On Sat, 18 Feb 2006 22:20:22 +0000 (UTC)
"John" wrote:


I'd hazard a guess based on other posts in this thread that when the
OP covered the air vent the flue started to spill fumes and the
combustion fell apart. Soot was produced which clogged the heat
exchanger and possibly reduced the effectiveness of the flue still
further. A really thorough clean of the heat exchanger and sweeping
of the flue, together with a full service to the boiler may be all
that is actually neccessary as the Concord series were very simple
units and had little to actually go wrong with them (apart from not
being efficient at converting money to heat).
Renewal of the boiler may be "a good thing" but may not be actually
essential



Hi John,

Your explanation "rings true" to me but there is of course wishful
thinking on my part...

An added complication to this is that my current CH/HW system is
obviously not modern and wouldn't meet the English regulations (as
described in the Boiler FAQ). I'm in Scotland, so the regs are
different, and harder to find and interpret than the English ones, but I
expect they are more invasive, not less. Bloody devolution.

Do you think it's worth me having a look at the boiler and flue myself
before getting a CORGI engineer to carry out work? Could I clean it
myself? What's involved in servicing?

Cheers
--
Michael