Last week, a homeowner in Poole contacted me for his annual boiler service. I asked if there were any problems he had experienced that I should be privy to. He mentioned that it was taking much longer than usual to get hot water and after running a test, some radiators were not warming up a room sufficiently. I assured him that I would be at his property within the hour to conduct the service and attend to any faults.
I got to the client’s home in 45 minutes despite some light traffic. I started by running the boiler to pinpoint any issues and the first thing that struck me was the noise being produced. It was not very loud and might have even gone unnoticed but it was an indicator of a common problem for boilers.
I also opened up the boiler to check the fan air pressure and the gas pressure. The fan air pressure was quite low and this might have been the cause of the sub-optimal operation. I looked closely at the spark electrodes and realised they had oxidised thus cleaning them would not help much. The best option would be a replacement. When I looked at the heat exchanger, I noticed there was limescale buildup which is why the fan air pressure had dropped significantly. Boiler repairs in Dorset often entail sludge or limescale removal due to the hard water in the area. I connected the boiler to a power flush machine which helped clear the limescale from the primary heat exchanger.
The limescale in the plate heat exchanger was cleared using a chemical cleaning solution. After 3 hours, the entire process was complete and we fired up the boiler for a test. Not only had the “kettling” subsided, but adequate heat was coming from all the radiators in the property.
