So the big news is that, after 2½ months with no hot water, on Tuesday a man came and fitted a Worcester Bosch Greenstar 4000, and when I got home from the evening’s training session I was able to have a shower with warm water! It’s quite pleasant, as it turns out, and I suspect it might catch on.
Obviously it’s much better than the old one ever was, even at its best, and will no doubt cost much less to run, making a mockery of my attempts to drag every drop of life out of the old inefficient one. Also I can now control the heating from my phone, like one of those modern people.
Just for fun, I trawled back through my old Facebook posts to unearth the history of keeping the old 28CDi mostly working for about a decade after it should have been put out of its misery …
• February 2015 (I know because it’s the third-from last stub in my last-ever cheque book): had the boiler serviced, and was told it was pretty much on its last legs and I’d soon need to think about replacing it. Decided to stop having it serviced instead.
• April 2015: replaced the fan, which had seized up and no longer triggered the pressure switch that allowed the boiler to light.
• May 2016: “I think I’m going to have to get a new boiler soon.”
• April 2017: flushed out the heat exchanger. “Let’s hope that ekes another couple of years out of it before it finally needs replacing.”
• March 2018: replaced the diverter valve diaphragm, so I could have hot water without the heating being on too. Didn’t work (“Might be time to admit defeat and call a professional”). Fortunately replacing the entire valve, along with the heat exchanger, did the trick, and professional help was avoided.
• February 2022: replaced the heat exchanger O-rings to stop a leak, and dried out the PCB. “hopefully that’ll keep it going for a bit longer.”
• 11 July this year: realised I had a fairly major leak from the hot water pipe under the kitchen floor. Turned off the hot water, and left a dehumidifier running 24×7 in the kitchen for a few weeks to hopefully dry things out.
• 5 September: after my half-hearted efforts to find a non-busy plumber failed, replaced the pipe myself with one running artfully round the frame of the door to the utility room. Turned on the water to find that it was, if anything, too hot – the diverter valve seemed to have gone again, and this time the burner just kept running, regardless of whether a tap was turned on. Turned off the boiler.
Other than that, not a huge amount to report. Fat Cat pub night again on Wednesday, and the Saxons 5 mile race on Sunday (rounding off my lowest mileage week since I caught Covid in 2022 – this time purely due to laziness).
