We have the Boiler Looked at. 19 July

 

Plumber was due this morning at 08:30 to look at the boiler (originally to service it but it had sprung a leak a week or two back). He finally turned over an hour late – English tradesmen are the same the world over it would seem. Despite that, he seemed a really pleasant young man and I suspect we’ll use him for other work in the future. The god news was that the boiler didn’t end up being condemned. As I’d hoped it will be a fairly simple (and cheap) fix – though he didn’t have the part with him. Hopefully he’ll fix it before we leave for Paris at the end of the week. He did the service and commented on how good the injector looked (indicating it is fairly new and/or the oil quality is excellent) and the pollution level was. He reduced the airflow a little (the apparent cause of the occasional cut outs last year) though he said that reducing it to the level it should be, could cause other issues (including adverse effects on the pollution level).

Apparently, the burner was manufactured in 1997 and, strangely, appears older than the boiler (though the actual date of manufacture for that remains unknown). So, at 24 years old (typical age expectancy is apparently 10 – 15 years), it is doing alright. The bad news is that it isn’t a particularly good quality burner (unlike the boiler itself), so it probably won’t last a lot longer – and a replacement will be around €1000. But that’s a lot cheaper than a new boiler and a lot, lot cheaper than an air pump.

I asked about service intervals given our limited usage. From a maintenance perspective, every 2-3 years will suffice – but unless it is serviced annually, insurance may be an issue.

I also asked about appropriate pressure in the boiler. I’d been siting it to about 2.5 bar. It appears that is excessive, and 1.3 bar will be optimum.

Whilst the boiler was being serviced, and into the afternoon, Sally continued working hard on the stairs and cleaned and sanded the interior of the over-stairs cupboard. I treated it for wood worm (primarily a precautionary measure), and removed, sanded and treated the door.







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