Boiler help please!

[amirzed]

Hi all, any friendly plumbers be able to help?

Basically the boiler, a gloworm xtramax he, developed a drip. We called a company to fix it as we have a repair contract with them, they are very large and are a british national chain of gas supply. Anyway the plumber came, diagnosed a faulty seal and came back this morning to fix it. The boiler through all this has worked fine.

So today the olumber takes the boiler apart, replaces the seal on the bottom of the storage tank and it was still leaking. Then he puts the old seal back in with a load more lubrication/sealing stuff and the leak slowed down. At this point the central heating stopped working but the boiler makes hot water no problem. It's like the boiler refuses to put the CH on, the thermostat is deffo on and so is the main switch. The maintenance guy has said it must be the 'water sensor' and has ordered a new one. So we have no central heating now.

After the guy left the co. rang and said the parts would be 7-10 days. So now we have no central heating and i'm convinced that the plumber must have done something to the boiler for it to not operate the central heating now, it worked fine this morning. Now we have a 1 and 2 year old in the house so i'm keen to sort this out quick. Does any plumber here know of any common fixes or problems that these boilers have that may make it do this? Or is there something that the plumber may have inadvertently done whilst dismantling that may have caused this?

Thanking in advance!

[Gingerbread Man]

amirzed said:

...replaces the seal on the bottom of the storage tank and it was still leaking.

Is the boiler a combination boiler, and was the seal on a big red expansion vessel? If so, isn't the seal just a rubber washer that you should carry in the van.

I never hear good things about British Gas (at a guess!?) and their home care plans. Their prices are normally quite expensive and they don't seem to have the personal touch of a local good plumber.

Does the boiler have a pressure gauge, and if so, what does it read?

Edited by Gingerbread Man on Tuesday 16th November 23:53

[dirkgently]

Often you can take the pressure sensor out and clean it,unfortunately for you the engineer ran out of allocated time. seven to ten days is when they can fit you in again.

[amirzed]

Gingerbread Man said:

Is the boiler a combination boiler, and was the seal on a big red expansion vessel? If so, isn't the seal just a rubber washer that you should carry in the van.

I never hear good things about British Gas (at a guess!?) and their home care plans. Their prices are normally quite expensive and they don't seem to have the personal touch of a local good plumber.

Does the boiler have a pressure gauge, and if so, what does it read?

Edited by Gingerbread Man on Tuesday 16th November 23:53

yes indeed it's a combi with an internal storage tank, the round seal (a beige one) on the bottom of the tank was leaking. The pressure guage is reading 1.3 so is aequate. The boiler just doesn't want to turn the ch on!!

It's freezing.....

[Ferg]

I've only ever fitted one Xtramax. It's the size of a fridge!!
I'd start by looking to see that the boiler is receiving a switched live from the external controls. It's obviously got the permanent live as the hot water is operating on demand.

[amirzed]

thanks for that buddy

phoned the 'company' who said they'd be here by 6

then 8

then 10

and then phoned and said they'd come in the morning!

but i will mention about the live feed thing - muchos respect