Fred wrote:

Dear all

I am posting this from a one-off email account,
in order to prevent the spam-tsunami reaching
my real inbox. Sorry for any inconvenience, and
hope I do not offend anyone.

I recently bought a lovely house here in UK.
As I come from a country where we do not
have gas boilers (Iceland - geo thermal),
I know little about gas boilers.

I have managed till now by reading info
(e.g. the faq on http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/),
that have filled me in a little bit.

But I was just calling the lovely company
Ideal Boilers Ltd (Tel01482) 492251) that
happens to be the manufacturer of the boiler
in my house.

The reason for my call was I do not have
any manuals for the operation of the boiler.
The kind customer service person told me that
the boiler was so old (eighties something) that
they do not have any manuals to send out.
Not even photocopies. Nothing.

As the boiler is fully functional and working
properly, I have a strange problem. Everything
is working fine (heating is fine, but the gas
bill is rather high to my taste - which is the
reason for starting all of this... I know that
the boiler is not as efficient as a new boiler -
but would like to start with seeing whether it
is running at its designed maximum efficiency),
but I do not know how to adjust anything with
the boiler controls (there are 1 button,
1 button/turning knob, and one dial knob)

Anyway, as the manufacturer refuses to provide
a manual for the safe operation of the boiler
they manufactured (which I find very, very
strange, I thought this was tightly controlled
business in terms of safety and regulations -
but what do I know...) I was hoping someone
might provide some information on the finer
art of controlling elderly boilers of the
type: IDEAL Concord WRS 255A gas boiler.

Thanks,
Frid

p.s. I do not understand the underlying logic of
companies that do not provide on-line archive of
older user-manuals.
The cost is negligable, and would
provide the users with a "warm cosy feeling"
of being looked after... which in this case
would fit nicely with the image this company
should be trying to maintain... but in stead they
decide to leave us out in the cold...

This boiler is certainly of an older less efficient design.
It was not even contemporary technology when it was fitted. 8-(

There is little to these boiler and little to go wrong. 8-)

There is a permananet pilot light which heats a thermocouple which makes
a small amount of electricity which holds a gas valve open.
There is a further gas valve that is opened when mains electricity is
supplied which then lets the gas through to the burner this heats a
block of cast iron containing water.
The temperature of this block is controlled by a thermostat - a rotary
knob with numbers on it usually 1-6.
This thermostat is in series with the gas valve so controlling the
temperature of the boiler.

Try a middle setting.


--
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