Baxi 105e advice please

[stonedagain]

I have a Baxi 105e, about 6 years old now. Recently the domestic hot water is not very hot when running a bath when the heating is on, but if I turn the heating off the water heats up ok. A guy who services the heating systems for the local council does a bit of work "on the side" had a look at it & changed a diaphram in the boiler, but the old one that came out was ok. He mentioned a possible blockage in the heat exchanger. I found this thread: http://www.ukplumbersforums.co.uk/c...ler-ch-fine-water-heating-poor.html#post40427
Is cleaning this filter a DIY job?
thanks in advance

 

[wards]

"on the side"you do realise that if anything goes wrong you will not be covered,call out someone who is covered to help you out,i know times are hard but if you want something doing call out the professionals.

 

[newbie1]

as above so many people that do on the side usually means not qualified and more importantly not insured
wld seem likely hot water heat exchanger is struggling

 

[stonedagain]

as above so many people that do on the side usually means not qualified and more importantly not insured
wld seem likely hot water heat exchanger is struggling

The guy is qualified, he works for the local council, repairing & replacing ch systems. Anyway I have checked the filter for the plate heat exchanger & it was spotless. Could the plate heat exchanger be partially blocked? If so, can it be cleaned out or will it need to be replaced? The only way the dhw gets piping hot is with the temperature knob turned up full & the tap on the cold water supply to the boiler turned halfway off, to reduce the flow. Also today I have just added some x400 to clean out the heating system.

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

yes it can be cleaned,vinegar is quite successful,you may also have a gunked up ntc[thermister]on the dhw

 

[stonedagain]

yes it can be cleaned,vinegar is quite successful,you may also have a gunked up ntc[thermister]on the dhw

Can the thermistor be tested with a multimeter?

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

yes it can,dont know the resistance though as i carry these as spares i just plug one in to test,i think its about 11kohms cold but as i said its easier to plug one in

 

[Mackattak]

Thermistor readings will vary depending on the temp of the water. Ring Baxi and ask what the reading should be and check the temp of the water with your thermometer against the reading of the NTC. Make sure you pull the wire of the NTC to get a reading.

 

[oldplumber]

we are now advising a non registered person to mess about with safety devices on a gas appliance, is this what we were taught to do on all the courses we paid for. the person asking the question has a guy on the side my advice would be to ask to see his insurance certificate and gas safe card to see he can work on my boiler then get him to do so, after all he has already charged once and seemingly not completed the job successefully, call him back

 

[newbie1]

have to say i totally agree with old plumber
do not think that advice on boiler repair should be handed out for all and sundry to have a go
and you can guarantee the on the sider doesnt have his own public liability or personal gas safe reg

 

[oldplumber]

with a tag like stonedagain should he be touching anything?????

 

[peteh20]

thought this was a plumbers forum not a bit on the side forum, giving customers advice is all well and good but lets try and keep plumbers plumbing and bodgers and hopefuls wanting

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

thought this was a plumbers forum not a bit on the side forum, giving customers advice is all well and good but lets try and keep plumbers plumbing and bodgers and hopefuls wanting

so if you asked,how would i know if your gsr then,what if i ignored your questions or anyone else for that matter you can call your self what you like on a forum

 

[newbie1]

i think the prob is some people are asking gas related questions and then having a go themselves this sometimes can verge on dangerous

some questions asked recently are plain frightening
one wanted to run flue into loft knock a few bricks out join to the flue used by the gas fire and wack some cement round it and wasnt even joking how dangerous can you get again diy on boilers really isnt to be encouraged in all honesty is it

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

i think the prob is some people are asking gas related questions and then having a go themselves this sometimes can verge on dangerous

some questions asked recently are plain frightening
one wanted to run flue into loft knock a few bricks out join to the flue used by the gas fire and wack some cement round it and wasnt even joking how dangerous can you get again diy on boilers really isnt to be encouraged in all honesty is it

see the point could not believe the flue in to a chimney question,see my reply to that one,thats how gobsmacked i was

 

[newbie1]

i like to steer people more to using an engineer
its not to be awkward but firmly blve tinkering inside a boiler is dangerous
ie you change a plate heat exchanger but disturb the gas without realising it and then think all ok and fire the boiler up

 

[peteh20]

so if you asked,how would i know if your gsr then,what if i ignored your questions or anyone else for that matter you can call your self what you like on a forum

all enginneers have a problem now and then with a boiler and these forums are a great source of experience from all. However i appriciate it is impossible to vet people on there credentials within a forum. We (heating engineers) always try to help customers and with the good intentions and it back fires on us always happy to quote gsr and oftec numbers

 

[mickyq]

Can I just add last year my DHW stopped working. it took a boiler engineer 10 mins to change a £5 diaphram and charged me £70. on the side or DIY sounds good to me.

 

[hamish72]

Can I just add last year my DHW stopped working. it took a boiler engineer 10 mins to change a £5 diaphram and charged me £70. on the side or DIY sounds good to me.

Add to the time spent and parts cost
transport cost and time to reach you
cost of training
cost of tools and test equipment
cost of insurance
costs of premises
and so on

soon makes 70 sound reasonable

 

[prs1]

and the piece of mind that a professional has responded to you request and carried out a sucsessful repair,they also check the operation of safty devices which are there to protect you and your family-Do it your self and miss a broken seal or something else-come on have some respect for your family-people just dont realise what there tinkering with at times.
Extreme case what if mr nextdoor fixes his own boiler wrongly and it blows up taking your house with it? At least it didnt cost him 70 quid.
Some People!
Coming up for air now!

 

[wards]

and the piece of mind that a professional has responded to you request and carried out a sucsessful repair,they also check the operation of safty devices which are there to protect you and your family-Do it your self and miss a broken seal or something else-come on have some respect for your family-people just dont realise what there tinkering with at times.
Extreme case what if mr nextdoor fixes his own boiler wrongly and it blows up taking your house with it? At least it didnt cost him 70 quid.
Some People!
Coming up for air now!

this is an all too common perception from joe public,they all think a repair should be done for next to nothing,as you have already pointed out we all have expenses to pay out before we even attend a job,so if we charge say £60+ parts for an hours work they believe we are on £60 an hour,yeh right,we all know this is not the caserant over

 

[Puddle]

As said

The plumber did a good honest job and charged a fair price

No doubt if shark had done job,replaced diagram,pcb and a few thermistors,spent 4 hours messing about and charged £600,some customers would have thought they have had value for money over the plumber who has done job correctly
Thats life