Discuss Problems with smells and question about flushing out radiators in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

Messages
14
Hello All,
I have been having just the worst problems with the heating system where I am renting a house. The smells that the boiler and radiators put out have been doing me in, both physically and mentally. I, by the way, know really nothing about boilers. I am just trying to survive all of this, as I have breathing problems and the smells make it difficult to breath and I am vomiting, getting headaches, having a difficult time sleeping, as I have to barricade myself in my bedroom at night to keep the smells out, and put towels underneath the door, etc.

The basic problem is that it works alright for a certain amount of hours when I put the boiler on a certain setting, but then the smells begin. And the only way to get rid of the smell is to change the settings on the boiler. It doesn't seem to matter what settings I change it to, as long as I change it. This makes me wonder if it is overheating? I know they had to change the expansion vessel, whatever that is, because I asked them to check the fan and it started making alot of noise.

Also, besides the regular sort of 'fuel oil' type smells, it puts out gas smells and it immediately goes away whenever I go turn the gas meter off. But when I call the emergency place with the gas provider they say they can not find a leak.

The kitchen radiator now has black water, and a bitter smell, and it burns my eyes. This happens sort of off and on. I looked it up online and it says the radiators should be flushed out or it can get clogged up, both the radiators and the boiler? But the repair man just always says it is a contained system. But aren't they all?

They put in a new radiator in the hallway, the bedroom, and the living room, but still the smells. To me it is obviously from the boiler. When I first moved in, the kitchen around the radiator smelled like gas. But then once I started using the heater after awhile it went away. And the living room and hallway radiators were both making clunking noises when I first moved in too, and it ended up that there was a bunch of brown wet mucky stuff on the living room floor under the living room radiator where the end knob is. It stopped eventually, at least the noise part of it, anyway.

Both the hallway and bedroom radiators were putting out a chemical smell when I moved in and kept doing it, till finally I had to just turn them both off, and keep them off ever since then.

They put in a new living room radiator but made it where it wouldn't put out heat and where I couldn't be able to turn it off if it put out smells, making both ends the same with no way to turn it off. They finally fixed it the other day so I could be able to have heat in the living room, I was freezing cold. Also the brand new radiator they put in the bedroom started leaking. I had only tried using it a couple of times and noticed a brown spot at the end of it, on the carpeting, and tried it again and noticed it was also wet, and I felt behind it and it was all wet. They came and fixed that but won't do anything about the kitchen radiator with the bitter smells and black water that is burning my eyes.

Can anyone please give me any insights into this, because the Landlord and their boss are coming here in a couple of weeks to discuss this with me; this is after months and months of me having to endure this. I finally started putting in formal complaints about it all.
 
Last edited:
What sort of boiler do you have this sound very worrying especially if it's a old open flue boiler my advice turn it off immediately ! and please don't use it until it is checked by a gas safe registered company , a landlord has legal requirement to have the boiler and any other gas appliances fitted in the property serviced every 12 months and a safety check carried out you shoud have a copy issued to you a CP12 , please put a picture up of your boiler this is very serious please please do not use it till it is checked. Kop
 
What sort of boiler do you have this sound very worrying especially if it's a old open flue boiler my advice turn it off immediately ! and please don't use it until it is checked by a gas safe registered company , a landlord has legal requirement to have the boiler and any other gas appliances fitted in the property serviced every 12 months and a safety check carried out you shoud have a copy issued to you a CP12 , please put a picture up of your boiler this is very serious please please do not use it till it is checked. Kop

Thank you, Kop for your reply.

They did check it for the annual gas safety check. They claim there is nothing wrong with the boiler.

It is a Worcester Greenstar Boiler MT10. I don't have any idea if it is an open flu boiler. I can see the pipes underneath it that you use to put more water in it to increase the water pressure.

I want to turn it off, believe me, but it is getting increasingly cold in here, and I have put in one complaint after another to them but they really just tell me there is nothing wrong with it. It smells usually alot worse at night for some reason, but when I call the emergency place so that they can witness the smells, they just tell me to turn it off and they will send someone out in the morning, but by then the smell will have gone away. It is very frustrating. And the thing is that no matter what I do, if I turn off the button for the boiler at the wall socket or even unplug it, then after awhile it will start putting off smells again. I end up having to turn off the gas meter. It is just a nightmare. I have even offered to buy a new boiler but they won't put a new one in. I just really don't know what to do. I am concerned not only for my own health and safety for for that of the neighbor below me, as I live in an upstairs flat.

