Blog Post 7 - 12/02/2017 (part 1)

Keeping Busy

Here at Eco Dragon we have certainly been keeping ourselves busy. A lot of work recently has involved quoting for new jobs including full heating systems and refurbishments. Winter is definitely the busiest season for work so it is important to give us a call before you need work doing to make sure we can fit you in.

We don't want to overload you with how much we have been doing, so our recent work will be split over 2 blog posts, with the 2nd one following on Tuesday.

A Very Unhappy Boiler

Recently we were called out to repair a boiler that wouldn't fire up. Our first inspection found that the oil pump didn't work anymore. After replacing the oil pump and firing the boiler up, it locked out again.

When a boiler wont fire up correctly it is usually down to poor air flow or fuel flow. So we checked the fuel flow first and discovered that the fire valve had also stopped working, as fuel was flowing to the valve but not flowing through it. This is likely to be the reason that the oil pump stopped working as the pump was starved of oil.

changing the oil pump

extremely poor analyser readings

After replacing the fire valve it was time to fire up the boiler again and this time it worked! This is where the importance of our analyser comes in. If we did not have our analyser we would have thought everything was fine and left the job, however as you can see from the picture above, the results could have been fatal if not checked. 

the old broken fire valve

replacing the fire valve

The 2nd result on the analyser measures how many parts-per-million of carbon monoxide there is in the air. Anything above 400PPM is considered dangerous and usually the boilers we check are between 1 and 20, however as you can see this boiler is reading at 1228PPM, more than 3x the safe limit. Fortunately for the customer we spotted this and managed to alter the flow rates of the oil and air to bring the level back down to well within the safe zone. Finally after 2 days of repairs and alterations, this boiler is back up and running.

Sometimes, a plumber's work is not for everyone.

We were called out to a job where the client said another plumber had replaced an existing radiator for them. According to the client the plumber had done a terrible job of the install and it was leaking right from the start. When we got to the job, we were shocked to say the least.

As expected the radiator was leaking, but we weren't quite expecting to see such a poor finish on a job by a qualified plumbing and heating engineer. The pipes were extended above the floor by more than half a meter each and were fitted slanted to make up for the change in depth of the radiator away from the wall. As well as this, holes were left in the clients wall from where the previous fittings had been removed.

the old radiator

the "solution" to fitting a rad where the pipes don't line up

We removed the radiator that had been damaged during it's install and re-altered the pipework under the floor to come up straight into the valves at either end of the radiator. We also installed a larger radiator to meet the heat loss requirements of the room and cover up the previous installer's handy work. Another Customer happy with our work.

leaking from the start!

our replacement

That's all for now but make sure you check back on Tuesday for part 2 of this weeks blog post