The Good News / Bad News Thread

[Kim]

Further boiler news: We've heard from the agency that we're going to hear from some random (presumably lowest-bidder) gas company to install a Worcester Greenstar 4000/25.  I hope they're not too shoddy.

[Canardly]

Worcester make decent boilers.

[Kim]

It's not the boiler's shoddiness that I'm worried about.

[Canardly]

They are not the cheapest either. 

[Polar Bear]

Central heating stopped functioning this morning. I can’t get anyone to look at it until Tuesday. I believe the condensation conduit to have become blocked. I’ve put a take-away plastic box under the boiler to catch the drips. I noticed last week that we had a damp patch on the outside wall where the boiler is mounted.

I checked the header tank this morning. There is still plenty of water in that.

Fortunately we can heat two rooms to a comfortable temperature with a fan heater and two oil-filled radiators. It could be a lot worse.

New boiler time. Heat exchanger leaking. Oddly, it's intermittent and our Man explained that it's down to the extra pressure when the water is at its hottest.

It's PITA because I was hoping this boiler would see us through this winter then I'd research air source heat pumps. But we can't be doing without for the next few months. It looks as though we are going for a Baxi 800 with a 10 year guarantee. Hopefully this bugger will see me into my 80s.

Wow,

We recently had the heat exchanger replaced on our 20+ year old Vaillant combi (pre condensing).  It cost less than £400 including a replacement fill loop and all done in under an hour.

My plan is to look at ASHPs too and I've been experimenting with how low an output temp from the boiler I can use to heat the house.  It works very well at 55 which puts us in range of an ASHP.  I am also hoping that the boiler lasts for another couple of years whilst I research these "batteries" that deal with the domestic hot water requirement.  We'll be needing one of them too.

[Kim]

GN: We've been contacted by the random boiler-installers.
BN: They're coming on Monday.

[Mrs Pingu]

Gosh that is quick.

[barakta]

Gosh that is quick.

That's cos as a landlord they're under legal obligations to fix stuff within 24 hours cos it involves hot water... Which they'll miss by about 6 days, 4 of them thanks to the landlord, and arguably it should have been replaced as discussed after the last repair where it wasn't economical to repair it and was known to be dying.

But yes, if we owned the house, we'd probably not get as quick a fix, but we'd have somewhat more control on decisions and which installer did it. We'll see if this one is useless or OK.

[Mrs Pingu]

Gosh that is quick.

That's cos as a landlord they're under legal obligations to fix stuff within 24 hours cos it involves hot water... Which they'll miss by about 6 days, 4 of them thanks to the landlord, and arguably it should have been replaced as discussed after the last repair where it wasn't economical to repair it and was known to be dying.

But yes, if we owned the house, we'd probably not get as quick a fix, but we'd have somewhat more control on decisions and which installer did it. We'll see if this one is useless or OK.

For your sake I'm hoping that the availability of said boiler installer at short notice does not equal them being pants.

[Kim]

For your sake I'm hoping that the availability of said boiler installer at short notice does not equal them being pants.

I'm reasonably sure that the fact they're not the usual known-good agency gas man, who was ready to do the job at the end of last week before the landlord started quibbling about pipes, means they're going to be.

[Mrs Pingu]

[Wowbagger]

We're going for a new boiler, one of these, I think. https://www.baxi.co.uk/our-boilers/heat-only-boilers/baxi-800-heat Chap is coming to fit it on Tuesday. It's going to be cold next week.

We've been managing for the past week or more with a couple of oil-filled radiators, a fan heater and a rather good convection heater borrowed rom by good friend Penelope. We've only been heating two rooms but it's been ok, except that I haven't felt like playing the piano when the temperature in there is only about 14°C. We take the fan heater up to the bedroom about half an hour before we go to bed.

[mrcharly-YHT]

GN  It is gloriously snowy outside. Crisp and dry.

BN I still have a bloody chest virus, even 5 min outside didn't feel good.

GN  Snow is supposed to persist until Wed.

[Polar Bear]

BN:  after my shower on Saturday I came down to the kitchen to find water flowing around one of the flush ceiling lights and down onto the worktop below.

GN:  it very quickly stopped indicating that it's not a high pressure side leak.

More GN:  a test by pouring water directly down the shower tray drain resulted in no repeat performances in the kitchen.

Even more GN:  as we have a separate bath we are not going smelly.

I have been thinking about the state of the silicone and grout and even bought a few tools and bit in preparation for a rake out and re-grout and seal so perhaps my concerns were justified.

