random thread about boilers...any plumbers?!

[Little-Miss]

I'm sorry this is soooo random, but we're a clever lot...

 

I've lived in my flat for almost 3 years now, we have all electric and economy 7. Recently we've started to notice the lack of warm water when it comes to shower/bath time. In the morning i have a bath and then my fella has a shower and for a while he was telling me off for using up all the warm water so ive been trying really hard not to use so much, so ive only got a little bit of water in the bath then quickly wash my hair and he still runs out of warm water during his shower! Surely this time of year the water should be warmer anyway?! But strangely enough it doesnt seem to affect the kitchen sink.

 

Now am i imaging this or do i need to ring my landlord to get one of his useless cowboys out.

[laserblazer]

Do you have a tank with an immersion heater? If so, check to see if there's a thermostat attached, it might have been turned down.

[Michael]

Could well be a problem with the boiler and I am pretty sure you haven't changed your bathroom routine all of a sudden. I would inform your landlord.

 

In the meantime, boil a full kettle of water to increase the temperature of a bath. Full of good ideas me

[Little-Miss]

Nope no immersion...i dont think. No dials anyway. Its got two wires that go into the wall with a switch, one which is on all the time, and one that comes on automatically during economy 7 time.

[Andrew_C]

For Economy 7 water heating, there is almost certainly an immersion heater (or two) in the hot water tank.

 

I would expect the top element NOT to be switched on unless you need a boost of hot water. The bottom element is the one that should run for 7 hours overnight.

 

What is the water like in Birmingham? If you have hard water, it may be that the tank is full of crud (last house I had, the tank was old and open at the top. I cleared the crud, and took half a dozen FULL buckets of calcium somethingate out! I also had to re-work two of the pipes in it as they were totally blocked.

[FN-GM]

Our boiler has just broke down. Water all over the cellar. We live in a 120 year old house, the boiler was fitted in 1973, you would have thought it would last longer!

[Mr.Ben]

Mine stopped working slowly as the element in the boiler gave up. First off I didn't have hot water for long, then it stopped completely.

 

As it was summer and I had an electric shower I really didn't mind!

 

The part only cost £20 but when I didn't empty the tank properly................

[CyberNerd]

and took half a dozen FULL buckets of calcium somethingate.

calcium carbonate, it dissolves hydrochloric acid.

double check the thermostat - there should be one on it somewhere. Failing that you could try filling the immersion tank full of acid to see what happens

[User3204]

I have a 12 year old (so still quite new..ahem) combi boiler, that I find to be really annoying, every year the British Gas Man comes out to fix it.. I pay the £14per month charge for this (like what they do for white goods).

 

Sometimes it stops pumping, and then I get nothing but cold water..

 

Get the landlord in, and see if you can persuade him to sign up to the monthly deal, they also like to cme out and check it before winter sets in...

[powdarrmonkey]

Check that the bit that's on all the time isn't a fused spur with a blown fuse: if it's at the top of the tank, it's probably got a thermostat in it to boost the water temperature as you use it, wheras the economy 7 bit heats the water during the night when it's cheaper.

 

 

edit: I don't know why I said top. It could be anywhere.

Edited July 8, 2009 by powdarrmonkey

[witch]

Brum has very soft water, as I recall, so the limescale thing shouldn't be an issue.

 

Our boiler has been dying slowly as well - in the cold weather it didn't come on unless you hit reset, and then last week - y'know, when it was REALLY hot - I noticed that the radiators were hot!! (the hall thermostat was set to 15 and the 'click' told us that the temp in there was over 22).

It is 15 years old and we were told 5 years ago that it was going out so I suppose we can't complain.

Been quoted anything from £1000 to £2000 for a new one - how do you tell what is a good one or the right size or what?

[Little-Miss]

I would expect the top element NOT to be switched on unless you need a boost of hot water. The bottom element is the one that should run for 7 hours overnight.

[\QUOTE]

 

ooh, are you saying the top switch shouldnt be on at all?

 

The water in brum is the best....straight from the valleys!!

Edited July 9, 2009 by witch

[Andrew_C]

ooh, are you saying the top switch shouldn't be on at all?

Assuming (dangerous I know) that you have a normal system, no, you would only turn it on to boost some hot water. Maybe if someone had nicked all the hot water for a bath say and you needed some for a shower. However, it will take time to heat up so not a fix in your case. It will only heat the top 1/3 of the tank (hot water rising and all that)

 

If the symptoms have changed over time, I'd be suspicious... Ohhhh hang on! Have you got a header tank? Probably squareish, in a loft or somewhere high? Check that there is water in that and that the ball-valve is working. Run a bath and see if it fills as fast as it empties. If not, there is a real risk of burning the immersion elements out!

[cl0n3]

Bah cheapest and easiest option is for you and the fella to share a shower/bath

[Sirbendy]

You'd love my combi..it's mildly demented. Big boiler rated for a 4 bed detached property, in... a 2 bed top floor flat.

 

The temperature dial doesn't seem to do much..if it fires, you'll get a "WHOOMF", and then either warm or screamingly hot water depending on its mood, unless you want a shower in which case you have to taunt it to get it to warm up then wait until it's had a paddy and ramped the temp up and up to a stable point then introduce the cold.

 

At random it'll fire for no reason, sometimes you give it a reason and it ignores you. Sometimes it crashes on the heating mode and requires 3-4 consecutive power cycles to come back to an operating state, and/or threats with pliers and a rubber mallet to the side.

