roman
New Member
Posts: 2 
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Post by roman on Mar 12, 2013 4:18:43 GMT -5
Hi there Mike,
Your website has helped me a lot in the past, many thanks for this, it's hard to believe how intricate and unreliable Powermax boilers are...
For a few weeks now I've had a strange issue with my boiler, it's become impossible to take a shower without running out of hot water after a few minutes (about 5min). The boiler is set to "hot water continued" as it's always been.
It's like the hot water level in the boiler was constantly low and/or the boiler was unable to heat water fast enough during a shower, any idea what it could be?
Regards
Roman
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Post by Mike the Boilerman on Mar 20, 2013 15:17:46 GMT -5
Roman,
Apologies for my delay in replying...
This sounds like a scale problem. Scale slowly accumulates inside the heat exchanger and insulates the tap water from the thermal store water heating it. This usually leads to the blender valve failing too. Occasionally just a new blender valve fixes this fault but usually a chemical descale of the heat exchanger is necessary to bring the hot water performance back to 'as new'.
Mike
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roman
New Member
Posts: 2
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Post by roman on Mar 21, 2013 11:34:58 GMT -5
Hi Mike,
Many thanks for your answer, I was wondering, is there a way to get more evidence on that?
In the first minutes of running the tap the water is piping hot
Thanks
Roman
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Post by Pam on Mar 24, 2013 13:58:25 GMT -5
I have a similar problem; showers and bath run cold quickly but kitchen sink and bathroom basin taps water stays hot? British gas changed the blender valve but didn't check if their worked had fixed the fault and low and behold it hadn't. Do you think in this scenario it still needs descaling?
Thanks pam
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Post by Mike the Boilerman on Apr 5, 2013 3:34:19 GMT -5
Hi Mike, Many thanks for your answer, I was wondering, is there a way to get more evidence on that? In the first minutes of running the tap the water is piping hot Thanks Roman I'm afraid not. The only way is to try changing the blender valve alone, and observe the difference in hot water behaviour. If the blender has failed, a new (working) blender usually raises the water temp to nice and hot but the flow diminishes to very low, because the new blender is no longer incorrectly contaminating the hot water with cold water. If you get this, then the DHE is scaled and needs replacing. If you then replace the DHE, you can re-fit your original blender to test it. They usually don't work though, continuing to contaminate with cold. Mike |
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Post by Mike the Boilerman on Apr 5, 2013 3:38:18 GMT -5
I have a similar problem; showers and bath run cold quickly but kitchen sink and bathroom basin taps water stays hot? British gas changed the blender valve but didn't check if their worked had fixed the fault and low and behold it hadn't. Do you think in this scenario it still needs descaling? Thanks pam Pam, Actually no, I don't. This sounds to me like like cross-contamination of the hot supply with cold caused by leaking non-return valves in a shower mixer. Is the hot tap feed pipe coming out of the Powermax nice and hot, while the bath tap is running cool? If so, the Powermax is working fine and you have a plumbing problem. If not, then it's the Powermax still, and probably scale, yes. Or they fitted a faulty new blender... Mike |
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