I'll add this to the round tuit list.

[mrcharly-YHT]

BN:  after my shower on Saturday I came down to the kitchen to find water flowing around one of the flush ceiling lights and down onto the worktop below.

GN:  it very quickly stopped indicating that it's not a high pressure side leak.

More GN:  a test by pouring water directly down the shower tray drain resulted in no repeat performances in the kitchen.

Even more GN:  as we have a separate bath we are not going smelly.

I have been thinking about the state of the silicone and grout and even bought a few tools and bit in preparation for a rake out and re-grout and seal so perhaps my concerns were justified.

I'll add this to the round tuit list.

We have a constant, similar problem in our house in York.

I re-grouted tiles. Re-grouted silicone.

Oddly, it only happened when certain people showered . . .

Eventually traced it to how they were showering (got them to show me where they pointed the shower head). They were directing a lot of the flow against the shower screen, which passed over the bath. The bath-screen interface couldn't cope and it overflowed the edge of the bath.

Solution; shoot children.

[CAMRAMan]

That reminds me of my daughter. After she finishes her shower she points the shower head towards the curtain so that it spurts all over me when I turn it on.

[Peter]

This may be a hereditary deficiency and can be solved by observing the shower head before turning the water on.  How's your boy, by the way?

[Kim]

GN:  We have a new boiler, and hence hot water.  Barakta eagerly anticipates her first bath of the year.
BN:  I discovered a First Law of Engineering problem about an hour after the installer left.  Fortunately just condensate.
GN:  The installer was decent, I believe subcontracted out by the usual gasman.  Pipes are very neat, but sadly still exist, so I expect the landlord with still moan.
BN:  I got round to cleaning up the mouldy wall behind the washing machine.  It was this: Minging.  Have marinated the nexus of structural anagylpta and un-flaked paint in didecyldimethylammonium chloride (HT: Mrs Pingu), which might prevent a re-occurrence.
GN:  As part of the pipe-tidying endeavour, the washing machine hot fill tap has been removed, creating enough space for the washing machine.  I'm optimistic that the fridge may now fit without being chocked up on breeze blocks.
BN:  The new boiler has its own proprietary wireless thermostat/timer.  There isn't anywhere convenient to wire my Shelly for internet-of-shit control.

[CAMRAMan]

This may be a hereditary deficiency and can be solved by observing the shower head before turning the water on.  How's your boy, by the way?

He doesn't do such a silly thing! He does - hopefully did - lots of other silly stuff. Given the choice, I'd have a dousing every time!

He's out of rehab and going to AA/CA meetings. Early days, but cautious optimism. Thanks for asking.

[Tim Hall]

GN: My fixer frame is back from the powder coaters.
More GN: It looks Very Lovely.
BN: I am out in London's famous London tonight so can't start reassembly
GN: I'm off to the BBC to watch Brian Cox and chums get recorded.

[Jurek]

GN: My fixer frame is back from the powder coaters.
More GN: It looks Very Lovely.
BN: I am out in London's famous London tonight so can't start reassembly
GN: I'm off to the BBC to watch Brian Cox and chums get recorded.

Is this the M Steel?
What colour?

[Mrs Pingu]

@Kim, hope that is mostly net win.

[Mrs Pingu]

Regarding my last mouldy cupboard post:
https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=124709.msg2776408#msg2776408

Before xmas I took delivery of some Granocryl and some paste, but not the insulation panels to be applied using said paste as they went missing in transit (thanks, APC). So my holiday project did not happen.
After multiple phone calls and emails the supplier finally said today they would send out a replacement batch tomorrow. So with a bit of luck I can try insulating the cupboard soon.

[Tim Hall]

GN: My fixer frame is back from the powder coaters.
More GN: It looks Very Lovely.
BN: I am out in London's famous London tonight so can't start reassembly
GN: I'm off to the BBC to watch Brian Cox and chums get recorded.

Is this the M Steel?
What colour?

It is. Some kind of Ultramarine blue, gloss finish. I've got a RAL number somewhere. I wanted IKB but that's somewhat tricky ...

[Wowbagger]

GN: My fixer frame is back from the powder coaters.
More GN: It looks Very Lovely.
BN: I am out in London's famous London tonight so can't start reassembly
GN: I'm off to the BBC to watch Brian Cox and chums get recorded.

Is this the M Steel?
What colour?

It is. Some kind of Ultramarine blue, gloss finish. I've got a RAL number somewhere. I wanted IKB but that's somewhat tricky ...

I bet it's pink.