Folks,

Hopefully this is acceptably on topic for this list!? - Can anyone point me towards a service engineer for the above water heaters? I have inherited one which has a nasty habit of turning itself off (Including pilot light) every couple of minutes while running a shower. It doesn't seem to have problems running hot water into the sink. The only difference seems to be the far greater distance to the showerhead.

I'm stuck on this one and would appreciate any help!

Thanks

Peter

Hi Peter,
Cant help you with the service engineer but may have an explanation for your "fault". I have another mfg (Rinman.. or similar cannot remember exact make) and I had noticed a similar behaviour when using the shower. I have found generally when using the shower I would turn the Hot tap on full and then slowly increase the cold until the water was at a comfortable temperature. Generally only needed to turn the cold on very slightly.
I then discovered that if I turned the cold tap on a lot that the geyser would switch off rapidly sometimes taking the pilot light with it. This phenomenon only occurred when the cold was turned on quickly and like your case did not occur on the much closer galley tap.I am not sure if I am correct Peter, but I put this down to the restricted outlet of the shower causing a rapidly turned on cold tap to feed pressure back along the hot water line thereby almost equalising the inlet and outlet pressure of the geyser which would trick it into thinking the hot tap had been turned off, so switching off the geyser.
Maybe anyone else out there who has a similar install could let us know if this behaviour is common. Now that I have learned to turn the cold tap on slowly the problem has not reoccurred.
Need to watch out for the guests though........!
Rgds
R

Not sure if this is a solution to your problem but it might be worth
checking out....

I acquired a Broom Ocean 37 a couple of years ago with a geyser (gas)
based water heater . One irritating problem was the hot/cold shower
issue, i.e. when having a shower the water that initially emanated from
the shower head was hot/roasting... and then after a couple of seconds
the water became cold. After a while the water temperature might revert
again to hot and then switch back to cold...... Arrgghh!!!

After having the geyser checked it was suggested that the shower head be
replaced which was duly done and thereafter there was a constant flow of
HOT water..........: :-)

It turns out that the holes in the original shower head were clogged
thus preventing a constant flow of hot water AND causing the geyser to
turn off.

Good luck!

Paul J Scannell,
"Arthur", currently out of water and enjoying some TLC whereafter,
hopefully, she will be 'All Fired Up and Ready To Go!'

Peter Kingston wrote:
> Folks,
>
> Hopefully this is acceptably on topic for this list!? - Can anyone
> point me towards a service engineer for the above water heaters? I
> have inherited one which has a nasty habit of turning itself off
> (Including pilot light) every couple of minutes while running a
> shower. It doesn't seem to have problems running hot water into the
> sink. The only difference seems to be the far greater distance to the
> showerhead.
>
> I'm stuck on this one and would appreciate any help!
>
> Thanks
>
> Peter

Paul/Richard,

Many thanks for your replies. These have given me very useful info to
investigate.

Well done, and thanks again!

Peter.

Incidentally ISTR that soaking a shower head in vinegar dissolves scale type
clogging.

Paul Mc Cann


On 26/02/2008, Peter Kingston wrote:
>
> Paul/Richard,
>
> Many thanks for your replies. These have given me very useful info to
> investigate.
>
> Well done, and thanks again!
>
> Peter.

Reply Quote

Systemlink Ltd C2 south city business centre. Tallagh. Dublin 24. This is the service centre for vaillant in Ireland.
Sent from my BlackBerry? wireless handheld

Thanks Dermot.

Peter

Hi Peter,
Check the pilot jet and the lint filter on the pilot burner. If these are blocked or dirty the pilot light will go out when the main burner fires up, ie enough gas to burn the pilot light but not enough getting there when the main burner fires up.
A blocked shower head may restrict the flow of water and so the main burner shuts down, but it will not knock off the pilot light.
Kieran Walsh.

Thanks Kieran.

I'll check this out. It's the pilot light going out that confuses me. It doesn't happen at the sink, and the burners blaze away no problem. I wondered could it be a dodgy safety mercury switch, cutting the gas supply prematurely?

Regards

Peter

Hi Peter.
No mercury switch in that model that i know of.
If the pilot flame is weak it may well be lifting off the pilot burner if the main burner is shunting on and off because of the back pressure/ dirty shower head blockage.
There could also be dirt/ scale in a small filter in the inlet to the shower mixer. These filters are usually only to be found in thermostatically controled mixers.
Would you have changed your domestic pump recently and if you did is it the same outlet pressure as the original? This would also cause shunting. Just a thought.
Kieran.



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Sorry Kieran,

Showing my ignorance. I was referring to the pilot flame failure safety device, whatever is inside it. Ihave checked the showerhead which is a simple moulded unit which cannot be dismantled, other than from its hose. I ran some limescale remover through it and it seems to be clear. It didn't solve the problem. There isn't a mixer or filter. I didn't change any pumps or components,and doubt if the previous owners did.

The geezer doesn't seem to be shunting either. It burns away at a steady full-on pace while the hot tap and water-pump are running, The water pump trips in and out though, as there seems to be less pressure through the hot taps (Or more resistence if you know what I mean!), and when this happens at the sink it causes the geezer to power back to pilot flame only until the pump kicks in again. The cut-out and shut-down problem with the shower happens suddenly as if someone has tripped a switch. There is an expansion diaphram in the circuit, and I wonder has this a role in the problem?

Anyway, thanks for all your help. I'm sure you and the rest of the listees are well fed up with this topic. If anything else does occur to you I'd be eternally gratefull if you could pass it on. Maybe off-list to kingston2[AG]eircom.net?

Thanks again

Peter

---- Original Message --
From: Kieran Walsh - Tully Services
To: waterways[AG]iwai.ie
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 9:21 PM
Subject: Re: [waterways] Valliant Gas Geezer water heaters.


Hi Peter.
No mercury switch in that model that i know of.
If the pilot flame is weak it may well be lifting off the pilot burner if the main burner is shunting on and off because of the back pressure/ dirty shower head blockage.
There could also be dirt/ scale in a small filter in the inlet to the shower mixer. These filters are usually only to be found in thermostatically controled mixers.
Would you have changed your domestic pump recently and if you did is it the same outlet pressure as the original? This would also cause shunting. Just a thought.
Kieran.

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It is completely free: www.bullguard.com/freespamfi