Unvented Before and After

[Mike Jackson]

Some of you will remember these pictures from the Hall of Shame thread.

IMG_20140912_134854170 by Mike Jackson1, on Flickr

IMG_20140912_134858640 by Mike Jackson1, on Flickr

IMG_20140912_134914948 by Mike Jackson1, on Flickr

IMG_20140912_134928757 by Mike Jackson1, on Flickr

Call out was to CH system tripping power. When I got there and found this mess I declined to replace the leaking pump until I had rectified the faults with the system.

Faults I found were :-
No zone valve on system
Cylinder/Oheat stat not wired, the installer (chap by the name of David Mamone, I've previously RIDDORed him for another job) connected 1 wire to make it look as if it was connected.
No tundish and discharge pipework run in mix of copper, speedfit and overflow discharging at high level through the fascia.
Electrical cover missing on pump.
No insulation.
Boiler just wired with permanent live so operating on flow switch.
Room stat not functioning.

 

[Mike Jackson]

Got back there on Thursday and 2 days and £540 worth of materials later it's all safe and almost to regs.

IMG_20141002_115209794 by Mike Jackson1, on Flickr

IMG_20141003_155416002 by Mike Jackson1, on Flickr

IMG_20141003_155443837 by Mike Jackson1, on Flickr

Day one I started by draining down and rectifying the wet side of the CH. Discarded the 3 port and fitted and fitted 2 new zone valves and tidied up the pipework as much as possible. I then moved onto the wiring. Took me 2 hours with a multimeter to figure out where all the wires went. The programmer had 3 3 cores leaving it, one to the mains plug, one straight to the boiler and one i could fathom where. Two of the wires went up and across the loft so I could cut them and use the boiler feed down and use the other two to give me my power and CH/HW ons to my JB. In the loft I had two wires, one coming to the pump and one to the 3 port. I couldn't fathom where these came from, I assume from a JB buried somewhere, I cut these and terminated them as I could rewire it without using them. The room stat had wires going to it but no matter what I did at the stat nothing registered at the two wires in the loft. I foitted a Honeywell RF2 pack to provide a new room stat.

Day 2, time to sort out the discharge. Firstly I needed to raise the inlet controls so that I could get a proper fall from the PRV. First issue, no drain off on cylinder. I turned the cold water off and released the pressure in the cylinder. I then held a bucket under the controls and loosened the last nut before the cylinder, nothing. I took it off and a dribble came out but nothing more. I now had a cylinder full of water held in place by a vacuum. I put the control back in place whilst I grabbed the fittings and fabricated a new inlet pipe. I took the control off and no water came out. I moved the bucket to under the speedfit elbow by the cylinder and removed it, logic told me that nothing should come out but I held my breath and had a speedfit blank ready just in case. On with the new pipework to high level and I could breathe again. Refitted the controls and re ran the cold inlet. in copper, neatly clipped across the rafters.

Now to the discharge. Inside was the easy bit, both D1s to a new tundish and CH discharge teed into D2 (not a fan of combining discharges but not a lot of choice here). Now for the fun bit, externally there was a pitched roof extension below where the discharge emerged. No way to get to it off a ladder it would have needed scaffold. Not an option here so it came down to hanging out of the window and poking a pre bent section of pipe through the existing hole in the fascia. Took me a while but I managed it, I even got a couple of clips on. The discharge now runs onto the roof. The roof is about 2 1/2 metres from the plastic gutter so not quite to the 3 metre requirement but a lot safer than discharging straight out of the fascia.

Finally I tested it all and insulated all of the pipes I could get to. The customer didn't even pale when I gave her the £1140 bill, she was just glad to have it all working safely again. If she ever comes across Dave Mamone I think she'll flatten him, she's quite a large lady. As well as making a complete abortion of the job, Mr Mamone charged her for a new pump and new valves and didn't even fit the one supplied. To make matters worse whilst the job was being done her husband was taken seriously ill and rushed into hospital so was unable to check the work.

 

[GasmanxxxR1]

What type is the yellow headed valve, Ive never used one before

 

[GasmanxxxR1]

oh and nice job by the way

 

[lame plumber]

brave man to start on that one 🙂

 

[PlumbBobBob]

well done mike, pigs ear made much much better

 

[solutions]

What type is the yellow headed valve, Ive never used one before

If your referring to the zone valve it looks like an EPH controls valve
www.ephcontrols.com. They have nice features im surprised more valves dont have but have as yet not fitted one. I like the inadicator led that tells you what position its in and that you can disconnect the cable at the head end by unplugging.

Mike your hard work has made for an allround improvement good to see all that plastic put back where it belongs.... a good distance from the cylinder. Great work its always so much harder sorting out someone elses carp than it would have been for you to fit it right in the first place. I hope the customer does meet the criminal who pretended to install it in the first plsce. Then again he has kept you busy.

 

[Toxic Ted]

How the hell has this Mamone fella got away with fitting that crap and even more worrying is what else he has done elsewhere?

 

[SafeGasInstall]

i am sorry but dont look better off

 

[kris]

I agree , its obviously up to regs and thats the main thing but your best not putting your name to that mike as the pipework round yours is an absoloute diabolical , (not yours) so folks would think thats you aswell,

 

[EPH]

Am I being thick but where's the by pass valve?

 

[kris]

Maybe a rad is the bypass,

 

[EPH]

Maybe a rad is the bypass,

After the zone valves??

 

[AWheating]

well done mike, good job.

 

[Mike Jackson]

Am I being thick but where's the by pass valve?

Not required as it's a Baxi solo.

 

[EPH]

Not required as it's a Baxi solo.

Which one? Didn't realise the early ones were still going. Most of the BF ones I see the flues have rusted away by now.