 

I do like it..it's an E rated noncondenser from 1996, but it's a hoot. The only issues that bug me are the kitchen cold tap is broken (never buy a plastic mixer, they're sh1te) so if I want cold, I have to run the hot to wash up and leave it 3 hours to reach a sane temperature or shut down the boiler while the tap's running, and the bathroom tap/shower diverter gets that hot that it scales up on the surface/spout in a week or so, and to turn it off requires an oil filter strap wrench. Never touch it while it's running either, as it burns.

 

At some point I've apparently got a plumber coming out again. He did say last time the tap would break soon after being repaired.

 

I had an A rated condensing boiler previously with a cylinder..this one knocks spots off it. Even if it is shot to hell, heh..

[WStore_Dan]

You find time for a bath every morning?! I'm up at 7:10, showered and dress and leaving mine at 7:30 each morning!

[Little-Miss]

You're a bloke!!

 

Seriously, i am the walking dead in the morning, so i find with a bath i come round gently!

[mac_shinobi]

You're a bloke!!

 

Seriously, i am the walking dead in the morning, so i find with a bath i come round gently!

 

I would have to be either retired or a millionaire in order to have enough time to bath in the morning ( unless I was on holiday )

 

What did people used to do before the invention of the shower ?

[WStore_Dan]

What did people used to do before the invention of the shower ?

 

Stink?

[Andrew_C]

But everyone will have smelled the same, so we wouldn't have noticed!

[torledo]

You find time for a bath every morning?! I'm up at 7:10, showered and dress and leaving mine at 7:30 each morning!

 

that sounds like a very depressing routine.

 

I believe we should all have the time to have a good, long soak in the morning [...and a proper cooked breakfast] without getting up with the larks. Call me a public sector slacker if you want. ;0)

 

I've always been perplexed by early starts, i think i only get going halfway through the morning anyway....

 

and when i really need people to reply to emails, or be available, or for places to be open they've either bogged off home or shut up shop. It's ridiculous. Having so many people start work that early doesn't seem to have that much positive impact on the traffic situation either.

[laserblazer]

I'm an early morning person. I'm up at 5:30am, long shower, whilst shaving, then a leisurely breakfast, take the wife a cuppa and I'm in school for 6:15am. I can get so much done before anyone else is in which is just as well. At 8:30 I took the minibus to a feeder school to collect some Y4s for transfer day. I got back at 9:00 to find the Head of Music and 45 kids in a panic, their coach hadn't arrived to take them to a concert. So I made four trips ferrying them in the minibus. Got back gasping for a drink only to find a teacher in a panic because they couldn't get the hall projector to work and there were 180 Y4 kids all looking at the screen expectantly. Went backstage and turned the video splitter on. Big cheer from said Y4s. Made myself a cuppa and went to my office. Took one sip and the phone went, could I go to the medical room. Treated a cut hand and then the three other kids that appeared with various tummy/headaches. It's now lunchtime, I open my sandwich and the phone goes. Supply teacher can't get her dvd to play. It will wait until I've had something to eat. Bolt down my lunch and go to the supply teacher. It's a VHS tape not a dvd and she hasn't switched the projector to Video (what do they learn at college?) Phone goes again, can I go to the medical room urgently. I hurry down the corridor avoiding the big pools of blood. Y5 kid in the wheel chair, blood streaming from his forehead. I grab a couple of sterile wound dressings and press them to his head. He's very pale and shaky. Elevate his legs and call 999. Stand there for 10 minutes holding the pad to his head, reassuring him whilst a teacher washes the congealed blood and grass from his hands. Paramedic arrives, closely followed by parents. He's patched up and packed off in the ambulance. Spend 30 minutes cleaning wheelchair, floor, sink and bin with disinfectant. The bell goes for assembly so I slope off for a cuppa. Phone goes, can I go to the hall. If they haven't turned the video splitter on I'll go mad. No, it's an Awards assembly and the Head of Music has given me an award for rescuing them when the coach let them down. That was nice. Go round school turning off projectors, computers etc. It's now 3:20 and I think I deserve to knock off 10 minutes early. Held up at the end of the drive in a queue of departing teachers who got in at 8:00!

 

Not exactly a typical day but there's always something to stop me doing the routine stuff during the day.

[EduTech]

I must admit i have a shower every morning, if i didn't i dont think i would find my way to work in a morning.. i would end up somewhere where i had drifted of to sleep...

 

I love a nice hot shower in the morning, whilst listening to the radio.. strole up to work and nice and fresh!

 

Lovley!

[Little-Miss]

omg laserblazer!! Do you actually do any real IT work?! I was asked to be a first aider due to my short nursing career but i said no!! Especially in a Primary school, so many cuts and bumps.

[john]

Wow that is varied and I thought signing for a package, answering the switchboard, entering students into Serco, printing reports, cabling, removing copper pipes, disconnecting electrics to find the circuit that controls a fan i need to remove is on (to not joy I will add blasted dodgy old electrics!), and fixing some PCs, and then ordering some trunking and stuff to be told my accounts on stop as the bill from May hasn't been paid (whoops!) hey ho its not that bad, slightly varied but not as much as clearly some are

 

As for mornings etc, I am not a morning person, I wake up about 10am-ish really, so anything before I'm on Auto-Pilot tbh, I'm much more a night owl