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.

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