On Sun, 21 Mar 2004 20:38:16 +0000, Jerry. wrote:


"Pete" wrote in message
m...
I wondered if this was a common con, and whether I have any
case against the plumber?

About a year ago I called a plumber because the gas solenoid
valve on my Glowworm Galaxie back boiler died. Just before
the plumber left he switched the pump to maximum speed -
didn't think much of it at the time (didn't know enough about
plumping) and assumed he knew what he was doing...

Two weeks ago one of the downstairs radiators started leaking
- there was literally a fountain of water gushing from a hole
in the rad which had corroded from the inside.

Discovered the system has been "pumping over" for about a year.
The CH tank was full of steaming hot water and 3" depth of
brown sludge. Turned down the pump, cleaned out the tank,
replaced the rad and added corrosion inhibitor.

This morning another radiator started leaking, again, corroded
from the inside.


I'll take this up with trading standards and CORGI. In the
mean time, is there anything else I need to do apart from
replacing all the radiators? Is the boiler at risk too?


Sorry, but how is a corroded rad anything to do with what the plumber
did,

It has everything to do with what he did! However the age of the boiler
and radiators is such that they were probably fairly corroded before he
began but initiating pumping-over will only have accelerated the rad's
demise.

I would expect the boiler to be at risk over a period of perhaps 10 years
or so from pumping over the failure would be from a leaking heat
exchanger.

It is possible due to the age of the boiler (c. 20 years) that there was
considerable kettling and the plumber tried to help things along with a
higher pump setting.

Having said that there should be no pumping over on a correctly installed
system and that brings the possibility that the last year was likely not the
only time that this occurred.


Even if I'm wrong about the pump setting, you can of course prove that the
plumber increased the pump speed and not some else ?
Did you not anti corrosion in you system before now, if not why not, and how
did fixing a faulty gas valve and changing the pump setting affect this
?....

IMO, basically you are looking for someone to blame, your plumber is not
that person and I suspect any TS or CORGI office will agree.

The bottom line is that a COMPLETE new system is now required (the copper
pipes are reuseable after flushing).

--
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