has anyone seen one of these leak?

[southcoastboile]

hope you can see the pictures, anyway, i went to a job today to work on a glowworm boiler, i found a hole that is on the plastic manifold between the heat exchanger and the condence trap, it looks as if it has melted but hard to tell, the picture shows the black plastic piece that is screwed to the bottom of the heat exchanger (this is the bit that is leaking). I will ring glowworm tomorrow to discuss but just wondered if anyone else has seen this before? knowing manufacturers like to rob you blind i imagine they will tell me this piece doesn't come seperate to the main heat exchanger. Thanks !

 

[southcoastboile]

forgot to say i just covered it in lsx for now, thats why you can see that in the pic

 

[SimonJohns]

looks to me like a flue sump,

may pass of melted if boiler was dry fired

 

[Barry98]

new one on me fella

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

looks like a flue sump to me as well boiler is ID if its leaking,glowworms are nasty bits of tat

 

[southcoastboile]

yeah think it is the sump like you say, couldn't see any reason why it would be hot anywere near it and i serviced it last year and never noticed anything. it could be possible it was dry fired at some point and it could have caused it, has a pressure switch on it so wont fire under 0.7 bar or whatever but a possibility i spose, thanks for reply

 

[southcoastboile]

customer wouldn't let me turn it off, thats 2 i had today, had another one who refused even though i only had 8mbar wp at meter, phoned southern gas and they changed guvoner so had to wait for them to turn up so i could set up bp correctly, got there quicker than usual as customer refused to turn it off. Showed me the guvoner that had collapsed inside.

 

[Puddle]

looks like a flue sump to me as well boiler is ID if its leaking,glowworms are nasty bits of tat

they do seem to have a lot of plastic components that are not made very well,bit bad if you can not even get a bit of plastic cast right !!

Once you have it out scb let us know if faulty cast or melted,would think probably poor quality control :shocked:

 

[SimonJohns]

customer wouldn't let me turn it off, thats 2 i had today, had another one who refused even though i only had 8mbar wp at meter, phoned southern gas and they changed guvoner so had to wait for them to turn up so i could set up bp correctly, got there quicker than usual as customer refused to turn it off. Showed me the guvoner that had collapsed inside.

If the flue is leaking that's ID. surely??

 

[southcoastboile]

yeah i will do, i like the new glowworms just not this model as nothing is accsesible and getting the burner out is a joke. I am betting they will not sell the sump seperate and a relatively cheap job will turn into a costly one. Lucky for customer its on insurance.

 

[southcoastboile]

yes simon you are right, i should have notified emergency gas supplier but i managed to seal it well enough with lsx and customer not happy with turning it off

 

[Rossi46]

quite common. the electrode gets too hot and falls down into sump and melts it. a new sump comes with a primary hex and its about £300. not nice to change either.

 

[southcoastboile]

realy! thanks for that, i will order a new elecrode then (fires up ok, quiet ignition etc), be intresting to see if thats the case, yeah looks nasty to change the whole thing, would you not recomend changing just the sump and electrode then rossi?

 

[Mbear]

I'm almost positive I've seen this b4. Iirc We found a nut or washer or snapped electrode piece that had fallen to the base of the flue sump. We summised (spelling ?) that The nut/washer coupled with the intense heat provided by the downward firing burner caused the sump to burn through and obviously start leaking condi water. It wasn't my job but I went along to lend a hand with it.

 

[southcoastboile]

ok, definitly seems feasible, take it you changed the complete thing then mbear? im hoping i may get away with replacing just the sump. Will have to ask glowworm if this is ok.

 

[Mbear]

Ye full h/e and obviously spark ekectrode, can't mind if ekectrode came with h/e though mate. As I say it wasn't my job, I went along to help diagnose and then back to help replace

 

[Mbear]

Ps meant to say I'm sure sump and h/e come as one when u order it

 

[GrahamM]

As mentioned the sump is integral to the HEX and unfortunately comes as one unit.
Agreed they are plastic crappy boilers.
For future reference, any part of the flue system that is damaged in this maner is ID. You do not want to get caught out here. Cut & Cap and if customer gives any hassle what so ever after fully being made aware of the situation, call the supply boys out and have them cap meter.

 

[southcoastboile]

spoke to my mate who works for glowworm today, he said it is a design fault with the boiler, you do need to change the whole thing and he has done loads, he also said he has found nothing when removing sump so rather then it being an electrode snapped its more of a design fault. Also, usefull bit of info, depending on the serial number glowworm will renew the heat exchnager as its a manufacturing defect. Removing the sump is not an option as it was never designed to be removed (even though its possible) you cant guarantee a seal. Anyway, hope this helps someone out. Will let you no what happens.

 

[TipTop]

oh yes mate..was big problem with these....and lsx doesn't fix what should be ID situation...are you qualified??

 

[southcoastboile]

thanks tip top i do realise that

 

[Toned.f]

spoke to my mate who works for glowworm today, he said it is a design fault with the boiler, you do need to change the whole thing and he has done loads, he also said he has found nothing when removing sump so rather then it being an electrode snapped its more of a design fault. Also, usefull bit of info, depending on the serial number glowworm will renew the heat exchnager as its a manufacturing defect. Removing the sump is not an option as it was never designed to be removed (even though its possible) you cant guarantee a seal. Anyway, hope this helps someone out. Will let you no what happens.

Design fault.....are they replacing the part for free then??

 

[southcoastboile]

rang glowworm today, the serial number is known to be of a faulty batch so glowworm are going to attend friday and replace the part for free, even though the boiler is 5 years old.

 

[southcoastboile]

Had another flexicom 30cx with exactly the same fault again today, glowworm are going to ring the customer in the morning (aparantly) to let her know if she is covered under warranty or not.

 

[mfgs]

Cheers for the info, I've never heard of this before. Have you got any pics of the hole? has it been in the same place both times? Hope you capped it off this time and didnt LSX it though lol.

 

[southcoastboile]

this time it hadn't gone all the way through and it was slightly more twords the back of the boiler, i didnt cap it off but it will be before glowworm come back to inspect, i apreciate this isn't the best way to operate but i want to keep my customers happy and it is saf in my opinion, just opened a can of worms i suspect

 

[mfgs]

Your call as the engineer on site, and you standing up in court should the worst happens. I would rather cap it off and have an upset customer, than have it jeopardise my career.

 

[southcoastboile]

totaly agree with you and if i felt the apliance posed any danger it would be turned off, i have id'd 3 appliances this week alone and the customers safety is paramount, on this ocassion i have deemed the apliance is safe to use untill the part is replaced.

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

as said its the engineers responsibility on site to make the call to ID or not,so its in his/hers opinion if its safe,we have all learned from south coasts post that there is a big problem with this boiler that we should all be aware of