Whilst using the shower, the hot water cut out. The boiler failed to fire up for water until I'd left it for about 10 minutes.
A service engineer has been round and 'diagnosed' that all it needs is a service and a chemical cleaner to be put through the system. Central heating is working fine. Any suggestions? Do you think the service engineers fix will work?! I'm now having to have the world's quickest showers to avoid being frozen when the hot water cuts out!

Florence, August 2007

I had this problem and it was the water inlet valve diaphragm which was at fault - the boiler will fire up initially for a while whilst the main head of pressure is high until it subsides after a while and then the boiler will think the demand has gone so will switch off heating the water. I guess you have had this fixed now but it cost me around 100-120 pounds to replace.

chris jones, November 2007

this guys fleecing you a service fault would affect both heating and water. A chemical clean would be more for your heating system. the boiler you mention is a very old appliance and there for you would be better gettting another engineer with more experiance. i would suggest its about 15-20 years old therefor you are looking for someone with about 7-15 years exp.hope this helps

gas engineer, August 2007