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[Terbs]

This is basically an update to a problem I mentioned in another post.....As TB stated, my heating system was changed from 'standard' to a Combi boiler, a Baxi to be precise. We were only getting warm water at the taps, but the rads were well hot. Got heating engineers in, said it was a heat exchanger panel, put a new one in, charged me £203 and its made no difference. They are now quoting £212 plus 86.50 an hour labour to fit a diverter valve. !!!! I have been checking up, and it seems that these valves have a replaceable cartridge which only costs a few pounds. Same for the motor that sits on top. I just watched a video on how to change the cartridge and motor, and it looks pretty easy.
Point is, do I feel confident to do it, and ....am I legally allowed to do it. I don't think it involves gas, just the water side.
All advice welcome....

Here is a strange thing......when we use the shower, the water is really hot. To run a bath of hot water, you have to run the shower, turn on the bath tap, the water is hot, then starts to cool, so you turn off the tap for a minute, then turn it on again, and get hot water again. You carry on this practice until the bath level is how you want it !!! I don't understand how, unless there is a hidden heating unit for the shower somewhere......

[STEMO]

The shower is probably a cold feed, Tony, with a built in heating element. Most are.

[STEMO]

Until you get the boiler fixed, try running the bath with less pressure at the tap. The boiler will probably cope with a lower flow rate.

[YZ250]

How did they explain that a faulty heat exchanger still got the rads hot.   

Tony, can you describe your set up as it will hopefully help to diagnose it.

We’ve established that it’s a Combi Boiler but:
Does it still have a hot water cylinder in the system, like a system boiler?
What tanks are in the loft, if any?
What type of shower do you have, power (fed from hot water cylinder) or electric?
These may seem strange questions when a combi is fitted but the houses where my daughter lives have a combi boiler, and the hot water cylinder, and a cold water storage in the loft but no header tank.

Just trying to establish if your shower is asking for hot water and it shares the same pipe work as your bath, so when you run the shower and then the bath, the bath just uses what’s in the pipe work until it runs cold again. 
If no gas is involved and if you feel that the work is within your capabilities then go for it.    I do actually know a very good, very honest heating engineer/plumber but I’m not sure he travels that far out. Even though he lives in MK, his main long term customers are in the Aylesbury, Thame and surrounding villages as he originates from Aylesbury but he stayed loyal to his customer base even when he moved to MK.

[Terbs]

Thanks for the reply.....I am pretty sure there are no tanks in the loft. No other boilers etc. The shower is in the En Suite in the back bedroom. Nearest to the boiler is the family bathroom. The supply to the shower (to me) is a pipe coming through the tiles to the tap.
Just don't understand how madam has lovely hot showers, and my baths are cold. Tried running the tap in the sink downstairs, must have run ten gallons, and still only got tepid water !!

[YZ250]

No airing cupboard hot cylinder then? As Stemo said, the shower must have its own heat element source. It may share some pipework with the bath hot feed but won’t get hot on its own without the shower element being switched on. 
Anyway, the main issue is your boiler problem. Could well be the diverter as this is what I’d go for with the same issue on a system boiler, only it would likely be in the airing cupboard in that case. Does the price of the part make it a no brainer to have a go yourself and is there no come-back on the engineers for the mis-diagnosis.

[Sir Tigger KC]

How old is your Baxi Tony? What model is it and is it a condensing one?

When you run the hot water tap on the bath, what does the boiler do?  Does it start up and run OK? Or does it start up and stop, start up and stop, start up and stop etc?

Same question for the shower.....

It's probably/possibly got two heat exchangers. The main one for the central heating and a smaller secondary one for the hot water.

I had a Ideal condensing combi that wasn't heating the water properly (CH was fine) and it turned out that the secondary heat exchanger was scaled up. I pulled it out, and flushed it with some descaler a couple of times to get the worst of the crap out and then left it in a bucket of descaler over night. Put it all back together in the morning and the water was piping hot!  The descaler was ordinary kettle descaler from the super market and cost about £1.75! 

Not saying this is your issue though and it sounds like your gas man has looked at the heat exchanger anyway.  Although I'm not sure what you meant by 'heat exchanger panel'

[YZ250]

……..
It's probably/possibly got two heat exchangers. The main one for the central heating and a smaller secondary one for the hot water.
……

Ah good point, I’d forgotten about the smaller heat exchanger. I remember now, changing one on my daughter’s boiler in her first house. It was about £90 in 2017 and the call-out fee was £90 so it was worth a punt and it paid off.
I haven’t got a combi so apologies if I’ve misled you.

[ronnyd]

Are you an owner/occupier or renting? Not being nosy, but just wondering if it's your reponsibility or not and if it's down to you to fix.

[TheBoy]

Silly Q, does the boiler have different temp settings for heating and water, and is the water one set right.  I'm guessing that's been checked by the  idiot that came, but seeing as he didn't know his arse from his elbow....

You are perfectly allowed to work on your own boiler, even the gas side, if you are "competent".  I wouldn't necessarily recommend you do touch the gas side though!

[TheBoy]

Are you an owner/occupier or renting? Not being nosy, but just wondering if it's your reponsibility or not and if it's down to you to fix.

Terbs is not to be trusted with any responsibility. He can't even be trusted by the ever patient Mrs Terbs to leave the freezer on....

[TheBoy]

I've got a number of boiler service and install manuals, if you let us know the Baxi model, if I have it, I can put the manual somewhere for somebody to have a look at it to help

[Terbs]

Thanks for all the responses, I'll check the boiler and report.
As a footnote....since my disastrous episodes with the freezer, and have only fubared once since, that was forgetting to shut the door, but that was discovered before anything started to melt !!!

[Terbs]

Are you an owner/occupier or renting? Not being nosy, but just wondering if it's your responsibility or not and if it's down to you to fix.

I/We are the owners of the property.
I also had a go at the heating company, but was like getting blood from a stone.
Heat exchange panel is the terminology the engineer used 

[ronnyd]

Do you have a water priority/heating priority switch on your programmer? I have warm air heating so i don't know much about these new fangled combi boilers.