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Andy Hall
 
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Default Should conventional floor standing gas boilers be serviced each year?

On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 21:25:41 +0000, Alan Butler Alan Butler wrote:

Should conventional floor standing gas boilers with outside flue be
serviced each year? They seem to come each year and just hoover the
inside and clean it, check things over etc, never anything wrong with
it. Is this necessary? Or is it just a long check list of tick boxes
to make it a look like they are doing a lot. Bit like these 112 point
car checks etc


To some extent it depends on who *they* is.

If it's BG, then you could almost certainly get the same level of
attention elsewhere at rather less cost.

A good benchmark is to check the manufacturer's recommendation for
servicing. They may recommend annual cleaning. There is a school
of thought that says that if it isn't broken, don't fix it. There is
no point in dismantling things for the sake of it, because especially
components with seals and gaskets are likely toi require new ones with
no good reason to have removed the part in the first place.

With an older boiler, especially a conventional flue, it is prudent to
at least have a combustion gas analysis test done. However, BG have
gained a reputation for doing this only and not doing a complete
"service" - hence customers feel cheated. Justifiably so because a
flue gas analyser can be bought for around £200. You could buy one
of those and pay for it in a couple of years.


Really the manufacturer should have an official service schedule and
whoever services should follow that.





..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
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Zipadee Doodar
 
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Default Should conventional floor standing gas boilers be serviced each year?


Alan Butler wrote in message
news
Should conventional floor standing gas boilers with outside flue be
serviced each year? They seem to come each year and just hoover the
inside and clean it, check things over etc, never anything wrong with
it. Is this necessary? Or is it just a long check list of tick boxes
to make it a look like they are doing a lot. Bit like these 112 point
car checks etc


Yes, do it. I once failed to arrange an service, which meant the period
between services was actually 24 months. The build up of carbon was such
that the gas usage was very high, and flames were getting close to parts
they shouldnt. When the corgi opened it up, i was stunned at the build up. i
hate to think what a further 12 months could have produced.


ZD


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Bob Minchin
 
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Default Should conventional floor standing gas boilers be serviced each year?


Zipadee Doodar wrote in message ...

Alan Butler wrote in message
news
Should conventional floor standing gas boilers with outside flue be
serviced each year? They seem to come each year and just hoover the
inside and clean it, check things over etc, never anything wrong with
it. Is this necessary? Or is it just a long check list of tick boxes
to make it a look like they are doing a lot. Bit like these 112 point
car checks etc


Yes, do it. I once failed to arrange an service, which meant the period
between services was actually 24 months. The build up of carbon was such
that the gas usage was very high, and flames were getting close to parts
they shouldnt. When the corgi opened it up, i was stunned at the build up.

i
hate to think what a further 12 months could have produced.


ZD


If your boiler is producing soot, then the gas/air mix is not set up
correctly and you are not getting good efficiency from the system.

Bob


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Andrew Gabriel
 
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Default Should conventional floor standing gas boilers be serviced each year?

In article ,
"Zipadee Doodar" writes:

Alan Butler wrote in message
news
Should conventional floor standing gas boilers with outside flue be
serviced each year? They seem to come each year and just hoover the
inside and clean it, check things over etc, never anything wrong with
it. Is this necessary? Or is it just a long check list of tick boxes
to make it a look like they are doing a lot. Bit like these 112 point
car checks etc


Yes, do it. I once failed to arrange an service, which meant the period
between services was actually 24 months. The build up of carbon was such
that the gas usage was very high, and flames were getting close to parts
they shouldnt. When the corgi opened it up, i was stunned at the build up. i
hate to think what a further 12 months could have produced.


In my experience, when they soot up, they do it quite suddenly.
Something (e.g. dust which hasn't been cleaned out) gets somewhere
where it causes part of the burner to burn badly and produce
perhaps only a tiny amount of soot. Some of this will fall off
and get sucked into the air intake making the situation worse.
The soot being laid down starts reducing the draft, causing further
incomplete burning and rapid sooting up.
I've seen this happen withing a few days.

