Leaking Flue and boiler not working

Hi Mike

I'm after a bit advice if you can help. My gulfstream 2000 stopped providing hot water or heating, with no lock out light indicating a problem. I've since had a plumber take a look at it as in addition to not heating there is water leaking from the ceiling above the unit where the piping runs out of the system towards to outlet outside the flat. He has found that there is a leak from the 'elbow joint' in the flue piping which is dripping condensation and more worryingly carbon monoxide. He has now shut the gas off to the unit and sealed it not for use as thhis is obviously very dangerous and illegal. Due to this he was not able to diagnose why the boiler isn't working. I have a couple of questions which I would appreciate your view/ experience on:

1. Are the 2 issues likely to be related? If not any ideas as to why it's not heating?
2. this is the 3rd time i've had a problem with the boiler - is it time to cut my loses
3. I hear Gledhill have gone into liquidation, therefore am I likely to get the part and will getting spare parts for these boilers get harder and more costly in the future - hence again should I stick with it or think about going to a new boiler system?

Thanks - also what a brilliant site, really useful to get some independant advice and education about the gledhill boilers.

Laura

Hi Laura,

My reading of the situation is that this bloke has seized on the flue leak as a reason not to investigate the boiler failure, not that I blame him especially. He is technically correct to classify it as Immediately Dangerous, even though it clearly isn't because it doesn't work!

This therefore calls into question the reason for the leak. How can it be leaking condensate when the boiler does not run? Maybe it's rain ingress. Could still be related to the failure. Does it work in "Switch" emergency (electric heating) mode? I have no idea otherwise why it won't start - not enough info. I'd need to visit and see it really.

Gledhill Spare Parts Ltd are still trading (probably very profitably!) so parts for this boiler are likely to be available for a while yet, but these Gulfstreams are fiendishly unreliable. My advice is cut your losses now and replace it. You could easily waste many hundreds of pounds fixing it now only to get a completely unrelated and expensive failure in another few months ( or weeks, or days!)


Cheers, MIke

Thanks for the response below.
The boiler will run and tick over but won't heat anything - on the switch emergency mode it still doesn't work.
Just spoke with the company who looked at the boiler and they cannot get the part to fix the flue and so have recommended replace the boiler which you have also recommended. Feels like this could be the start of one thing after another with this particular boiler.

Right, this company is waffling. They don't WAN'T to fix it. It is not possible to know if any component is needed to repair the flue leak without dismantling the flue to inspect the fault. It might just need re-assembling correctly.

The boiler running 'on tickover' but not firing suggests an overheat thermostat has tripped. Pressing the trip button back in will probably make it work again... but it will probably trip again sooner or later. Typical symptom of corrosion deposits clogging up the boiler heat exchanger.

The Switch back-up not working either suggests a failed heater element cartridge. £250 or so the fix this alone before even addressing the gas boiler fault. Best to replace this appliance in my view. Annoying as the faults can be repaired, but it makes commercial sense not to bother.

Are you local by any chance? (I'm in Reading, Berkshire.) 'Might' be worth getting me to visit to assess before replacing.

Cheers, Mike

Laura you didn't by any chance live in uxbridge?