Plumbers In Birmingham

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My boiler broke yesterday and i have no hot water or heating how long does my landlord legaly ahve to repair it ??

You need to give him written notice that he needs to fix it! In the winter in NYC they legally only have 48 hrs max! In NYC we call 311 to complain about our landlords…I don’t know where you are, but if it is a larger city perhaps you have such a number or office you need to contact. The city will come out and fine him if he doesn’t repair it ASAP! Hope that helps you out!

Boiler appears to be cracked because when I fill it, water streams out the front where the burner is attached. Could have cracked last winter when the well pump went bad, house was empty and not winterized. This is in NJ. Stuck with oil because no gas in the street.
Boiler appears to be cracked because when I fill it, water streams out the front where the burner is attached. Could have cracked last winter when the well pump went bad, house was empty and not winterized. It’s about 75k BTUs output. This is in NJ. Stuck with oil because no gas in the street.

Sorry to say , but you’re going to have to buy a new boiler and the price to have it torn out /replaced will depend on how many BTUs that you’re looking for .

Boiler appears to be cracked because when I fill it, water streams out the front where the burner is attached. Could have cracked last winter when the well pump went bad, house was empty and not winterized. This is in NJ. Stuck with oil because no gas in the street.
Boiler appears to be cracked because when I fill it, water streams out the front where the burner is attached. Could have cracked last winter when the well pump went bad, house was empty and not winterized. It’s about 75k BTUs output. This is in NJ. Stuck with oil because no gas in the street.

Sorry to say , but you’re going to have to buy a new boiler and the price to have it torn out /replaced will depend on how many BTUs that you’re looking for .

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Expert: Tom Brintzenhofe
Bio: Tom Brintzenhofe has been a mechanic for the past 17 years.
Filmmaker: Reel Media LLC

Duration : 0:2:4

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Now the old boiler has some hammering noise and I was said that it’s better to set new one instead of repairing the old boiler. People say old back boiler repairing is an expensive job and advised me to change it.

Many thanks.

Read all the above – i get asked these questions a lot. Ok here is my 2 pence worth and i will try to keep it brief.

First point is the hammering kettling sound.
If its a hammering sound like a heavy chugging when its on HOT WATER ONLY (presuming its a grabity system – check your time control for a good rule of thumb – if it can only do 2 modes HOT WATER, HOT WATER & HEATING then its most likely a gravity system) then it is not circulating properly and is porobably filled up with sludge. Lovely lovely dark browny reddy sludge! Get it as hot as you can, drain it down, and wash, rinse. repeat untill it looks remotely like normal water!!
Ok this is where someone will jump on me to say get a powerflush. Yes they have a point BUT this is about saving money and going on the idea that you may want to flog the old girl for a bit longer. You can use something like Sentinel System cleaner, or Fernox heay duty sludge remover as an additive in your header tank as it refills to assist in cleaning all the crap out – this is a good idea as one way or another eventually the boiler will die and your system is more efficient heating water than heating sludge – kind of like heating a pan of water and a pan of soup!
Ok if its a kettling knocking sound you can buy an additive called Boiler Noise available in most merchants. In all honesty this is basically a less agressive version – and i have spoken to the Fernox Reps about this, a less agressive version of Washing Up liquid.
Any old time plumbers out there will have come across the use of a big dash of fairy liquid in the older cast iron heat exchanger boilers to overcome airlocks, especially on gravity systems but it is frowned upon. The idea is that it potentially can effect the ‘paper’ gaskets on the heat exchangers – so probably best sticking to the Fernox version! The additive creates foam which cushions the expansion and also creates a ’suckable’ slug of foam rather than just air which assists in the gravity eventually pulling round and becoming all water.
The final posibility is thaty the thermostat is knackered, and its getting rather hotter than it should! The Baxi 401 BBU is the most common one i have come across and this isnt unusual. Usually customers try turning it down to 1 and this tries to compensate for the thermostat being out of calibration and they live with having ridiculously hot water! This i dont advise. Easy way of knowing is set it on high, if oit bangs its nuts off then its knackered. Either replace the stat or save the money of the part and labour and put it towards a new boiler.

