Disaster of the Week.

[solo]

Went to change a diverter valve on a WB 24CDi on Wednesday. Hadn't done one before and had heard they could be b******s to change but I had nowt else booked in for that day so no pressure. The boiler was fitted to an open vent system. Closed iso valves on boiler and opened drain points. No water. Decided to loosen the screws of the filling link connection to drain slowly into bucket. Water initially trickled out then gradually increased in pressure. Before I could react, WHOOSH, myself, the boiler and the kitchen were having a bath. The filling link connection would not go back into place so I resorted to removing it completely and plugging the hole with my finger. Now I was stuck. The lady of the house who had witnessed it all enquired as to what she could do to help. I asked her to turn the water off by the stop tap. It was seized. She then had to go to the main outside stop tap. She couldn't reach it so had to rummage in my van for my stop tap key. Water isolated, I was able to gradually drain down into a bucket. Obviously, one or both of the isolation valves had failed to close properly. The filling link failed to go back into place properly because one of the brass ferrrules had pulled out and the 'O' ring mysteriously vanished at the same time. I couldn't have soaked the boiler more if I'd swam the Channel with it strapped to my back. Everything was dried with a hair-dryer, but to be on the safe side it was left overnight before trying it out. Fired up first time. Mega sigh of relief. No more trusting boiler iso valves for me. Going to drain down completely in future. As for the customer, she was a star, and appeared a lot less bothered than I had been about the whole thing.

 

[nickso]

i had a similar incident on this boiler a few years back.

i now remove the pcb section entirely.....takes all of 5 minutes.

if it does go gurgle whoosh now, at least the pcb is safe

i also find the 24cdi is a little unpredicatable in general when its open vent.

 

[solo]

Even the pcb was a pain to remove. The metal back plate didn't want to come out at first and then it didn't want to go back in. All the little plastic pillars had to be replaced. The sytem was full of crud hence the reason why the drain points didn't function. BG install 10 years ago, replacing existing boiler. Can't see why they kept it open vent. If it had happened to anyone else I would have been PMSL. Ah well, at least no one drowned.

 

[nickso]

yeh those pcbs can be a pest to get out but i meant i removed the whole lot......its only two clips and disconnect the wires.

 

[solo]

Get what you mean now nickso. I'll be doing the same in future where there is a potential for accidental showering.

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

If I am thinking about the right one here I recall where the plug connects onto the pcb 2 yellow wires and 2 pink to the left side of the plug. These wires have a habit of coming adrift from the plug.

I had a spate of wetting pcb's about 6 months ago. Since then I bought a cheap hairdryer, 4 quid from Tesco's, to dry them out. Touch wood it is still in its packet.

 

[gas4you]

You've convinced me that I am right in never taking on repairs to worcesters other than a basic service