Worcester Green Star 30CDi system boiler

[bricol]

Nope - you mean this bit I guess
View attachment 426932

seems you’re right. I must have been brain washed at gas engineer school. Trouble is being competent to service a boiler means you know what equipment is needed, how to use it and what the results should be. As you say pretty serious consequences if you get it wrong. I’ve been to quite a few DIY fixed boilers and some of it is scary.

Yep. Its a combination of both bits.

Many many people/companies seem to think the same as you were told. Its been argued on here before - but as you found, there it is in black and white.

My dad fitted a gas wall heater into our house when I was a kid . . . even as a kid (aged 8/9 ish) I did wonder about the competency of using a match (burning!) as a leak test device along the pipe joints . . .

 

[reb78]

I've been getting told, "you can't do that", time and time again.

You can't fit your own combi boiler, and central heating. Done.

You can't do your own domestic wiring. Done.

You can't fit your own wood burning stove. Done.

You shouldn't rebuild your cars breaking system. Done.

You can't rebuild your own engine. Done.

You can't respray your car with 2k paint in your garage. Done.

You'll never be a particle physicist at CERN. Done

I think my point was more that once you have bought a flue gas analyser so you can check its all setup properly you may as well have paid a plumber who has one that is calibrated properly.

 

[dobbslc]

I've been getting told, "you can't do that", time and time again.

You can't fit your own combi boiler, and central heating. Done.

You can't do your own domestic wiring. Done.

You can't fit your own wood burning stove. Done.

You shouldn't rebuild your cars breaking system. Done.

You can't rebuild your own engine. Done.

You can't respray your car with 2k paint in your garage. Done.

You'll never be a particle physicist at CERN. Done

Is the last one true?

That's me

View attachment 426954

Seems it is!

Do you know Brian Cox?

 

[addjunkie]

But.....the so called competence is only as good as the training....monkey see monkey do...

I served a 4 yr apprenticeship at one of the leading chemical producing companies in the world ( they were at the time...) and spent most of my working life in oil and gas with 30 yrs at a gas terminal....Id consider myself as competent and experienced, dealing with gas pressures as low as millibars, as high as 100 bar plus from gas turbine driven compressors, Instrumented Safety/Shutdown and Process Control systems, Gas Metering (Fiscal Standard..) and Analysis.....etc....

But you still technically would struggle to demonstrate competency wiring your own house or servicing your heating…..

I had a similar conversation regarding my oil boiler install for my holiday lets, as I wasnt oftec. Fortunately building inspectors boss saw common sense, he accepted that as I can fix geet big boilers and such things, and the governments examiners say Im competent to do so, a ikkle boiler wasnt an issue.

 

[Roger440]

I've been getting told, "you can't do that", time and time again.

You can't fit your own combi boiler, and central heating. Done.

You can't do your own domestic wiring. Done.

You can't fit your own wood burning stove. Done.

You shouldn't rebuild your cars breaking system. Done.

You can't rebuild your own engine. Done.

You can't respray your car with 2k paint in your garage. Done.

You'll never be a particle physicist at CERN. Done

And i wouldnt mind betting, in most cases, did a better job than the "professionals".

At my new place, ive resolved to do everything myself. Every single time i employ people to do stuff (with one exception) ive been disappointed.

Apart from the particle physicist, done all of that list. Albeit an oil boiler rather than gas.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Do you know Brian Cox?

Brian Cox, what does he know, I remember watching him on the Tele about 10 years ago when he said no two electrons in the universe can have the same energy level.

It was a bastardisation of the Pauli Exclusion principle which is relevant for an atom, not the universe. Ohh how I laughed.

 

[dobbslc]

What do I know? I'm only an electronician...

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Time to have a look at the boiler, the first thing to check on the health of the exchanger is the draw that the fan can pull at max rpm, you need a manometer for this. Here is mine pretty easy to make. Not as good as the digital ones but good enough and quite a bit cheaper while being much more enjoyable to use up. The fan should be able to pull about -6mbar which would be a delta of about 6cm.

Zero'ed at the 3cm line and connected up to the boiler fan test port.

With the fan in test mode running full out.

The delta is about 2.4cm so ~ -2.4mbar, way under the minimum, indicating that the exchanger is very clogged. Time for action.

The full set of service parts for the exchanger is about £350 from Bosch, but a bit of googling got all the parts for £100. The biggest expense item would have been a new burner which may or may not be needed, but as I found one for £20, it was a no brainer.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Just in time.

The matrix well clogged.

The flame detector, dissolved.

Burner, corroded.

Lots of crud below the burner.

Fan non return flap is ok but will change anyway.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Cleaned out, took a few hours of poking and scraping.

Condensation trap cleaned out.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Flushed trough and looking better.

Buttoned back up with the new parts.

The fan pressure is now just over 6mbar so should now be operating much more efficiently.

Will try to find a reputable gas tech to do a CO check on the flue next as they are pretty expensive to buy.

 

[waddycall]

Make sure the seal between the condensate trap and heat exchanger is good and sealing correctly. Don’t run it for any length of time with the case off and make sure the case fits properly. Make sure there’s water in the trap as well if you havent already. You did say you flushed it through so should be fine.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

I'm hoping for a big improvement in efficiency, and am very surprised that it hadn't thrown any error codes with that amount of clogging.

 

[Blobber]

You do realise it will probably fail now with some other unrelated fault!

 

[gaz1]

No it's not.

It's all there in the regs, in black and white - If you are competent you can service your own gas appliances.

In fact, you can service other peoples boilers if again you are competent and not taking payment.

And paying to be on the Gas Safe list doesn't make you competent as various prosecutions over the years have proved.

Whether you should service your own (or others for free) of course, is another matter. If something does go wrong, you are are either dead or in a lot of legal trouble.

ive found the same dosnt matter if it was corgi or gas safe registered they shouldnt be doing the job

ive also told many to leave my property due to there unsafe practices and have reported them

the last property ex council but still run by the area housing i caught a fitter out for there incompetents it took 6 gas fitters to sort my system out in 1/2 day thats how much they where hiding within all the areas housing stock as there all the same fitted

the boiler was the main culprit of the gas safe failure
the area housing manager was squirming, the fitters main manager was also there

all the work was carried out under cctv as they was advised that the system was recording so ive got all the repairs under camera

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

You do realise it will probably fail now with some other unrelated fault!

Haha, 10 o'clock last night the boiler stopped with an error code. "Blocked or Frozen condensate pipe".

It's now draining into a bucket till I can sort it out tomorrow.

I tried blowing down the drain pipe (unpleasant) and was eventually able to blow it clear. The problem is that the drain pipe was poorly installed by the "gas safe" installer. It bows down in the cellar below the height of the eventual connection to the drain. Bound to be accumulating lots of crap at the low point over the last 14 years. I can't just clip it up as it's been layed below some other services. I'll need to cut out the old pipe and install new with the correct fall.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

I tried filling up the condensate drain pipe today, it is extremely slow to drain which has caused the condensate to back up into the boiler and throw the fault code. It's been working fine now for the last few days emptying into a bucket.

The condensate pipe extends about 4.5m horizontally (undulating) under the floor, then has a short uphill exit to waste pipe.

.

My plan it to remove the old 22mm pipe and take the 50mm pipe all the way over to the initial drop from the boiler, with the best fall I can get.

Any better solutions?

 

[gaz1]

move the condensate pipe into a straight line direct to the drain would be a better way or extend the drain to under the boiler and insert direct into it

 

[waddycall]

if you cant get the fall you could always put a condensate pump on it.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

if you cant get the fall you could always put a condensate pump on it.

Didn't know there was such a thing, I'll look into it.