3 year old Warmflow U90 oil fired boiler - knackered already??

m666bel · Nov 11, 2009

Hi,

Sorry, I'm not a plumber but am looking for some advice re my boiler - any help much appreciated!

I have a 3 year old Warmflow U90 boiler with Riello RDB 2.2 burner. It was making strange metallic banging noises so I got the plumber who fitted it (OFTEC registered) to come out and look at it. To cut a long story short, over the period of a week, and after servicing it (clearing out the soot/coke in the baffles I think), cleaning the photo sensitive cell, changing the pressure jet (nozzle?) and taking the whole flue out and cleaning it out (it goes up the chimney and out the stack), today he finally says he's found the problem and that the heat exchanger is leaking/broken. He shows me wet black soot from inside the boiler as evidence of this.

I'm then told that I need a complete new boiler. What I'd like some advice on please if possible is
a) can this be the only cause of the problem? Does what I have been told make sense?
a) is it not possible to change the 'heat exchanger' or is it so integral to the boiler that only a replacement makes sense.

I have no clue about this and don't want to commit to £2.5k or more of cost until I am sure I'm being correctly informed.

Thanks
Michael

dontknowitall · Nov 11, 2009

They're not the best of boilers but if it was me I'd get a second opinion. Not sure what the metallic banging noises are but the Warmflow boilers I've worked on need a low water pressure going in and this could be the problem.

The heat plate exchanger is probably okay, but might require new washers to make it water tight again. They're difficult to extract and re-install and there are no Warmflow technicians on the mainland (Northern Ireland only) and back up from the manufacturer is not brilliant.

The sooting up (if it's excessive) is down to either poor servicing or maybe poor ventilation. An OFTEC technician would be able to establish this. I'm wondering from your post if your plumber is actually qualified. You can look him up on the OFTEC website (Oil Firing Technical Association - registered professionals for the the oil heating and cooking industry - OFTEC, Kesgrave, Ipswich). (Did he change the flexible oil line and advise you on the building regulations for the tank and oil supply line? This is an OFTEC requirement.)

If you get your plumber back or someone else in, it would be worth them testing your water pressure. If over 2 bar this is often the cause of the water leaking problems. Riello burners are perfectly good ones when serviced correctly.

Hope this helps as at three years old you shouldn't need to replace the boiler.

Hugh · Nov 11, 2009

could the damp soot becoming from condensation running down the fule?

if there is a small hole in the boiler's heat exchanger get a engineering firm to weld it up, i defo get a second engineer to look at it as yuo could be gettin shafted! good luck

migoplumber · Nov 11, 2009

as hugh stated, generally a wet boiler is down to flue either condensation or rain ingression.
as knowitall stated, oil burners have to be set up perfectly, the more exact to manufacturers instructions the cleaner the combustion chamber will be. if you service the oil boiler every 6 months (as we do) to double check the settings (air/co2/oil pressure and replace nozzle) it will burn perfectly with no smells or soot and the chimney will be clean.
another reason for soot build up is oversized nozzle for the kw of installation you have, a quick fix is to put in a smaller nozzle, and work it out from there.