The Head told me the other day that he would agree to have me call him at night to come out and verify the smells, and claims that he would know straightaway if they were caused by the boiler. He said he would do this if his Boss gives him permission. However, he has said things like this before, such as when he said he would see about if he could put in new radiators but that he had to find out from his Boss first if it were okay. Then I never hear back from him, unless I just keep on pressuring them. This puts me in a very awkward position, because I have only lived here for 1 year and am having problems trying to find another place to live, and don't want them kicking me out for complaining so much and ending up homeless.

I don't have picture taking capabilities on my mobile phone. Or else I'd show you the boiler. I just know they used to have a white board box around the bottom part of it where the pipes are, but the repair man who had fixed the extractor fan in the kitchen had taken it off when he fixed it because dust had gotten all down in the boiler and had to clean it out, and left the box thing unglued afterwards. I don't know what you mean by an open flue or what that looks like, or where it would be located?
 
I just wanted to add that I thought it was kind of strange that when I first moved in here, and for months, the Water Pressure gage on the Boiler was just about down to nothing, almost in the red zone.

I knew nothing about boilers and I mentioned it. Then a repair man came out here and they put the water pressure way up without letting me know. And I noticed right away that the smells in the living room had become worse. This caused me to wonder if they purposely had the water pressure down low so that the Tenant that moved in wouldn't realize how bad it really was? Like perhaps having the water pressure way up would make the smells radiate out in the rooms or something? Like I say, I really know nothing about this, so I don't know. But I contacted the Worcester place Online and asked about it and they said that having the water pressure down so low would make it work inefficiently. So I would have thought that they'd of put it at the correct water preesure level before having me move in there?

Also, just as a side note, recently I was talking to a lady in this same complex and she told me that when she first moved in to her house here, it smelled like gas in the kitchen, around the boiler area, and I said, "same with me!"
 
What emergency place are you calling?

Hi Scott,

This is a Housing Association, and they have the regular number to call for repairs and then they have the day and nighttime emergency phone number as well.

And so, I have tried 3 times in the middle of the night to call them but they always say the same thing to me.
 
As I said get it checked I would go as far as calling the emergency gas service better to be safe it costs you nothing if you dont it could cost you a lot more . Kop

Screenshot_20181103-075636.png
 
As I said get it checked I would go as far as calling the emergency gas service better to be safe it costs you nothing if you dont it could cost you a lot more . Kop

View attachment 35266

Yes, I have already called the Gas Company, and every time they come out, they claim there is nothing wrong with it.

However, the last time they came out, which for the first time was during the day, the Man said he would do tests on it. So he went downstairs and did that, and claimed that there was nothing wrong with it. And after that I noticed that the Gas smell part of all of this seemed to have stopped. But then it started up again.

Ever since just a couple of days ago when the repair man fixed the living room and bedroom radiators, there was only a faint gas smell in the living room for awhile hours after turning on the heater, but that went away and I actually didn't have to go down to turn off the gas this time.
 
Last edited:

Reply to Problems with smells and question about flushing out radiators in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

Similar plumbing topics

My living room smells like a sewer but I can't tell where it is coming from. Not sure where to start looking. The saniflo discharge pipe runs...
Replies
1
Views
136
Hello, We live in an 18 year old town house on three floors and have lived here from new. We changed the downstairs cloakroom and the family...
Replies
0
Views
548
About 10 months I started having issues with a gas like smell in my home and the gas board was unable to find any gas leak I've still got the...
Replies
10
Views
841
Hi All, In Dec 2023 I had my annual boiler service and asked the plumber to change 2 radiator valves as the radiator in the toilet downstairs was...
Replies
7
Views
527
I have a slightly undersized radiator in my living room. The calculation says 6315 btus and my rad is 6019 btus. It was a replacement radiator...
Replies
1
Views
343
Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock