useless boiler man

[citizenkain]

Im not sure where to post this

but was looking for a bit of advice,

 

 

my gas boiler started acting up last month,

got onto this mybuilder network thing about trades men looking for work

 

 

,had a gas boilerman call me,

said he would look at it on the Saturday,

 

 

told him I wanted the boiler servicing and it wasn't working, left him to it.

 

He said the spark initiator wasn't working right after servicing it,

he went away to get it,

came back twiddled around with it,

got the boiler working and asked me for £165,

this was for the service, the part and a years warranty.

 

Like a mug I paid him cash,

then I spent the rest of the week chasing up the receipt for the money,

eventually someone came round with a receipt.

 

The boiler worked ok that week,

I went away for three weeks, switched everything off.

 

came back last week, wasnt able to switch the boiler on,

sent him a message sunday night,

called him Monday morning he tells me its too late to send someone round,

 

 

he sends someone round Tuesday night,

bloke doesn't seem to have much of an idea,

says it might be this that or the other,

 

 

as hes going out the door he tells me he will call me today sometime (Wednesday), no calls at all.

 

where does this leave me, hes got my money, warranty don't seem to be worth nothing.

 

 

What can I do???

[king12345]

If you left an older boiler off for 3 weeks it is very likely that the fan bearing is gone.

When you go away, it's best to leave the boiler on because every so often it self reset and keeps things moving.

In other words this problem may not be related to the boilerman intervention at all.

[martin2006]

Can you tell me the make and model of the boiler please CK?

[citizenkain]

Its a ten year old ideal isar he30 gas boiler

[martin2006]

There are a multitude of reasons why your boiler may or may not ignite. On the display panel do you get an error code when you try to light the boiler?

[citizenkain]

the boiler ignites but after a while cuts off and f/l comes up,when I say a while I mean like a minute,the boilerman supposedly changed the spark initiator at the time hes supposed to have serviced it,it was going for a week,I shut it all down when I went away fro three weeks and now it wont keep going,he sent me a message that hes ordered a pump for it,I checked up on line and the pump for that is available locally for around £60,he just seems to be stringing it out

[martin2006]

If the boiler definitely ignites before shutting down then the fault is with the flame detection electrode and or the circuit board, nothing to do with the pump at all.

 

Please see pages 85 and 86 of the following

 

http://idealboilers.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/08/203319_inst.pdf

 

You can download and print a copy if you dont already have one

[citizenkain]

Hes saying it might be the diverter valve now

[wr1ght]

this happened with mine,and it was the flame detection electrode

[martin2006]

Once the burner has ignited, the flame burns over the flame detection electrode, the heat of the flame produces a small micro voltage which is relayed back to the circuit board. If that voltage is not present then the flame goes out for safety reasons, the circuit board assumes the gas has not been ignited and shuts off the gas valve.

I was an engineer in heating and plumbing for over 20 yrs, trust me, your fella is talking rubbish

[citizenkain]

im no gas engineer but I think your right martin

[citizenkain]

I managed to start the thing myself tonight,it was going the led light for the burner was on,i was filling the bath with hot water,only thing was the boiler was making a rattling/clicking sound as it was running.

I had a bath anyway and it didn't go off straight away.

I just looked in at it there just now,its flashing f/l so I switched it off.

Its deffo some kind of problem as you describe or a combination of one or two,if its working now and then I reckon as you say theres a loose wire,flame detection electrode,the pump must be buggered as well to make that rattling/clicking noise as its running,think Ill need to get someone more competent in

[martin2006]

The clicking is probably the spark electrode trying to re ignite the gas, or maybe the solenoid on the gas valve opening and closing

 

Its impossible to say with 100% accuracy being sat here

[martin2006]

Another very commom problem with these cast iron heat exchanger, early condensing boilers is they are susceptible to leaks from the heat exchanger.

 

In addition to this, they tend to rust from the inside out because the design wasnt up to getting rid of all of the condensate produced, this leads to water deposits in the base of the burner chamber, it pools there at its worst,

 

The spark and flame sensor electrodes pass through the base which pools with condensate in order to get back to the pcb so the small micro voltage shorts out and gives the false impression that the burner hasnt ignited and hence it shuts down.