and today i have mostly been...

[Welly]

Good new on the cat front, I think I've given up trying to work out their personalities as they seem to have many

Now that the weather's been warming up this means the Heating Boiler is idle more which means the minor leak it had last year (when it stands cold) has turned into a more consistent drip---drip---drip kinda leak which I can't see where from apart from 'somewhere at the top' which is where the heat exchanger is and I suspect has failed. So now the previously forgotten/ignored occasionally drippy boiler has, in two days, turned into a sh*t-we-need-a-boiler-soon kinda trouble.

Let me see:

Boiler
Washing Machine
Shitrun Cambelt
Shitrun rear Tyres
Volvo Front tyres

Probs £2,500.00 of money which isn't in our possession. Might have to get a bloody loan

[steve_earwig]

How much would sir like to borrow?


If you're not using the heating doesn't that mean you can defer repairing it until later in the year? (I don't mean just before Christmas...)

Edit: In fact, doesn't it give you a chance to have a go at it yerself? Welly at the car spares shop: "Can I have, erm, 150 tins of K seal?"

[Welly]

The boiler is a shitter it's 13 years old and is nearly at the end of its miserable life I've kept it going myself despite numerous breakdowns but we've become prepared to replace it the next time it shits itself properly. At the moment I've kinda made a nappy for it so it can piss itself all night and I only have to change the 'absorber' once a week sometimes leaks will seal themselves over time......

[Doggy]

Might be worth seeing what's leaking, it just might be an easy fix. 13 years should mean just before condensing, (aka temporary), boilers became more or less mandatory. The devil you know may not be your worst option.

[steve_earwig]

Temporary as in unlikely to last 13 months, let alone 13 years? Nothing's made to last any more

[Welly]

It is condensing and one of the early ones; it's a Potterton Promax and one of the only boilers that gas engineers pretty much refuse to service because it's not possible to service without replacing EVERYTHING at great cost. I've already replaced the flow switch which was leaking but this new leak is well hidden and it's not coming from any of the pipework connections.

It gave up producing condense water some time ago so that bit's knackered also. It kettles like mad and is generally crap. I will attempt a deeper investigation at the weekend though as I could really do with nursing it along for longer.

You're dead right steve everything is built down to a price and will not last more than a few years, makes you laugh - how is this better for the environment? Those big floor-standing boilers in the 1960's would last over 40 years and would only be replaced to free up space.

[lozz]

13yrs is a pretty good life span for a boiler ..IMHO.

'Notice how combi's and boilers always seem to go wrong in winter why's that.?

Ours as got a leak somewhere and icarnt find it.. ( glowworm)
Have to fill it up once a week..
I've had all the floorboards up and carnt find where anything is leaking

[Welly]

Ours shat itself in the winter of 2014, it kept going to ignition lockout so I ordered a new PCB which sorted it in 5 minutes but we were without heat for 4 days in a very cold week.

Lozz check along the bottoms of the rad(s) in Bathrooms/Toilets the bottom seam can weep water along its length but not really drip enough to notice, I cured one of mine with rust-eater and a coat of white enamel along the seam.

Also the safety valve can weep to outside if it's a sealed system.

[steve_earwig]

It gave up producing condense water some time ago

That's not anything to do with the "leak" is it?

I guess winter is the time when the most stress is put on these things.

My brother mentioned his was kettling on skpe the other night, he has his in bits and descales it though.

[Welly]

No it leaks when stood idle over night so something opens slightly when contracted/cold and heating water dribbles out from somewhere.

[steve_earwig]

Ah sorry, you did say it only happened when it was cold. Ah well, just a thort.

[lozz]

Ours shat itself in the winter of 2014, it kept going to ignition lockout so I ordered a new PCB which sorted it in 5 minutes but we were without heat for 4 days in a very cold week.

Lozz check along the bottoms of the rad(s) in Bathrooms/Toilets the bottom seam can weep water along its length but not really drip enough to notice, I cured one of mine with rust-eater and a coat of white enamel along the seam.

Also the safety valve can weep to outside if it's a sealed system.

Thanks

[Doggy]

When I converted my house, I fitted one of these https://www.plumbnation.co.uk/site/baxi ... GwodPFIF9g
which at that time was £700 delivered, my bro did the plumbing and we paid £80 to get an approved gas engineer to drink tea, witness testing, print out flue gas analysis and register said boiler. It took him damn near 15 minutes and he ate all the nice biscuits.

Final cost? about £850.

[steve_earwig]

Feel free to keep posting about your boiler (washing machine, tyres etc.) Welly, we all want to help (well, I do anyway...) Or start a thread for it, that would save everyone from wading through all my inane drivel...

I said to t'wife I said, don't force names on cats, they have a way of finding them...

We should have called them Salt & Pepper! (And there's oil and vinegar...)

Today I've made my first bracket!

and it only took 4 hours of cutting, grinding, welding, more grinding... (grinder and paint makes me the welder I aint). The rawl plugs I got turned out to be crap, those flower pot bricks shatter as I drill them, leaving a much bigger hole, so the screws don't tighten up much and just pull out. So I did it the old-fashioned way, made some dowels, hammered them in and stuck the screws into them. I've only put the bottom 4 in as I wanted to check the alignment of the top two (and then ran out of time because t'wife started her classes at 5 ) but even with just the 4 I've been standing on it! It aint going nowhere!

I also took the liberty of disconnecting the live to the socket there (see the tester?) because the wiring disappears into the plaster and I didn't relish the idea of finding it with the drill. It's the usual junction mess up on my bedroom wall so it took me a wee while to find it:


Right first time! Btw that's the wiring for 2 lights and, erm, 4 sockets, fed off 2 phases via 2 mcb's. It's bizarre.

[Doggy]

If you ever decide to buy an annuity, showing them that picture should get you a better deal in much the same as claiming you're a smoker does.