Does the mechanical timer actually get used?

When we moved in to the house we were told not to worry about the mechanical timer on the front of the gledhill biolermate as it was all controlled by the electronic box thermostat in the hall. We are having hot water problems and the boilermate has been buzzing and disturbing my sleep for months. Does the mechanical timer actually have a function? Am i using it wrong? What positiion does the mechanical switch need to be in?Is it timer controlled, permanently on or permanently off? I have my thermostat in the hall set to come on depending on the temperatures; does the mechanical one still need to have on periods or should it be constantly on? V.confused

Additional
I use the thermostat in the hall to bring the heating on>.When the timer on the boilermate is set to permanently off the heating doesn't come on even by the thermostat so we have it set to permanently on. Is this right?

Hi - First of all your timer does determine when the heating is on - i.e when the pumps are active. Secondly, your hot water problem sounds similar to mine (See my post on "cold water at taps" and Mike's reply which later checks revealed to be spot-on). If you let me have an email address I can send you a user manual in PDF format, unless you already have one?
Cheers - Andy

Hi Andy,

The Boilermate 2000 is not known for buzzing - are you sure it isn't a Boilermate II? What hot water problems are you having? Is it just the buzzing or is there more to it than that?

The Boilermate (whatever version) needs to be driven by a gas (or oil) boiler running at MAX temp. If the boiler control is not set to MAX it can cause hot water problems and the Boilermate to 'call for heat' 24/7 instead of shutting down as it never gets hot enough. Paradoxically, turning your boiler control up to MAX may well make the Boilermate stop buzzing and make the hot water start working properly, as well as saving you fuel!

The timer on the front and the room 'stat together turn the radiators on/off by operating the circulating pump. Hot thermal store water is stored 24/7 in the boilermate tank and this is the water pumped around the rads by the CH pump. For the pump to run (and the rads get hot) the timer has to be in 'ON' condditon AND the room 'stat has to be calling for heat. It sounds as though yours is a 'programmabale' room stat in which case it has time control function too, which duplicates the function of the Boilermate timer but with more settings options. If this is the case, set the Boilermate timer to ON 24/7 and use the room 'stat timer to control the heating. The hot water is ON 2/7 by default and cannot be turned OFF on a Boilermate.

Cheers, Mike