I've Been Gledhilled!!

Hi, I am new to this forum, but really glad I have found you. Mike I have read through the site but there does not seem to be an answer to my problem, so here goes lets see if anyone can help me.
I have a 5 year old Gulfstream A Class. It is fitted in a 3 storey town house with no external wall, I am led to believe that the pipe that removes the fumes also draws in fresh air.. ?
Anyway I have tried unsuccessfully to get boiler breakdown cover on this boiler. I signed up with British Gas , Technician came out to do preliminary inspection and guess what he said? Oh you have one of those !! Sorry mate we dont work on them !! Why not ask I? "To complicated mate". At that he picks up his tools and leaves.
I then contacted Gledhill Responce Ltd in Blackpool, great think I a Gledhill specialist in Blackpool where I live and where I think the factory was who made them. ( may be wrong there but will happily be corrected. )
So I contact them via email. a nice lady called Sue emails me straight back with the following. Quote

The Gulfstream appliance was manufactured by Gledhill Water Storage and that company went into administration in October of 2008.

Gledhill Response are a specialist repair company that deal with electrical thermal storage units and unfortunately we do not cover gas appliances and are therefore unable to offer maintenance contracts or repairs / services for these appliances.

So I still have nobody to service my A Class. So I contact the Installing plumber. A company who will remain nameless, However they did and possibly do still do a lot of work for Kensington Developments , they are from Lancaster and guess what... Not interested in servicing the said boiler.

In the mean time a couple of niggling problems have started. Firstly, the water is scalding hot. I cannot find out how to turn the thermostat down on the hot water system. I have read the instruction manual, but I suspect it is a factory set setting circa 55 Degrees . Well this certainly is not 55 Deg. Also I have a very slight drip from the overflow. This was not a problem until last year, and the freezing winter. It froze, backed up, and caused a sligt problem with a large stain on a ceiling.
Now I must say that the boiler is working fine. But it has never been serviced. I do not want to call any old heating engineer, because I am terrified of someone touching this unit who does not fully understand it.
So can any member of this forum recommend a technician in the Fylde coast area , who is capable of servicing this boiler, and rectifying my slight problems ?
Thank you for taking the time to read this post.
Nick

Nick,

You have outlined a pretty clear description of the history and position with Gulfstream boilers now. I suspect when set up, Gledhill Response took a policy decision not to be Gas Safe Registered for simplicity, so as a new company chose not to offer maintenance on any of the old Gledhill company's gas-fired products.

Regarding servicing, my personal view diverges from the 'official' advice. A full dismantling service on a Gulfstream rarely reveals any reason to have dismantled in the first place so I'm inclined to recommend carrying out the set of gas safety checks that comprise a 'gas safety inspection' only. These are the same checks done when a property is rented out and comprise a "landlord gas safety inspection". When this is carried out,a safety certificate is issued detiling the checks done. Much easier and less intimidating to a run-of-the-mill gas bod who knows little about Gulfstreams specifically. I suggest you ring a local Gas Safe Registered technician and ask for a landlord gas safety inspection on your own house, even though you live in it yourself. One day these will be compulsory for home owners as well as landlords anyway, I reckon. Some of the forms we use for issuing them are already titled "Landlord/Homeowner Gas Safety Certificate".

Moving on to the other points, The is nothing you can easily do to address the scaldingly hot tap water. This is a 'known problem' with A-Class Gledhill Gulfstreams and Electramates. It is not adjustable. One solution I've used in the past has been to install a thermostatic blender valve on the outlet to give the user a temperature control. Not cheap, but fixes the problem very effectively. The dripping 'overflow' is the 'safety discharge warning pipe actually ;-) This is another 'known problem' caused by loss of charge pressure in the expansion vessel. Sometime they can be recharged but on the Gulfstream the internal diaphragm is usually perished and leaking so new expansion vessel is needed. An easy repair. A new pressure relief valve is usually required too.

HTH,
Mike

Mike, thanks a lot for your reply.
I will certainly book a gas safety inspection.
I popped the front panel off the unit, and can see the leak is coming from a small copper pipe, which exits from a galvanised box. It drips into a black bulb which is obviously designed to catch this drip. Below it is another pipe which I also suspect is some form of overflow as it connects into this waste copper pipe.
Mike if you know of a local technician who can do this repair for me , please could you let me know ?
Thanks once again. Nick

Nick,

Sorry I don't know of anyone to suggest, but it a is very common fault, regularly cropping up with virtually every make and model of ordinary gas combi boiler too. Any general boiler repair technician who is any good will immediately recognise the problem and know exactly how to fix it.

Mike

Thanks Mike, have a good day