Here Are The Six Safe Checks If Your Boiler Is Broken

Boilers are sources of comfort and cosiness all around the winter season. Sudden break down of boilers can be daunting since it takes time and effort to fix a boiler. Beyond all, servicing options could at times be rather expensive for certain boilers. Yet another disappointment is that the majority of the boilers when broken, do not function in the multipurpose way. They break down completely and cannot be single handily used for either of their functions alone.

A combi boiler if broken dissolves both the water heating and central heating at once. Neither of them functions separately.

Hence the breakdown of boilers could seem disturbing.

Other reasons like expending time and money on repairs could also be avoided using such small techniques.

It’s important to know how to handle your own device, in any situation it could come handy at some point or the other.

Boilers, like any other device are highly advanced and technical gadgets that come in more compact and resourceful forms these days. Yet, they consume electricity and gas to perform their functions. These functions may get disturbed at the slightest changes made in the surroundings or the pressure variations, knob turned off due to which the supply of Gas or water is disconnected. The electric supply which is disconnected, the thermostat condition that ruins the temperature levels are all to be taken care of.

It is ideal that we keep a proper and balanced check on all these on a usual basis to avoid more complicated issues in the future.

Here are some safe checks and their advantages that may keep you on the safer side while your device is operational.

Prior to the main safe checks a user must also be accustomed to the irregularities of a boiler that seem unusual.

For example:

  1. Make sure the pilot signal always stays Blue. A yellow or varied colour shows malfunctioning or a disturbance in its actual routine. Hence it’s important to make sure the lighting is always blue.
  • No gassy smell is produced. The boilers are designed to use a very resourceful amount of materials. No improper usage of gas is allowed by any device. Hence any foul smell or gaseous smell that arises from the boiler should call for servicing or support options at once. These smells could even mean tampering with the safety of the device and prove dangerous. 
  • Make sure the readings on the screen are normal and stay within the directed limits.  Make sure the pressure does not go beyond an expected pressure limit. Thus it would ensure advanced safety. Increase in pressure levels is risky and could prove fatal at points where the pressure escapes through boiler explosions. Never allow the pressure to steadily increase. Rather keep a significant check on the pressure levels.
  • Noises produced are one way of signalling at the symptoms of distress faced by the boiler and may perhaps be the right time to contact a service centre.  Gurgling, bubbling, tapping, cooing noises that come from the boiler must be of concern regarding different reasons. It  could possibly due to pressure, wrong operations, increased voltage or any other reason beyond manual apprehension.

Now let’s check some other important ways to keep a regular check on your boiler :

It’s advised not to interfere or manually perform tasks that are completely beyond your capacity and level of knowledge, yet certain checks and balances are important that could avoid further deterioration and calling up of registered engineers.

Keep an eye for Gas supply .

The dysfunctioning of a boiler could be for various reasons. But not always directly related to your boiler. Once the boiler stops working, make sure your gas supply is well connected and not loose from the attached knob. Also, make sure the stopcock is turned ON and not OFF. In other circumstances, it may also be caused due to gas leakage. Which should be given extra precaution.  Make sure these jobs are handled with care and not let loose. In such cases of stoppage of the boiler, make sure your other gas connected systems are in working condition. In circumstances where all of them refuse to work, the breakdown could possibly be related to the empty levels of gas or gas-related problems. You need to contact a gas supplier.

Check out on your Boiler’s Thermostat

  1. The room overheats :

This normally happens when your boiler’s thermostat can’t tell when to cut off the heat on its own, hence the room just gets hotter and hotter above the average levels of heating.  The heating increases variably and causes much discomfort. This one is particularly annoying especially because one is left with just 2 options: turn the heating off, or have the heating at full blast. The thermostat irregularities can cause high and riskier ways of heating up the room. This should be taken care especially when there are small children or ages parents residing.

  • Water is extremely hot :

If the hot water is coming out of the tap in extreme temperature, this may be due to an old gravity fed system where the temperature of the water is completely controlled by the boiler thermostat. In such cases the risk is upon the user to avoid such direct and careless contact with the water flowing through taps. In such cases the thermostat should be replaced with proper and efficient thermostats that could solve the issue.

