Unfortunately, the client’s existing boiler was failing intermittently and going into lockout. After inspection, our gas engineer identified a split in the side wall of the heat exchanger.

As a result, flue gases were leaking into the main case of the boiler. This caused the high temperature thermistor to force the boiler into lockout.

There was no chance of repair.

An emergency boiler replacement was needed.

We decided on a Vaillant ecoTEC Plus 424 complete with 10 year guarantee.

To add to the woes of the client, SDB also discovered that the entire system was in poor condition. This was probably due to it being fitted by an unqualified installer. As a result, we decided to re-pipe the system to make it suitable and, more importantly safe.

We replaced the flue system and installed a new Boiler Protection Kit. An automatic bypass was also fitted – something that the previous installer had failed to fit. The original control system was retained and rewired correctly.

To improve performance and remove as much debris as possible, our engineer flushed the existing radiators and pipework with Fernox F3 Central Heating Cleaner.

The condensation pipework also needed to be replaced as it was copper. Condensation produced from a condensing boiler has acidic properties that are corrosive to copper. So, copper pipewpork is unacceptable in these circumstances.

Instead, we used plastic pipe.

And, for ease of installation, we joined the pressure relief pipework to the new condensation pipe with a Hotun HiFlo Dry Trap Tundish.