Hot water from Valliant Boiler

[Margaret T]

Not the best install but nothing obvious from your pictures apart from no auto bypass ? You need a route for the pump overun to circulate and displace the heat in the boiler when the 2 port valves close , you definitely should not need to have the immersion heater on 24 - 7 they are more for a back up should something fail , if I had to diagnose the fault I would start with checking the 2 port valve on the hot water system , check it is motoring open when the cylinder stat temperature is turned up and then down when the hive is in a hotwater call mode ? , next I see on the cylinder primary return has a balancing type valve this may need adjusting or even removing as it maybe the problem better to fit a lockshield type gate valve for balancing ? Few thing there for you to consider Margret . Please post your findings regards. kop

Hello King of Pipes, On Friday 26th May 2019, we switched off the immersion and tested with hot water (via the hive using status of 'always on') but to no avail, no hot water. The installer came yesterday (Tuesday 30/04/2019) and looked at the drayton cube and boiler, says can't seem to understand what is the underlying issue. The drayton connected to the hot water pipe next to the hot water cylinder was on 'B' with the black clip at the top lifted upwards.

The two pipes in the kitchen, original newly installed connected the boiler (2 straight - straws) was readjusted to now criss-cross? (see attached photos). Currently, the thermostat attached to the cylinder is set at 70 degrees. Hallway flooring was lifted to find pipe work.

At present, the Central Heating (CH) and Hot Water (HW) are both running, immersion switched off, the drayton valves not attached, all heaters turned down. The hot water pipe in air-cupboard is very hot, and the water is hot.

It seems that when the CH is on together with HW, there is HW and the water flows; but then when the CH is off and HW on only; the hot water reverses flow? Has anyone had this issue before?

Greatly appreciate anyone help?

Thanks a lot.

 

[Riley]

Wow that’s rough

 

[Brambles]

Margaret,

You should get whoever installed this back on site. It looks a poor installation from both a design and workmanship perspective.

 

[Margaret T]

Margaret,

You should get whoever installed this back on site. It looks a poor installation from both a design and workmanship perspective.

Is this fixable? All I want is a working functioning HW and CH. Thanks a lot

 

[Riley]

Of course it’s fixable and if it worked before then it should again. But concerned with the installer swapping pipes over

 

[Margaret T]

Of course it’s fixable and if it worked before then it should again. But concerned with the installer swapping pipes over

The house was formerly a gravity system (the installer says) and now this has been changed. Previously Omyson (Olympic 20/35B or 38/50B wall mounted gas boiler was attached when the house was built. The whole CH and HW was working perfectly fine for the past 20 years with no issue. We changed for more energy efficient to Valiant ecotec and installer recommended ecotec plus18. Since installation, September 2018, all was working fine (CH+HW) on the schedule set - the installer set everything up and we never changed any settings.
January 2019 there was no hot water and the installer said airlock, back up and running
February 2019 - no hot water and the installer replaced the syncron motor
March 2019 - then advised to leave the immersion on constant
April 2019 - we are the current situation
and readjustment made from 2 straight pipes to now criss-cross

not sure what else do to?

 

[Brambles]

Margaret,

Apologies, upon rereading, my reply was too blunt.

However, from my understanding, you have a system installed that is less than 6 months old. At the time of handover to you, you believed it worked properly. Oddly, the installation engineer ( or someone after installation) told you to leave the immersion on all the time. That on reflection is the alarm bell that they could not get the hot water to function on a stand alone basis. My interpretation of that was that they had got confused with the wiring when installing Nest. That is probably the case, but I may be wrong.

The pictures of your installation show both poor workmanship and planning of pipework routes. whilst the latter is not a cardinal sin - it shows that the installer at the very minimum did not think through and plan how he /she was going to deliver a quality and visually attractive installation. There does not appear to be a return filter fitted ( which may be a requirement for the Valiant boiler warranty).

The crossed pipes are either a sign of poor installation planning or reversing flow / return post installation.

