Nick wrote:

I have a Worcester combi boiler which is about 11 years old. It is
under contract with B Gas. Recently it started blowing pilot out.

What happens is that if you turn on the hot water (tap or hot water)
its works ok for about 5 mins and then there is a clicking noise and
pilot and flames blow out. I then have to light the pilot by firing
the button 5-7 times. It will work again for about 4-5 mins and same
happens again - clicking noise, flames/pilot go out. This happens
consistently on hot water. If we use the central heating then it may
blow out 1 or 2 times in evening.

I have called out Bgas 3 times and they have not been able to fix it.
They have changed a thermostat and then a sensor but without luck.
They are now saying that the boiler is too old and needs replacing.
And CH also needs a power flush to get rid of debris. They say there
is no other remedy.

Now if there was debris that was causing the tripping then I would
expect this to happen more on the CH side rather then the hot water. I
would also expect the tripping to be random rather than consistent.

I am totally unhappy with B Gas being unable to find the fault and
telling me to replace boiler. Yes the boiler is old but it has had
about 60-70% of the components replaced in the last 2-3 years. I am
paying them 16.75GBP per month and I think they are not putting in the
effort to find the real fault.

One of the things I have noticed is that when we used the hot water
before, it used to get really hot after 4-5 mins and it used to go
into a rest mode and started up again after a minute or so. Its not
doing that - it just trips now. I told that to the B Gas engineer and
he repleced the sensor but it has not made any difference. Is it
possible that the internal is not receiving enough air (fan maybe
faulty)?

I think there must be another reason for all this other than the
debris.

Can you please give me some advice/pointers as I am going to call out
B Gas for the last time.




Get them to check the pressure in your gas supply pipe. I, and the
neighbour downstairs had a very similar problem a while back. Workmen had
severed a gas pipe in the street and Transco had come out to "fix it".

The pipe was left with what looked liked some sort of wadding around it and
taped up still exposed in the hole. It was also still leaking gas as
everyone could smell it. I must also add that the workmen had -
illegally - turned the gas off at an underground tap outside my house, then
later turned it on. No doubt so no one from Transco would know they had
done it.

Anyway, two chaps turned up to fix the fault with the pipe the next morning.
When they did my boiler would fire up to heat the water or central heating
and run for thirty seconds or so and shut down. The pilot light went out
(and it would shut down) when the oven was put on. This happened several
times in the morning. I decided that the gas supply to the boiler was too
low (and I'm no engineer) and went out and suggested as much to the two
chaps outside.

They reckoned my boiler was knackered. At this point my neighbour asked if
I was having problems as her pilot light kept going out. Another BG van
then trundled up to another neighbour a couple of doors away. We decided
to go out as the house was cold and we had no hot water.

The upshot was that the guys were still there when we got back at 7 that
night. They needed access to our flat to sort the last piece at the gas
meter. They had dug up the garden in three places and replaced pipes,
removed taps and all sorts of things as it turns oout there was next to no
pressure in our gas pipe. And all for nothing too.