlowWorm Economy Plus EP50F, and the valve is a
"Individual V4073A 1039 22mm mid position valve" in the airing
cupboard.

As I say, he didn't attempt to change the valve, just the control
box/motor thing.

All assistance gratefully received, before I get on the 'phone
tomorrow, and become a bit "shouty".

Your problem could well be due to a duff actuator on the mid-position valve.
This is a strategic item in the overall control system - and turns on the
boiler and pump once it has driven the valve to the correct position. If the
motor fails, or if the microswitches fail to operate properly, the boiler
won't fire once the DHW demand is satisfied.

As long as the valve itself (the wet bit) isn't seized, it's only necessary
to replace the actuator - which doesn't require draining down (unless your
valve is unusual). A replacement actuator should cost less than 40 quid -
and takes about 10 minutes to fit. (2 screws to hold it in place, and 5
wires into the junction box).
--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is Black Hole!

Salad Dodger wrote:

Came home last night to a cold house. No joy from the boiler.

Got someone from Yellow Pages, and they spent 2 hours today, claimed
it was the valve, not the boiler.

When you say "no joy from the boiler" - do you mean the boiler was not
working at all?

Was the water hot? (I assume as you have a 3 port valve the water is
heated by the same boiler).

What about if you turn the room thermostat up - if it is a mechanical
type you should hear it "click" as you move past the current temperature.

While it is not uncommon for valves to get stuck or their motors to
fail, it would not normally stop the boiler running. However it will
only heat the water or run the central heating but refuse to switch
between them.

Most 3 port vales also have a manual override. This is normally a small
lever / slider on one side of the motor box that will let you force the
valve into the middle position (heating both water and CH) hence even if
it fails you can still get heat and hot water together even if you can't
have them in isolation.

Chappie has removed the electrical box, to get a new one, and
cross-connected some wires in the meantime.

Has take £150 already, and reckons on another £150 when he returns.

Sounds rather expensive to me.... depends a bit on what other
investigation work he did, and also if he made any other changes elsewhere.

Would I be better off telling him to poke it, and get one of these
valve units myself? - They're £60 new, not £120 as quoted by the
fitter. Their T&C allows for this mark-up.

Will the lack of CH be just down to a faulty valve, or is more
involved?

If the boiler runs and the hot water is kept hot then it could be the
valve. If however the boiler is refusing to fire up at all then it is
probably more involved.

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 22:10:13 +0000, Andy Hall
wrote:

Has take £150 already, and reckons on another £150 when he returns.

Taken is the right word. You, and for a ride.

Tut, tut Andy. There's obviously a new career option forming here.

Jeez, £300. That would get me for nearly 3 whole days!!!!! I need to
prostitute myself out at a higher cost I think.....

PoP

---
If you need to contact me please submit your comments
via the web form at http://www.anyoldtripe.co.uk. I'll
probably still ignore you but at least I'll get the
message.....

On Fri, 26 Mar 2004 02:10:09 +0000, PoP wrote:

On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 22:10:13 +0000, Andy Hall
wrote:

Has take £150 already, and reckons on another £150 when he returns.

Taken is the right word. You, and for a ride.

Tut, tut Andy. There's obviously a new career option forming here.

Jeez, £300. That would get me for nearly 3 whole days!!!!! I need to
prostitute myself out at a higher cost I think.....


I suppose it's the urgency element that commands the price.

Even so, somebody who was doing emergency plumbing/heating work would
reasonably be expected to have zone valves and heads as well as pumps
on the van. Even BG can manage that.

Diagnosis and replacement of a zone valve head should not take more
than two hours at the outside - maybe up to half a day if it was the
body as well to include draining and refilling.


..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 21:11:41 +0000, Salad Dodger
wrote:

All assistance gratefully received, before I get on the 'phone
tomorrow, and become a bit "shouty".

I didn't have to.

A stern phone call has had the situation remedied at no additional
cost.

Would you believe, 90 minutes to change a valve motor, and the
cylinder 'stat?

Ninety!

I'm glad we'd agreed beforehand that I was not going to pay for it.

Thanks for all the advice, chaps.

--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/KH500A8/TS250C
|_\_____/_| ..63014../..15027.../..3157./.19406
(|_|_|) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4 PM#5
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11 WG*
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17
'^'

On Fri, 26 Mar 2004 09:25:44 +0000, Andy Hall wrote:

On Fri, 26 Mar 2004 02:10:09 +0000, PoP wrote:

On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 22:10:13 +0000, Andy Hall
wrote:

Has take £150 already, and reckons on another £150 when he returns.

Taken is the right word. You, and for a ride.

Tut, tut Andy. There's obviously a new career option forming here.

Jeez, £300. That would get me for nearly 3 whole days!!!!! I need to
prostitute myself out at a higher cost I think.....


I suppose it's the urgency element that commands the price.

Even so, somebody who was doing emergency plumbing/heating work would
reasonably be expected to have zone valves and heads as well as pumps
on the van. Even BG can manage that.

No, not even that sometimes! 8-(


Diagnosis and replacement of a zone valve head should not take more
than two hours at the outside - maybe up to half a day if it was the
body as well to include draining and refilling.


I thought the 90 minutes for the replacement of the zone valve head and
the cylinder stat was about right (including diagnosis time).


--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html