Whatever the issue, it should be corrected by the installer. I woukd strongly advise you to write to the installer, setting out all the issues and give them 30 days to correct the installation. Thereafter ( assuming you are in England /Wales consider taking the case to the small claims court - it will cost you £55, which is refundable when you get an award. If the installer does not respond to the case, judgement will (in 90% of cases) be in your favour. Enforcing a judgement is quite straightforward

Is it fixable, of course it is, the question is always how much will it cost, to identify the issues and then correct them.

Was the engineer who came this week the original installer or a “new” set of eyes?

 

[Burger]

Margaret,

Apologies, upon rereading, my reply was too blunt.

However, from my understanding, you have a system installed that is less than 6 months old. At the time of handover to you, you believed it worked properly. Oddly, the installation engineer ( or someone after installation) told you to leave the immersion on all the time. That on reflection is the alarm bell that they could not get the hot water to function on a stand alone basis. My interpretation of that was that they had got confused with the wiring when installing Nest. That is probably the case, but I may be wrong.

The pictures of your installation show both poor workmanship and planning of pipework routes. whilst the latter is not a cardinal sin - it shows that the installer at the very minimum did not think through and plan how he /she was going to deliver a quality and visually attractive installation. There does not appear to be a return filter fitted ( which may be a requirement for the Valiant boiler warranty

I know it could still be wrong but I think the Nest was installed by British Gas. She quotes them on page 3 I think

 

[Margaret T]

Margaret,

Apologies, upon rereading, my reply was too blunt.

However, from my understanding, you have a system installed that is less than 6 months old. At the time of handover to you, you believed it worked properly. Oddly, the installation engineer ( or someone after installation) told you to leave the immersion on all the time. That on reflection is the alarm bell that they could not get the hot water to function on a stand alone basis. My interpretation of that was that they had got confused with the wiring when installing Nest. That is probably the case, but I may be wrong.

The pictures of your installation show both poor workmanship and planning of pipework routes. whilst the latter is not a cardinal sin - it shows that the installer at the very minimum did not think through and plan how he /she was going to deliver a quality and visually attractive installation. There does not appear to be a return filter fitted ( which may be a requirement for the Valiant boiler warranty).

The crossed pipes are either a sign of poor installation planning or reversing flow / return post installation.

Whatever the issue, it should be corrected by the installer. I woukd strongly advise you to write to the installer, setting out all the issues and give them 30 days to correct the installation. Thereafter ( assuming you are in England /Wales consider taking the case to the small claims court - it will cost you £55, which is refundable when you get an award. If the installer does not respond to the case, judgement will (in 90% of cases) be in your favour. Enforcing a judgement is quite straightforward

Is it fixable, of course it is, the question is always how much will it cost, to identify the issues and then correct them.

Was the engineer who came this week the original installer or a “new” set of eyes?

Hello Brambles, thanks for your response. Not at all rude, in terms of the sequence of:

January 2019 - no central heating - Air lock identified and said to turn the black switch at times (visit by the original installer)

February 2019 - no central heating + hot water (visit by the original installer and says to keep on constant)

March 2019 -
- beginning of the month - the original installer installed a shower pump
- mid month - no hot water (visit by original installer said small leak changed red valve)

April 2019
no hot water - visit by a valiant engineer (says nothing wrong with boiler and to contact original installer)
reoccurence no HW - visit by British gas (says replaced PCB and not registering demand)
reoccurence no HW - visit by British gas (says checked valves and cyclinder all clear)
30/04/2019 - visit by the original installer and can't seem to get the hot water to work on its own. Works fine when both CH + HW on together. Pipework in the kitchen changed from two straight pipes to now criss-cross. Says the water was reverse flowing before starting and still remains so even after the criss-cross change? No pipework touched in the hallway where the laminate flooring was laid. This was never touched prior to the installation.

The installer tried testing the CH + HW in 'purge' mode? Not sure what that it is and the issue remains present.

Thanks a lot.

 

[Margaret T]

I know it could still be wrong but I think the Nest was installed by British Gas. She quotes them on page 3 I think

The hive was installed by the original installer because it was all part of the package - valiant boiler + Hive. The boiler was first installed - then the hive was set up after by applying the timing Monday - Sunday schedule run. We work 9-5 so the installer set up the settings on hive. Hope this clarifies.