Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Happy heating season.  (Read 3627 times)

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Happy heating season.
« on: December 17, 2014, 02:55:52 pm »
About a eight hours ago when I went for a shower there was a strong smell of heating oil in out hallway ( the  oil boiler is in the old airing cupboard which is accesed via a door in the hall ) .
 I had my shower and then slid the covers off the boiler ... drip drip drip heating oil coming out of the armoured oil supply pipe on the boiler burner unit.
 It's taken some 20 phone cqlls to find some one who was able to come and change the pipe , it meant having the strip the burner unit from th boiler.
 
Some Nerk had cross threaded it and put an oil sealant on the threads when it was installed,  it was coming out the threads & out the pipe/hose crimp point on the damaged armoured oil hose ..all nicely hidden away from view when the .


Luckily I still have various tap & die sets from my engineering days , so we were able to re tap the the thread and with a bit more sealant actually make it drip free .
had no one come to my aid we would have been waiting three or more weeks.

He's just reassembled it and we can see it's leaking oil like a sieve elsewhere totally unrelated & independent the the replaced dripping pipe.


 Arrragh this Chinese boiler really hack me off .

It was supplied as part of the " Warm Home " heating grant scheme of five years ago ..
For the guy has already said when he was about to start the repair that he is now starting to replace six year old Firebird's that are beyond repair with burnt through heat exchangers .... ErrrrrrrK!

Somebody has made a lot of money out of them that's for sure.

 Does anybody know of a decent brand other than the " Firebird "  boilers ( ours )
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

Anke

  • Joined Dec 2009
  • St Boswells, Scottish Borders
Re: Happy heating season.
« Reply #1 on: December 17, 2014, 03:34:44 pm »
Ours is a "Grant" . It is supposed to be 90something% efficient and has been working very well for the last 7 years. It was installed when we built the house. Does our hot water as well as heating, so is never actually turned off.

Daisys Mum

  • Joined May 2009
  • Scottish Borders
Re: Happy heating season.
« Reply #2 on: December 17, 2014, 04:02:18 pm »
I have an 18year old warmflow which I have serviced every year at a cost of around £80, I think the most it has ever cost was about £180 as it needed a couple of parts. According to the engineer it is still pretty efficient and I shouldn't think of replacing it. It runs 365 days a year heating the water and radiators.
Hope I haven't jinxed it now  ;D
Anne

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Happy heating season.
« Reply #3 on: December 17, 2014, 04:46:06 pm »
Ours just stopped this afternoon  :rant:  OH can't fix it, plumber son too far away, but OH just found a local chap who'll come out tomorrow  :trophy:   The boiler is about 15 yrs old.  We've resisted getting one of the OAP grant ones - bet they're Chinese junk too.

Oh the timing  ::)  :cold:  :xmaswindow:  :hohoho:
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: Happy heating season.
« Reply #4 on: December 17, 2014, 05:03:15 pm »
The engineer has just come back with a new pump unit @ £125.. fitted it ..everything seems to be OK ...big clean up then out for a Chinese nosh methinks as the fumes are still a bit heavy despite me rubbing new cat litter into the carpet  in front of the boiler , vacuuming it off and then doing two more re coats and a final overnight layer... thank god we don't have a cat !
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: Happy heating season.
« Reply #5 on: December 18, 2014, 05:34:12 pm »
The fumes were too much i stayed up till 05.30 with the windows open  .
Evil smelly fuel oil is a very polite term .

 I was waiting for the store with the rug doctor ( RD) to open at 08.00 & then hired one plus 5 litres of carpet cleanser concentrate and one of the heavy foot traffic sprays .
 
I gave the affected area a good dose of the traffic spray and used the empty machine to scrub it in , gave it another spray then made up a strong  carpet cleaning solution  in water as hot as I could bear to put my hand in , then got to work with the RD and the hand held unit to get right in deep at the skirting board area. This done I gave the worst affected area another traffic spray and used the now empty machine to scrub it in again , then left it alone

I took advantage of having the machine and zipped round the lounge , munchkins bedroom & the master bedroom , then went back over the worst affected areas again .

Cor the muck that came out of every where was truly amazing the recovered cleaner liquid and muck was just like thin oxtail soup and stank of the fuel oil.

All in all its made a tremendous difference , after coming back from returning the Rd off hire we found that there was barely a  smell of the heating oil and even that should disappear with three or so days.
 Both munchkin & I are breathing much easier this evening.

 
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

claire

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Falkirk
    • Clairesgarden
    • Facebook
Re: Happy heating season.
« Reply #6 on: December 19, 2014, 07:35:14 am »
doesn't sound nice at all. hope its all working and leak free now.
I'm attached to my hot water bottle right now...

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: Happy heating season.
« Reply #7 on: December 19, 2014, 09:37:04 am »
It's much better this morning , but there's still a slight aroma to greet you if you've been outside for a hour or more.
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Happy heating season.
« Reply #8 on: December 19, 2014, 10:42:30 am »
Ours just stopped this afternoon  :rant:  OH can't fix it, plumber son too far away, but OH just found a local chap who'll come out tomorrow  :trophy:   The boiler is about 15 yrs old.  We've resisted getting one of the OAP grant ones - bet they're Chinese junk too.

Oh the timing  ::)  :cold:  :xmaswindow:  :hohoho:

Hope your boiler got fixed, FW?
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Happy heating season.
« Reply #9 on: December 19, 2014, 12:17:22 pm »
Thank you Sally.  The man has just finished.  He came yesterday and identified rusty water in the fuel, condensed out from the alcohol which is now added to the oil (a similar thing happens in car engines now) The motor seized because of the rust.  So plumber and Mr F spent yesterday and today fixing it all and getting the water out of the oil tank  :thumbsup:  There are flurries of icy cold sleet smacking off the windows at the moment, so I'm very pleased to get the heating back - and hot water.
The plumber was so helpful and was rushing around various customers with similarly broken boilers, to make sure we all had heating. What a nice chap.  We haven't got the bill yet, but whatever it is, he's earned it.
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Happy heating season.
« Reply #10 on: December 19, 2014, 12:36:04 pm »
The plumber was so helpful and was rushing around various customers with similarly broken boilers, to make sure we all had heating. What a nice chap.  We haven't got the bill yet, but whatever it is, he's earned it.

Treasure him!   :thumbsup:  (I know you will/do.)

Very glad to hear you are sorted.  We were without Rayburn for a few days in the last cold snap (chimney/downdraught problems), and although it could have been a lot worse (these old stone walls are well and truly heated through now, so the living room was like a big storage radiator), I didn't like being without a warmer and dryer for wet cold clothes.   :cold:  Glad it happened when it did, really, and we got it sorted before we're into real, prolonged wintery weather.  And ditto for yourselves, I guess.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Me

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • Wild West
Re: Happy heating season.
« Reply #11 on: December 19, 2014, 05:35:12 pm »
I feel your pain. We (the plumber) disconnected the oil in April and I moved the tank for an extension build, he has been promising to come to reconnect ever since, yesterday was another "I will do it tomorrow" promise, I had said that was fine but if you are not going to turn up let me know and I will order the materials and do it myself - he said no don't do that because I've ordered the stuff already and he didn't turn up. What can you do? Doubt I'd get the materials before xmas now.

 


 

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