… is a great month for your back boiler to pack in. Brr.

Noticed that I wasn’t getting any hot water; checked, and the boiler pilot light has blown out. It’s an ancient system and always been a pig to fire up, but I just cannot get the pilot re-lit.

I’ve rung a Man who’s coming tomorrow, any suggestions in the meantime (other than a thick jumper)?

The Man reckoned it’s probably the thermocouple. Does that sound about right? What sort of money am I looking at here, any ideas?

Ta.

When I had my boiler serviced (probably about 20 years old) he replaced the thermocouple – he just got a spare one out the van, not sure he even charged me for it as I think they cost pennies, so you’re probably looking at about £60-£80 callout / labour if that’s all that’s wrong. You may as well get him to service it since he’s taking it apart.

There’s a lesson to be learned here but it would be cruel to say that now. 🙂

Backup heating system?

🙂

Or a pre-winter service.

TBH, it needs servicing with a new one, it’s probably 30 years old now.

If it’s working (or simple to repair) I wouldn’t get a new one. A thermocouple is a pretty consumable part anyway. Our one must be getting on for 25 / 30 yrs old. I have it serviced annually and it’s never let us down. It’s probably not the most efficent thing, but I heard of lots of people having issues with newer boilers. It’d have to be pretty inefficent to warrent shelling out a few grand on a new one just on economy grounds.

Hopefully, if it’s a thermocouple, it’ll just be labour as jon1973 says…thermocouples are only pennies.

I assume you’ve tried googling for an online pdf of the service manual?

Not recently, but I have previously without success. Glow-worm Majorca 346.

What does a ‘service’ entail? Might ask him to do that while he’s here.

What does a ‘service’ entail?

If I’m honest…

…foctivano.

I didn’t watch him do it, but I think they clean all the burners, check all the parts for damage/wear, CO checks and basically give it a good hoover to get rid of the dust. It took him a good hour, so there’s probably a lot more to it then that. It’s well worth it. For peace of mind more than anything else.

does the pilot actually light? I?f it does does it go out when you let go of the button after 20 seconds? release it really slowly as well.

If it lights then goes out as above then it is the t.couple.

If it doesn’t light, lots of other possibilities but would go with pilot injector first.

No, it doesn’t light. Pressing the button goes ‘clunk’ but not much else.

Can you hear the gas flowing when you press the button? Do you see a spark? Could you get a lit taper in there to light it?

Can’t hear the gas, but from memory I’m not sure I ever could. Might be worth a punt I suppose, though I’m not wholly sure how accessible it is. Might see more if I take the fire front off.

It’s been a few minutes now, should we call the fire brigade and an ambulance?

(-:

No dice. Even with the fire removed, it’s largely inaccessible. It’s not readily apparent where I’d get to the pilot beyond line-of-sight through the little viewing keyhole, and with the week I’m having if I were to poke around in the dark with a taper I’d set fire to the chimney or worse.