BAXI Solo 2 50 PF

[noplumbluck]

I have been trying to resolve this for a couple of weeks and the wife is getting restless now. My 10-year old BAXI developed a noisy fan and at the same time stopped heating properly. This is what I've done so far (in this order): replaced the fan and the PCB (fan got quiet but still heating problems), suspecting a flow problem did the anti-sludge treatment, replaced the pump and the 3-port valve, then the boiler thermostat, thermostat sensor, pressure switch. No matter what I do the symptoms remain the same:
Starting from cold, the boiler fires up as per manual; a few minutes later the burner goes off but the fan (and the pump) stay on. This continues for a very long time (anything up to an hour or even longer), almost as if the system is waiting to reset itself. Switching the boiler off and 10 sec later on on the knob switches off the fan but I still need to wait in excess of 15 min until the burner restarts. The pump keeps on running, the pilot light is on and I can hear the spark clicking. By the time the burner restarts the flow pipe on the boiler is really cold. I think this is weird. Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance.

 

[tonybhoy]

I have been trying to resolve this for a couple of weeks and the wife is getting restless now. My 10-year old BAXI developed a noisy fan and at the same time stopped heating properly. This is what I've done so far (in this order): replaced the fan and the PCB (fan got quiet but still heating problems), suspecting a flow problem did the anti-sludge treatment, replaced the pump and the 3-port valve, then the boiler thermostat, thermostat sensor, pressure switch. No matter what I do the symptoms remain the same:
Starting from cold, the boiler fires up as per manual; a few minutes later the burner goes off but the fan (and the pump) stay on. This continues for a very long time (anything up to an hour or even longer), almost as if the system is waiting to reset itself. Switching the boiler off and 10 sec later on on the knob switches off the fan but I still need to wait in excess of 15 min until the burner restarts. The pump keeps on running, the pilot light is on and I can hear the spark clicking. By the time the burner restarts the flow pipe on the boiler is really cold. I think this is weird. Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance.

Does the spark keep on clicking after the pilot has lit?

 

[noplumbluck]

Yes, I am sure it does when the burner is off but I can't tell what is going on with the burner on.

 

[tonybhoy]

Yes, I am sure it does when the burner is off but I can't tell what is going on with the burner on.

You must have short on the spark lead (high tension).

Check the lead it may be touching the boiler casing or replace.

Boiler thinks the pilot hasn't established and is still trying to light it so it won't go to second stage (burner lit).

 

[noplumbluck]

Thanks for that, the wire looks ok and does not respond to my moving it about but I will check it tomorrow when it's not live. As I was sitting there watching it, it did this thing again:
starting from lights on the boiler: boiler on, pilot on, fan on, burner off, spark clicking, and a cooled-down flow, it decided to fire up the burner. About 5 min (one cigarette, to be precise) later, the water on the valve turned reasonably hot, the burner went off, the other lights remained on. Clicking continues. I never thought it could switch off the burner without turning the fan off at the same time.

 

[tonybhoy]

Thanks for that, the wire looks ok and does not respond to my moving it about but I will check it tomorrow when it's not live. As I was sitting there watching it, it did this thing again:
starting from lights on the boiler: boiler on, pilot on, fan on, burner off, spark clicking, and a cooled-down flow, it decided to fire up the burner. About 5 min (one cigarette, to be precise) later, the water on the valve turned reasonably hot, the burner went off, the other lights remained on. Clicking continues. I never thought it could switch off the burner without turning the fan off at the same time.

Pilot injector could be blocked .

High tension lead needs a certain amount of heat in order to create/make the circuit so perhaps your pilot ,even though it is on,is not on properly as in a large enough flame.

 

[noplumbluck]

As things were getting a bit too close to gas, had to call in a CORGI guy. Three hours and a couple of phone calls to the BAXI helpline later it turned out to be an ignition solenoid problem, so Tony was in the right area. What surprised me was that when my engineer called the BAXI helpline the first time he got a completely wrong advice. On his second call, the helpline guy was different and had offered the correct solution. In both cases my engineer was asking identical questions. Has anyone else had this problem with the quality of the BAXI team?

 

[gas4you]

Yep, you get a different answer to the same problem each time you call

 

[noplumbluck]

In any case, the boiler has been stable for two days now. This is a great forum, thanks!