boiler nearly dead

[opps]

Hi all I have an alpha 240p. it has been slowly falling apart over the years.

I recently replaced the dhw diaphragm (again), at the same time i tried to clean out the secondary heat exchanger. I still need to turn the heating on to get hot water even though the diaphragm is moving as it should.

I now find that DHW/CH calls fail- the ignition/fan LED comes on and fails to go out, the burners therefore don't fire up. The only way to get it to fire up is to slam the door on the unit. Works every time (last 6 weeks). It is possible that the first time that this happened was after I replaced the diaphragm but forgot to turn the ch flow back on for a couple of days- had to go to a funeral abroad. The need to slam the door is becoming more frequent

Is this the fan sticking (rotates freely by hand) or the air pressure switch (flue is clear) or does the very very slow leak from the pipe up to the expansion vessel have an impact here(I am guessing not).

I appreciate that it is time to get a new boiler- the alpha is now 10 years old. I don't want to until I no longer need the heating- probably late march.

I am considering getting a new heat exchanger in the meantime from

http://www.ezypart.co.uk/parts/part_id__2173

This is half the price of all the other suppliers. Has anyone used this company and will it come supplied with the rubber washers?

I am happy to pay £60 for the exchanger but dont want to replace the fan at £150ish given that i will replace the boiler for a decent brand soon

Thanks in advance

 

[gas4you]

You need a RGI in to service it and clean the venturis etc.

 

[opps]

Thanks Gas 4you

Call me paranoid if you will but every service ever done has consisted of a man with a hoover and dusting brush.

No one has ever followed the procedure in the service manual, eg checking for voltages etc.

I did give it a blast out with my dusting gun

What do you think is achieved by slamming the door shut and helping it to fire up. It is not a major slam more of a chastising.

The fan works fine at the lower voltage- do they have two windings or just one? If two then perhaps the bump wakes it up. or maybe something on the pcb is loose as this is behind the door...