Mike the Boilerman -

Your Gas Safe Registered boiler 

and central heating repair technician in west Berkshire. Willing to travel :)

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Nextgen Thermacoil…

If The Fabdek Thermacoil is a bit of a strange beast. It’s hard to discover much about it’s history other than a now defunct company from Milton Keynes used to sell it really aggressively, mainly as a replacement for the Gledhill Pulsacoil 2000. It is styled to look very ‘space age’, in a matt black casing and its name in shiny black lettering, but inside it is a crude and basic thermal store topologically the same as the original basic Gledhill Pulsacoil. 

Things to check if your Pulsacoil isn’t working:

1) Is the Pulsacoil actually hot? Feel the various pipes emerging from your Pulsacoil. At least some of them ought to be hot. If none is hot the night-time heater probably isn’t working, in which case try turning ON the ‘boost’ heater. All Pulsacoil boilers are rather prone to the night time off-peak heater failing so they all have a second ‘back up’ or ‘boost’ heater to use. On most Pulsacoil models this will be connected to a third electrical switch on the wall which is usually kept turned OFF. Turn it ON and wait an hour. The hot water may well start working again. The BOOST heater is expensive to run though so you’ll still need to get the off-peak heater fixed. (The Pulsacoil A-Class has a little black button on the front panel to press for ‘boost’ heat rather than a separate switch on the wall.) In some cases there is an “Economy Seven” time switch on the wall next to to Pulsacoil. If you have one, check it is actually turned ON. The usually have a rocker switch easily knocked OFF when putting away brooms, ironing boards etc.

2) Is the header tank sitting on top of the Pulsacoil correctly filled with water? If not, fill it to the water level line usually marked on the side. This could take as much as several buckets of water. 

4) The Pulsacoil 2000 suffers from sensor failure, and like a computer, turning it OFF then ON again occasionally clears the fault. If you have a Pulsacoil 2000 try turning the switches on the wall OFF for a few seconds, then ON again.

5) The Pulsacoil itself is hot but still not producing hot water. There are a number of possible reasons but none fixable by the user unless you are handy with spanners, electricity and plumbing. If you are, you might find a visit my Pulsacoil repairs website link below. helpful. Reams of information there you’ll find useful to diagnose and fix it yourself. Otherwise I’m afraid you’ll need to call someone like myself out. I can give you advice and/or visit if you contact me on 07866 766364.

If you are technically minded and want to understand your Pulsacoil better or fix it yourself, I run the Gledhill Repairs discussion forum (opens in new tab) and a separate website specifically for the Pulsacoil which contains a wealth of information about them. (pulsacoil-repairs.co.uk). You will hopefully find both useful.

Mike

Pulsacoil 2000 repaired in Reading