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Any engineers willing to chat about fault finding.

View the thread, titled "Any engineers willing to chat about fault finding." which is posted in Find Local Plumbers - Post a Job on UK Plumbers Forums.

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i am quite scared of fault finding but i want to find out everythin there is to know about it.I was out today with an engineer and he said this helstead boiler had a pcb. fault then the tennant got a second opinion and the fault was as simplle as a second reset for the overheat stat was located underneath the boiler.
 
Hi jimbo im in the same boat as you, im gonna go on a few of the free training days that the boiler company's run and in gonna go to alot of breakdowns with the engineer i did my training with until i have a good knowledge. Would like to know whats the best kind of testers you guys use for fault finding ??
 
get yourself one of wolesley part centres' digital multi meters.
very reliable, has big display, backlight, live voltage warnimg on red led over screen, decent leads, tough as old boots, and very reasonably priced. i prefer mine to my old fluke meter.
as for fault finding, ive been an oil fired boiler engineer for a VEEEEERY long time, and still find new faults every week.
thats why i love being a diagnostic breakdown engineer!
if you chaps want any help on system faults, especially oil fired related, drop me a line and i'll be glad to help out.
fault finding really is the best part of our job, never gets boring!!
heres an easy one to start you off....
customer calls and complains of no central heating but has hot water, system is 'y'plan fully pumped.
where do you look first??
mark
 
a suggestion to assist fault finding is to get your head into appliance MI's, any ones to start with, IF you know how an appliance works you will have a chance of sussing out what is wrong when you go to it for a breakdown, i appreciate they are all different but there are some common items and if you read and understand the function of everything it helps, and NEVER assume anything, always check the leccy and gas are on before you pull the boiler to bits, it wont be the first time someone (NOT ME obviously!!) has pulled a boiler to bits for the door to open and the wee wummin runs in saying "oh sorry son i tried to get back here before you, do you not need this gas card for the meter to get that thing working, ive just picked up my benefit and topped it up" 😱
 
ive been to a boiler breakdown and the ecv was turned off.

im only just getting into breakdowns myself, it can be worrying at times but its a good feeling when you fix the fault. im always afraid of mis-diagnosind and geting the wrong part ie pcb etc but im not the only one i dont think lol.
 
yeah am also a novice theres a course at my college for advanced fault finding, bit pricey though hopefully i can get a grant for it 😛

I'm going on a vaillant day course at the end of the month for free just to get a bit of knowledge about them as I think I'll prefer to fit them for my customers
 
markproperjob said:
get yourself one of wolesley part centres' digital multi meters.
very reliable, has big display, backlight, live voltage warnimg on red led over screen, decent leads, tough as old boots, and very reasonably priced. i prefer mine to my old fluke meter.
as for fault finding, ive been an oil fired boiler engineer for a VEEEEERY long time, and still find new faults every week.
thats why i love being a diagnostic breakdown engineer!
if you chaps want any help on system faults, especially oil fired related, drop me a line and i'll be glad to help out.
fault finding really is the best part of our job, never gets boring!!
heres an easy one to start you off....
customer calls and complains of no central heating but has hot water, system is 'y'plan fully pumped.
where do you look first??
mark
Click to expand...

3 port
 
Went on the vaillant one a few months ago worth the day off to do it, very good trainer and hands on !!! and they took us out for the night on the p**s
 
GQuigley67 said:
yeah am also a novice theres a course at my college for advanced fault finding, bit pricey though hopefully i can get a grant for it 😛

I'm going on a vaillant day course at the end of the month for free just to get a bit of knowledge about them as I think I'll prefer to fit them for my customers
Click to expand...

we are refurbing our training room and will be running Glen Dimplex (Halstead) courses very soon, give me a bell and i will keep you posted
 
2 good books by John Reginald will give a very good grounding in fault finding.
MI's are always worth looking at there is an excellent link in the forum somewhere that links to free downloads of a vast range of boilers.
Go out with the experienced guys as much as you can and try to do the dianosis yourself before they do (if time permits)
As I am sure you know boilers operate in a sequence, know the sequence and your half way there
You also need a good grasp of external controls and their faults and implications. Honeywell used to do an excellent 1 day course on controls

Good luck

raymondo
 
GQuigley67 said:
what does the course involve kirk ?
Click to expand...

TBH we are only in the process of pulling out old the old stuff, the refurb hasnt started yet, so i dont know is the honest answer, the rep will be in to discuss what will be happening, i will let you know as soon as i do
 
pauls said:
ive been to a boiler breakdown and the ecv was turned off.

im only just getting into breakdowns myself, it can be worrying at times but its a good feeling when you fix the fault. im always afraid of mis-diagnosind and geting the wrong part ie pcb etc but im not the only one i dont think lol.
Click to expand...

Everyone will agree with you on that one paul.
 
I have been on a few boiler training courses and all where good especially the worcester bosch one. Any help with fault finding would be helpful to me though as only just starting to do breakdowns after 3 years or servicing, cp12's and fitting rads.

I'm suprised GASMAN hasn't been on this thread already!!! LOL!
 
I'm not sure how gas works but with oil boilers most of my calls are for servicing and fault finding is quite rare.

What I have though is a couple of old burners and instead of having to buy new parts, I can change parts from the old burners on a "suck it and see" basis. This saves me the time consuming part of seeing the boiler, driving off to the plumbing merchant, coming back, fitting the part, finding it's the wrong piece, going to the merchant again, etc.

So if I'm not sure which part it is, I take along a similar burner and fit the part(s) until it's working. The part isn't guaranteed but it's free and the customer only pays for the labour. So far, I've never had to return so everyone's happy.

Added bonus is in this process I keep learning.

I don't always do this because now I'm much more confident of diagnosing and replacing the correct part first time round.

Just mentioned this if it helps with gas boilers (i.e. keeping an old boiler for spares).
 
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