There is an old saying ‘Over specialise and you breed in weakness’. This is very true with a lot of the new boilers out at the moment. As the other posters have put very well is that most BBUs are simplicity itself on design (except the electronic ignition ones that they brought out later, still simple enough but you now have an expensive pcb to go wrong all for the sake of trying to be one notch up on the efficiency table – which on a bbu is a wasted effort) you will still be able to get the parts for the boiler for X ammount of years to come but if the heat exchanger becomes knackered then just dont bother fixing it – launch it. With a BBU you will certainly be in the category for the new boiler scrappage scheme to get £400 off the install of a new boiler and its a piece of cake to apply for (i have got 4 grants so far for my customers) just go to the Energy Saving Trust website and click on boiler scrappage and fill in the form. You will just need a quote from a QUALIFIED engineer with a GasSafe number first and a Gas Safe engineer needs to sign the form upon completion. Easy.

The main issue with BBUs that no one has mentioned is safety. I can honestly say that 80% of the BBUs i go to for the first time to service dont have enough ventillation. Say for instance it is running at its maximum which iiiiisss….65,000btu for the 401?? So 65k divided by 3412(btu to Kw conversion) gives you 19kw. Add on the fire fron running at the same time another ….6kw? is 25kw.
Take of 7kw for advantacious air is 18, then times by 5 (5 square cm of free air ventillation is required for every kw over 7kw in a normal room space out an external wall ((lets not get into cross ventillation!!!))) = 90 square cm of free ventillation out an external wall. Do you have this? If not GET IT! The biggest threat of BBUs and open flued appliances is lack of ventillation and monoxide threat. Oh and if its serviced by Gritish Bas dont take their word as law as i have written MANY a RIDDOR against those incompetant beurocratic imbeciles!
The new boilers are a lot lot safer (if installed correctly of course).

I personally like either Worcester or Veissman.

Dont by ANYTHING from B&Q!! or equivelant. Watermark or Plumbase are my faves. Plumbcenter are ok but priceyer than the above.

Most BBUs are around 60% efficient – so 40p of every £1 of gas you buy just goes up the chimney. Calculate your last years gas bill, take 40% of it, times by 2, and if you get over a grand then DEFINATELY change!!

Ok course of action. Get your boiler hot, drain down, chuck some system cleanser in it and refill a few times till it starts running clearer. Then the final time chuck in some boiler noise (*koff*..fairy liquid) on the last refill in the header tank as you are filling up. This will assist in quietening it down and you are also cleaning it up for a future install of a new condensing boiler.

Now…this is the bit that people wont like….if you have done the above well, then you probably dont need a powerflush. I used to Sub to Gritish Bas and a few of my good friends are in their empire and most of the powerflushing is a sales pitch. Their engineers get a bonus in their wages everyone they flog to a customer. They will tell you if you dont the system will break instantly, the radiators will leak, and the boiler will jump off the wall and kick the crap out of yopu in your sleep! Ok thats a slight exaggeration but only slight!!
Flush it out as clean as you can get using your old boiler as the workhorse, fit your new one, and fit either a Magnaclean (im a sceptic but even I have one of these on my system which i thought was spotless and it even pulled some out of my rads!!) or my new personal favourite the Fernox TF1 which has an even more powerful magnet, better design and shockingly slightly cheaper!!

Hope this is all encompassing.

Personally id be looking at a new one but you can keep these old things limping on (legally of course!) quite indefinately.
If you do keep it make sure you get a monoxide detector, make sure you have ventillation (doesnt count if its taped up!) and make sure you have it serviced every year as boilers can go from fine to lethal shockingly rapidly. Room sealed is best!

my boiler is 4 years old and has a boiler water level control on it that shut the boiler every 10 mins to check for proper water level than restarts. my boiler is shutting off much quicker and it takes a very long time to heat the house in the morning. i know this is not the proper way for the boiler to run. i need a reliable boiler repair company that works in the queens, new york area. thank you

Hello dear!
Since non answered yet, why don’t you try the Yellow Pages?

A number of symptoms can indicate a problem with a transmission, including grinding in gear changes, excessive gear noise, difficulty shifting or a burnt smell from the fluid. Check to see if a transmission is dealing with excessive friction with help from an auto mechanic in this free video on troubleshooting car problems.

Expert: J.B. Hebert
Contact: www.wrxtra.com
Bio: J.B. Hebert is a machinist, metal fabricator, and auto mechanic who has been fixing and modifying all things mechanical for over 20 years.
Filmmaker: David Pakman

Duration : 0:2:24

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