I've just bled all the radiators in my flat, and now my Profile 50e boiler has gone mad. The pilot light doesn't come on unless the thermostat on the boiler is set to max, and when it does come on it makes a frightening chugging noise with an intermittent "ping" sound. Does anyone know what's wrong with it? I've turned it off at the mains out of fear.

Dana, January 2006

hi,
hard to say without more info, but sounds like either an airlock, or lack of pressure in the radiator water system.
if you have a filling loop tap and guage then you need to top up the pressure on the guage to about 1.5.
if you have a loft tank then it is possible the ballvalve has stuck and needs to be freed.
if these things are too hard foryou to work out then unfortunately you need a heating engineer...unlikely to be the boiler at fault

graham, January 2006