DIY Repair Tips for Your Combi Boiler

An estimated 50% of homes across the U.K. use combi-boilers to heat up their homes as well as provide hot water. These appliances are particularly convenient when your apartment is so small that you cannot allocate space to install a large sized water tank. Today, several larger homes are also switching over to combi-boilers since these are also highly efficient means of heating the home and your water supply.

Home owners who shy away from installing a combi-boiler often do so because they believe these are troublesome and expensive to maintain. While problems are bound to occur with your combi-boiler just as with any other appliance you own, not all of them may warrant a need for professional boiler servicing. Here are a few common problems that occur with these appliances that may not require the services of a boiler technician.

• Heating not Working: If your combi- boiler’s heating system seems to be on the blink, there are a few checks you can carry out before calling in the boiler servicing technician. Check the pressure on the boiler. If the level is higher than the optimum mentioned in its manual, you may need to release some pressure. If the level is too low, a refill or tightening may be called for. You can do either of these yourself with some help from the appliance’s instruction manual.

• Hot Water Temperature Fluctuates: This could be a simple problem of inadequate flow rate. Typically, the flow rate for every appliance in your home depends on the capacity of the rising main. This means that when you use another water outlet, say flush a toilet anywhere in your house, the hot water supply from your combi- boiler disappears mysteriously. Instead you get lukewarm or even cold water. There is nothing wrong with your boiler in this case.What you should do to eliminate this problem is to avoid flushing or using other outlets when you are running hot water for a bath.
  To verify that this is the problem, check your rising main capacity. Ideally, you should ensure that it has adequate capacity even before installing the combi- boiler.

• Problems with the Gas Supply: Sometimes your combi- boiler may stop functioning properly because of a fault in the gas supply that powers it. Before you call in a boiler service technician, check if other gas powered appliances are working. If your cooker or kitchen fire is running on fumes too, then the problem needs to be looked at by your gas supplier and not a boiler technician.

Wayne Lawman runs Intex Property Maintenance, a UK building maintenance and property refurbuishment company in Northamptonshire who offer a variety of building and maintenance services such as boiler repairs, electrical, plumbing and drain unblocking.