Short story;

I'm reliably informed that I need to change the pressure regulating
valve in my flat, and I've been told to expect a price of £120-£180
for the valve, and £120 upward for labour.

Does this sound fair?


Long story;

The last six or so months, my Keston 80 boiler that runs both the
central heating and the hot water supply has broken down twice. First
time I got the plumbers out (apologies if they're not really plumbers,
they were recommended by Keston and they do servicing of this boiler)
and they changed the air filter and reset the boiler. Apparently it
had locked out because of overheating.

Second time around the same happened, the boiler would not ignite and
I lost hot water and heating. The same plumbers came around only to
press a button (or something) explaining it had locked out to prevent
overheating. Asking for more information, I understand that they
reckon it is the pressure regulating valve that could be broken.
Especially this could happen if the flat has been unused for a long
period of time (in this case pretty much two years).

Then the (mains supply of cold) water stops working alltogether, and I
get another company out for an emergency visit. They 'let the air out
of the system' and tested all sorts of things. Conclusion; the 'air'
in the system stopped the water. It was only my flat that was
affected.

To explain the low pressure (less than 1 bar, if not less - it takes a
minute to fill a glass of water and don't even get me started on
showering) this guy reckons the pressure regulating valve is busted
and should be changed.



Naively it seems to me that the source of all these problems is the
pressure regulating valve, and if it is finally fixed on the fourth
visit of qualified people at the quoted price, it will have cost me
about £800 for the four visits, parts etc.

Is this a usual story, or am I doing something stupid?


Probably looking at other posts you will want more details, but I
don't know where to start...

Thanks,
Guttorm