Gloworm Micron not catching + some history

[El Kabong!]

Hi,

I hope somebody can help me with this.

I have a sealed system with a Glowworm Micron gas boiler.

A few years ago I replaced all the rads in the house.
At the same time I replaced the pump for the gas boiler.

The new pump needed different joints/valves either side, which I installed. At the time I didn't realise they were ball isolation valves, with two small nuts for adjusting. I already had two good valves further down the pipework on either side.

It all worked 100%!


Last March the heat stopped. The boiler had no pressure.
I noticed that the isolation valve nut on the right of the pump was leaking.
It was a quarter turn valve so I tweaked a bit and it stopped leaking.

I added water to the system and it all worked 100% again.
The valve might not have been 100% open as I tweaked it.

Because I already had good valves either side I was going to seal these nut ones up over the summer, instead of having to remove/refit.

It kept working 100% and the pressure never budged, and I never sealed them.


Last week I checked the system and it worked 100%.

Last night was cold so I thought I would put it on for an hour, but it wouldn't work.

Water pressure was fine. Valve not leaking.

I fiddled with the valve thinking it was not open 100% but I could not get the boiler to catch. The isolation valve is just a nut with no handle so I ended up forgetting which quarter turn was on/off and tried it in varying positions for ages, with no luck.

At one point the pressure went crazy and it cut off.

I would sometimes catch but wouldn't last long.



At the moment I think I have all the valves in the right position. The 'nuts' are round with two flat sides. I am putting the flat sides in line with the water flow.

The boiler pressure is fine.
No rads need bleeding.

But it won't catch.... it clicks for a while and sometimes does, but it will only last 10 seconds or so.




So!

My question is..... with all the fiddling, and possibly having run the boiler with the isolation valves closed for a while, could I have introduced an airlock or something to the boiler? and if so is it DIY to fix this?


If not I will just ring the boiler service crew and assume it is just a coincidence.... as it worked fine last week....

Thanks!


Oh, I think there are LEDs, but they seem to be hidden in a house which I would have to pull out or remove, which I am not keen to do.


Hopefully the above is enough for somebody to say it's obvious what the problem is!

 

[solutions]

What ever is causing the issue you are experiencing you have already established it is not a diy fix or you would have fixed it. There are a couple of reasons the boiler you have could be reacting the way it is but you need to get yourself a reputable local gas safe registered engineer in to ascertain what is causing the fault and rectify the potentially multiple issues/defects.
As stated in the forum rules the discussion of repairs to gas boilers is not permitted on the open forum.
If the sealed system is indeed at pressure and the pump is turning and the pump valves are all open there is no reason why the boiler would overheat as you have described unless the pipework is now airlocked and infact there is too little circulation through the boiler. Either way you have exhausted what you can check so you should now seek the expertise of a registered professional.

 

[El Kabong!]

You are right. Thanks.