HELP! I need a plumber...

[Screwdriver]

My relatively new Vailant boiler has been playing up, usually because the old Drayton SCR is a bit rubbish. I should replace it one day so would be interested to hear any recommendations.

Meanwhile with the unit set to "override" i.e. "ON", this is what happens when I hit the reset...

That doesn't usually happen! In the above video it seemed to fire up and run as expected. The little icon says "pump is running". At the instant I ended the video, it just stopped. This next one is more typical:

I figured I'd get a good ten years outta this thing and do not have a service contract and have not serviced it myself. I did have an engineer in recently to replace a valve (he spent 20 minute hammering on something inside, a little clip until, I had to step in and ask him to stop!).

Anyway, I have to fix this myself. Anyone here know what I should be looking for based on those grinding noises? How difficult is it to strip these things down?

 

[Screwdriver]

PS. I am just tweaking the YouTube setting to see the difference between private, unlisted, etc. OK done. "Unlisted" so you can see the vid but it doesn't clutter up my so called "channel".

 

[Screwdriver]

So a dozen views and no comment? I guess that means there is no obvious clue and it could be anything.

I'm going to whip the covers off and see if there's anything obvious. Pump is the most likely culprit and I assume all the weird noises are solenoid valves doing their thing before the pump icon appears and the heating starts. Shortly followed by it just switching off (the pipes do start to get hot).

Hot water is still good and in the first video, it even does run the CH for a few seconds so something is "on the edge" rather than say intermittently good/bad like say a sensor might be. If it's a grey area it suggest a worn mechanical thing or perhaps an issue with vapour lock/air in the pipes??

Normally you pop out of the house and are struck by an icy chill. Sadly that didn't happen this morning. It's just as cold inside as it is in the garden. Just in time for winter...

 

[Morrisman]

I have the same boiler, but i’m clueless about faults. I’ve got the manual and all that paperwork, if you need anything from it?

Couple of days ago my big gas tank finally ran out, nine months after we moved in, so I switched over to the smaller bottles and it took a few button presses to get it back in the groove.

Daft question, but I have to ask, you do have the right water pressure and the system is bled of air?

Do you get a fault code showing?

 

[Screwdriver]

Service manual? That would be handy. I bought this from new, direct from Vaillant (the last one burst into flames so they did a deal). Would it have arrived with the manual which I should still have somewhere or is that something you managed to acquire from some other source?

 

[Morrisman]

Service manual? That would be handy. I bought this from new, direct from Vaillant (the last one burst into flames so they did a deal). Would it have arrived with the manual which I should still have somewhere or is that something you managed to acquire from some other source?

I’d imagine it came with the unit, as there is also an installation and set up manual too. It’s probably available on line too.

 

[Morrisman]

 

[Morrisman]

 

[dobbslc]

You say that the hot water works? If that's the case it means the basic function of the boiler is ok ie gas solenoid, pump, fan etc
Will it run with both the CH & HW at the same time?
Could it be a seized shut 2 or 3 port valve causing the boiler tlock out due to overheating?
Worth taking the covers off them or trying the levers to see if the move.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Mine had a shut down issue...and was losing pressure too. It turned out to be a goosed zone valve.

As dobbslc says...if a valve is stuck it could cause auto shut down due to overheating.

When the water was on it ran ok...it was only when I tried heating without water that it would shut down.

Bosch...so different boiler but zone valves are always my first suspect and fairly cheap compared to a call out charge.

 

[Screwdriver]

Oh well, armed with this piece of paper I'm going in. https://www.vaillant.co.uk/downloads/z/ecotec/ecotec-installation-servicing-2009-261448.pdf

Wish me luck, a quick flick tells me this thing is more complicated than I had first suspected!

 

[slim_boy_fat]

armed with this piece of paper I'm going in......Wish me luck

Are you still alive? And is it a case of 'mission accomplished'?

 

[Screwdriver]

No this is as far as I got.

Before I could get to it I had a bit of tidying up to do, nice bit of storage space under that thing. Plus I had to chop up some more firewood for this evening, y'know, just in case like.

Now going to power it up and see what happens. If I'm not back in a couple of hours, all my troubles will be over.

 

[dobbslc]

I'm not back in a couple of hours, all my troubles will be over.

One way or another...

 

[Bladevane]

Probably a red herring but is the condensate trap clean and working?

 

[Monkey Harris]

Probably a red herring but is the condensate trap clean and working?

or pipe frozen... its that time of year..

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

https://www.yell.com/s/heating+engineers-north+london.html

 

[Screwdriver]

Probably a red herring but is the condensate trap clean and working?

Good call, not checked yet, still familiarising myself with the make/model and trying to call up the error codes. Checked the obvious stuff and given it a v.i. But I’m not seeing anything obvious so could be a control issue. Going to investigate the possibility of overriding the thermostat so when it’ll on, heating is definitely on.

At the moment though, I am so cold my feet hurt so I have retired to the fireplace.

 

[gaz1]

jamed pump there on that model

first thing to fire up is the central heating pump hence why your water goes colder on your therostat guage

then your second fan kicks in top right is the sound for it this is your igniter fan

then it fires up annd lights the gas like it does when on first vid

couldnt hear it this morning before work turned volume right up to hear it just now

you should really have that boiler serviced they have a massive problem on them

 

[brightspark]

any error codes showing ????