Avanta Remeha plus 24c not starting

[Tejas Gherkar]

I have had E13 error code on the boiler. I than tried to reset and restart the boiler to see if the error persists or goes away. However, on resetting it (pressed reset and enter buttons together) and then powering it down and up again, now it switches on, goes into self test mode and keeps on flashing P, 1.5 F, 1.4 and never stops. Earlier it used to do this for couple of minutes and then got stable but not anymore. Can anyone help please? We are without hot water or heating in cold at 1'c tonight.

 

[ianmcd]

stop powering it down, and just press the reset button on its own, not with enter button at the same time

 

[muggles]

E13 indicates a catastrophic overheat of the main heat exchanger which has blown the thermal fuse. You won't be able to reset that - you either need a new heat exchanger or more realistically a new boiler. A new heat exchanger is £500 plus fitting, and then some diagnosis would be required and possibly more parts purchased to prevent your new heat exchanger suffering the same fault as the old one. You could easily end up throwing £1000 at it

 

[Tejas Gherkar]

Thanks, what can be the root cause of the problem? I read somewhere that main cause of the problem can be outside boiler so I don't want that to persist and get newly fitted boiler go faulty as well. We had our thermostat turned off for almost two nights and a day (we both were working - essential workers so away from home) So I suspect there can be frozen frosty pipes somewhere which could've caused this. Ideally my thermostat should prevent this as it doesn't go below 5'c and even if it is turned off it keeps heating at 5'c, checked all the taps, which have water coming out at good pressure so not sure.

 

[muggles]

No, it's nothing to do with the pipework, water pressure, or anything else outside the boiler casing. The fault means that the outer section of the heat exchanger has overheated whilst the boiler is firing, to such an extent that the final safety measure has activated to prevent a fire. Could be due to lack of proper maintenance (the service kit for these boilers is over £100 to buy so often isn't used) but whatever the cause, the result is that the heat exchanger is now irreparably damaged.

 

[Tejas Gherkar]

Thanks a lot. My plumber mentioned that he can flush the heat exchanger and clean up to get boiler back up and running. Do you think that's possible? And if it is, how long it may run like that? I was almost prepared to part with £2.5k for new boiler in these difficult financial times but not sure if there is actually another viable and worth option to save my existing boiler for decent duration.

 

[muggles]

No, that won't fix it. The fault code you have occurs when the thermal fuse in the heat exchanger blows. It's a bit like a fuse in a plug, except that it reacts to temperature, and it can't be replaced.

Think of it as being like a kettle. There's been a failure in the base of your kettle, which has caused the fuse to blow as a safety measure. To fix this, your plumber is suggesting emptying the water out of the kettle and putting fresh water in. Clearly this won't fix the problem with the base of the kettle. If you replaced the fuse, it would just blow again as the fault is still there. You either need to buy a new base for your kettle, or a whole new kettle.

 

[Tejas Gherkar]

Understood. Thanks a lot for explaining, I had never dealt with boilers before, but have learnt a lot since last two days watching YouTube and through your answers. Really appreciate it.

 

[snb]

the fuse can be replaced. The part is available.