... (to non fridge engineers that means lots of hours/money but a
certain level of repetition)... [Edited on 19/12/09 by keithice]
Our boiler gave up the ghost yesterday (as usual coldest day of the year).
This boiler is about 4 years old and the first time its packed up but my previous boiler had the same problem twice at 3 or 4 year intervals which
turned out to be the internal fan motor.
In my other life as a fridge engineer I found impellor type fan motors tend to wear out the bearing at the impellor end.
The diagnosis is if the fan aint running switch the boiler off, let the motor cool down power back up if the fan wont run try giving it a flick to
start, the motor will probably run for 5 mins till the bearing gets hot then stop.
A trip down to a bearing specialist a couple of new bearings and your good to go for a few more years, cost of new fan unit £120 upwards cost of 2
bearings 5 squids.
Cheers,
Bob
[Edited on 19/12/09 by splitrivet]
good fix split... what fridge kit due you work on.. I do mostly supermarkets ... (to non fridge engineers that means lots of hours/money but a
certain level of repetition)...
[Edited on 19/12/09 by keithice]
yes its the most common failure on modern boilers. my friend is a plumber and as a part time side exercise he rebuilds fans and sells them back to the plumbers merchants.
mmm, are you allowed to do that to your own boiler?
i fix my own boiler, i built a car so i assume i know how not to kill myself or others.
failing that if it bursts in to flames, i know how to put it out.
If you cant get any new bearings swap the faulty inner (soak it in wd40 to free it off) one with the outer and it will work until you get new ones.
Or just wait until they both fail, almost a year since I did this and its going strong. 
I had exactly the same prob with my boiler in my last house. Fan cost me £90 but was glad to get it going. Another similar fault is the pipe to the air flow switch splitting from the fan exhaust side. The hot gases cause the rubber to perrish and also stops the boiler firing up.
quote:
Originally posted by keithice
good fix split... what fridge kit due you work on.. I do mostly supermarkets
[Edited on 19/12/09 by keithice]
I've been around long enough to have breathed a fair bit of chlorine gas my self and as of 1/1/10 we can only use reclaimed R22, so we've
been retrofitting all our sites R 422D. it's so new we don't know what dangers, if any, it poses...
about losing friends.... I'm not sure if it's the hours/standbys or what but when talking amongst ourselves, very few of us know
engineers much beyond their late fifties or early sixties...
keith