04-02-2012, 09:40 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-02-2012, 09:42 AM by Radio Fixer.)
Yes! Ed. I thought gas valves were fail safe and maybe they were designed to be that way. But perhaps they didnt expect them still to be in use after 30 to 40 years. Mine was a Honeywell and exactly as you describe yours... not trying to worry you but my story is true. It failed with no prior warning, not the hint of trouble (a few new thermostats thoughout its life), in the fully open state. The plumber who put in the new boiler (too heavy and a confined space for me to do it + the gas regs etc) showed no surprise and just said "Yeah! it happens".
You might look at Ideal Standard, our Mexico (floor standing using a vertical flue pipe to a chimney outlet. Air comes in to the boiler cupboard via an underground pipe and grill). It has been very reliable (shush!) and is about 5 years old now. I see the latest concentric flue ones claim an efficiency of 90%. For longer runs (27m) and some models a pumped air system is available but to me thats just another thing to fail in the depths of winter.
Hi Mark. When I said about the gravity hot water pipes being coked up I should have said that the vertical runs were not too bad but the bends from the tank and the boiler itself were down to maybe 3/8" from an original 1" pipe. Interestingly I had always used Fernox anti-corrosion but of course the people before us migh not have. I wonder if power flushing would have cleared such big deposits? Some how I doubt it.
Gary
You might look at Ideal Standard, our Mexico (floor standing using a vertical flue pipe to a chimney outlet. Air comes in to the boiler cupboard via an underground pipe and grill). It has been very reliable (shush!) and is about 5 years old now. I see the latest concentric flue ones claim an efficiency of 90%. For longer runs (27m) and some models a pumped air system is available but to me thats just another thing to fail in the depths of winter.
Hi Mark. When I said about the gravity hot water pipes being coked up I should have said that the vertical runs were not too bad but the bends from the tank and the boiler itself were down to maybe 3/8" from an original 1" pipe. Interestingly I had always used Fernox anti-corrosion but of course the people before us migh not have. I wonder if power flushing would have cleared such big deposits? Some how I doubt it.
Gary