So basically I see it as a random instantaneous event, whose
probablity of happening increases over time as dust builds up.
I don't think you can meaningfully say "my boiler takes x years
to soot up".

--
Andrew Gabriel
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Dave Plowman
 
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Default Should conventional floor standing gas boilers be serviced each year?

In article ,
Zipadee Doodar wrote:
Yes, do it. I once failed to arrange an service, which meant the period
between services was actually 24 months. The build up of carbon was such
that the gas usage was very high, and flames were getting close to parts
they shouldnt. When the corgi opened it up, i was stunned at the build
up. i hate to think what a further 12 months could have produced.


Was this on a conventional or balanced flue boiler? Sounds like it was
drawing in pretty dirty air from somewhere - or was badly adjusted in the
first place. Natural gas is pretty clean burning and shouldn't on its own
cause any sooting up in only a year.

Stripping a boiler for *unnecessary* cleaning isn't IMHO a good idea.
Threads etc can be stripped and bits lost.

--
*Never kick a cow pat on a hot day *

Dave Plowman London SW 12
RIP Acorn


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Dave Plowman
 
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Default Should conventional floor standing gas boilers be serviced each year?

In article ,
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
So basically I see it as a random instantaneous event, whose
probablity of happening increases over time as dust builds up.
I don't think you can meaningfully say "my boiler takes x years
to soot up".


Just to annoy IMM again, I checked my BE balanced flue boiler one year
after it was installed, and it was like new. So I sort of forgot about it.
Some *twelve* years later it sooted up without being touched in the
interim, and as you said it went from normal to sooted up in a couple of
days. A good clean, and it's been fine since.

I noticed the burning sound was different when it started to soot up, and
the inspection window showed some yellow on the flames, so my 'service'
consists of a regular visual and aural check.

--
*Honk if you love peace and quiet.

Dave Plowman London SW 12
RIP Acorn
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Ed Sirett
 
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Default Should conventional floor standing gas boilers be serviced each year?

On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 22:51:02 +0000, Bob Minchin wrote:


Zipadee Doodar wrote in message ...

Alan Butler wrote in message
news
Should conventional floor standing gas boilers with outside flue be
serviced each year? They seem to come each year and just hoover the
inside and clean it, check things over etc, never anything wrong with
it. Is this necessary? Or is it just a long check list of tick boxes
to make it a look like they are doing a lot. Bit like these 112 point
car checks etc


Yes, do it. I once failed to arrange an service, which meant the period
between services was actually 24 months. The build up of carbon was such
that the gas usage was very high, and flames were getting close to parts
they shouldnt. When the corgi opened it up, i was stunned at the build up.

i
hate to think what a further 12 months could have produced.


ZD


If your boiler is producing soot, then the gas/air mix is not set up
correctly and you are not getting good efficiency from the system.


These sort of boilers are now becoming very much the exception. They
really do need to be checked annually.

The use of the combustion analyser together with observation of the flame
picture (see FAQ) is a START on the process of checking. I beleive BG only
strip down the boiler and do a 'proper' service when the CO/CO2 ratio
exceed 0.8%. I'd be looking to do this is it were 0.3% or more. [Even
brand new boilers may have 0.1%]

Also to be checked are the following (which might be fairly trivial).
General condition.
Operation of controls. Thermostats get tired and overheat the boiler.
Looking for leaks (water).
Looking for spillage of flue gases at the draught diverter.
Checking the gas valve drops out in under 60s from the pilot extiguishing.
Checking that the dropped out gas valve actually cuts the gas 8-).
The burner pressure, this can drift with age.
....and perhaps if things are not as they should be...
inlet gas pressure.
Determining the gas rate of the burner.
Performing a flue flow test with smoke pellet.

The manufactuers may specifiy that the burner needs to be cleaned each
year however in general the instructions for this sort of boiler have been
long lost.

HTH

--
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


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