  •  Tank in the attic ‘kettling’ or the gurgling sound :

When the tank in your attic is basically making noises that sound like a kettle boiling or even a gurgling sound which could be due to increased pressure variations or the malfunctions of the operating internals parts.

This may also be due to the heating thermostat turning off the motorised valve hence the water flow stops and the signalling dysfunctions.  A faulty boiler thermostat will cause the water in the expansion tank to boil.

  •  Your overflow dripping warm water

It could also be down to your expansion tank. If your expansion tank keeps boiling, then the level of water tends to rise and as a safety measure, it keeps overflowing to the outside. This works as a safety measure.

  •  An unresponsive room thermostat

If your room is overheating, but the boiler goes off when you turn down the boiler thermostat, it could be your room thermostat that’s the problem.

The problem could also be a blown room thermostat which was not sending a signal to the valve, which would have allowed the radiators to heat.

If your boiler is totally unresponsive when you use the room thermostat’s controls to turn down the heating, then you’ll have an idea

Do you have any of the above problems?

How do you fix it ?

First, turn the ON the boiler’s thermostat to minimum and see if the boiler switches ON . If not, turn off the boiler’s time clock and check once again.

Try changing the boiler thermostat as detailed in the owner’s manual.

       3.   Check that your water supply is turned on

The boiler may not be working properly or efficiently because you might have accidentally turned off your water supply, so it’s always best to check if it’s still switched on. You may find that you didn’t actually turn off your water connection at all, in such case you should turn on your water supply to see whether water is flowing out. . If water is not coming out of your taps, then try and get in touch with your water provider for help. Since the issue does not occur due to boiler.

       4.   Check for problems with your power supply

If the boiler is plugged in but is not turning ON, there may be a problem with your power supply and you will, therefore, need to call your electricity provider. However, if there has been a power cut and your boiler has lost your chosen settings, the fix may be as simple as resetting your boiler. To make sure your boiler is working properly, set it to turn on your heating in a few minutes. If it does as you asked, simply choose your preferred settings to enable your boiler to behave as it did before the power cut occurred.

        5.   Check that the boiler pressure is set to the correct level

It is essential that your boiler has the appropriate amount of pressure so that your hot water can circulate around your property. If the pressure is too low, your boiler will switch itself off and you’ll be left without any hot water. But lower pressure does not cause any damage to the device nor is dangerous to the user.  But if it’s too high, it causes unnecessary strain on the boiler and forces your system to break down. One can find out the required pressure for your boiler by reading the manufacturer’s manual, which will also tell you how to repressurise and default your system. In fact, below or above the correct level. If the pressure is fine when you initially check it, It should remain in between 1 and 1.5 bar. you should call your gas supplier or a Gas Safe engineer.

  •  Check for frozen pipes

All condensing boilers come along with a condensate pipe, which should lead outside of your home so that the acidic water can discharge out into a drain. When it’s freezing cold outside, your condensate pipe can become frozen and cause your boiler to shut down. Most modern boilers will warn you by sensing out signals when this happens by displaying a fault or an error code. Pouring warm  water onto the frozen pipe will help to thaw it, but it is recommended to call out a Gas Safe engineer if you would rather not do this yourself or this common boiler problem persists.

These help in checking and regulating the functioning of a system and its proper usage without discrepancies happening during its operation. It should be reminded that the servicing and maintenance of boilers and other electrical appliances should be done at regular intervals and not alone prior to the winter season. This ensures that the device does not accidentally break down causing distress to the user.

People should rather maintain proper instructions while using a boiler by keeping proper checks especially on the pressure.  Under the negligence which could cause more riskier situations especially for people having small kids,newborns or even old aged parents at home.  Thus it ensures safer and stabilized means of handling the system and its operation.

Another less understood yet more common factor is that the non maintenance of these boilers could lead to break down. The breakdown takes a higher amount of time and effort. It also seems expensive when it comes to certain brands. Hence these regular checks help you avoid these situations of calling on an Engineer.

We hope we have made clear some important areas relating to the most common doubts associated with the handling of boilers.  We hope these help you keep your boilers intact and efficient for the best results.

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