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 Topic: Vaillant water heater suitable replacemen
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15/8/2015 at 10:28pm
Location: Warwickshire
Outfit: Talbot Express Autosleeper
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No it's not too late. As for whether he knows what he is doing, I believe he does. Apart from his gas fitting credentials he has spent years previously in the caravan repair business, previously working for one of our local main dealerships prior to setting up on his own. He's been very good when I've used him before and he gets so much work by word of mouth (always a good sign) he has had to take someone on to take some of the load.
Yes, it all started with probable frost damage. He knew immediately what the problem was likely to be (I had contacted other repairers when I was having trouble contacting him, and some hadn't even heard of the Vaillant!). He stripped down the diaphragm housing, the diaphragm itself is fine but the housing itself was leaking. He sealed that ok but it was still
leaking
from 2 "tubes" at the side which appeared to serve no purpose other than
to act as locating pins. He tried Autosleepers and various parts people, none of whom could tell him what those were for. So he sealed them (filled them with solder). Leaks stopped.
When he reassembled it all, the boiler fired up ok and no leaks. But it would not switch off when the hot tap was turned off, you had to manually switch the heater off at the control knob. In addition, the water flow rate was too slow so the heater was effectively boiling the water before it reached the tap, steam was coming out of the tap, and it was obvious steam pressure was building up inside the heater. First time he tried it before it got hot, the pressure blew the water pipes off. He resealed everything and reconnected and that's when you started to get the steam out of the hot tap.
Both he & I were wondering if the 2 tubes which had initially been leaking, were more than just locating pins but were some kind of breather or pressure release, but if so, what to do about them leaking?
He at that point was not happy that it was going to be safe to use and from what I saw (I was with him all through this) I agreed with him (bear in mind it is not intended to be a steam pressure vessel!)
He had already investigated availability of replacement parts and come up blank, even from the ones who advertise Vaillant parts. The message coming back from everyone seems to be that it is now so long since these heaters have been manufactured (1997 was mentioned?), parts are now no longer available (they may have been for some years but not now).
If anyone can come up with any solutions, I'm all ears as we cannot really afford to replace the heater and would dearly love to be able to keep it going. Indeed we're due to be going away for 5 weeks shortly and as it stands we're stuck with just cold water supply (not the end if the world I know but...). But bear in mind he's gonna have to certify it is safe to use as it is a gas installation.
Post last edited on 15/08/2015 22:36:20
Post last edited on 15/08/2015 22:43:31
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TrickyWoo
I've got a Dragon and I'm not afraid to use it !!
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