Diverter Valve fault - Manufacturers repar fee!

[LeadFarmer]

I established last year on this forum that I may have a faulty diverter valve on my dreaded Ideal Isar M30100 boiler.

Ideal are quoting me £210 to send their engineer out and repair any fault. I guess this is perhaps more expensive than a local plumber might charge, but is this a reasonable price or is it on the expensive side?

It appears this is a standard callout & repair fee that covers any repair to any fault I may have.

Despite my thermostat being turned right down during last summer the radiators were still getting hot. The left hand pipe coming out of the boiler is hot when I turn the hot taps on. As the boiler has a constant pre-heat function for the hot tap water, I assume that while this tap water is being pre-heated ready for use, this hot water is leaking into the heating pipes instead.

So is their price reasonable or expensive. And should I get a pre-heat disabling kit fitted?

 

[Agile]

The diverter valves tend to get stuck.

Mostly they can be just cleaned and lubricated but many engineers dont like doing that and prefer to change the whole unit.

You can change just the moving parts but then you still have to clean the inside which few engineers do properly.

The kit might be about £40 and the whole valve about £100 so the manufacturers price starts to become more reasonable.

If there is a preheat disable kit available then it would be a good idea to get it fitted at the same time. It was only available for some of the later models so ask first with your serial number.

Tony

 

[shambolic]

On the early M series isars they used the Honeywell (grey square type) You can get a cartridge (same as Baxi honeywell one) that inserts into the valve. The head come off by pressing small grey button on left side of it and twisting anti clockwise. you can then see if the spring is fully out or stuck in or in mid (usual cause of thsi fault) your HW will be pretty poor too.
To change the mains to boiler should be off and the 2 isolating valves on the flow and return closed and boiler drained via nipple on the bottom right.
It is no more than a 30 min job.

 

[LeadFarmer]

Thanks for your help.

I appreciate it might not be a difficult job to do myself, but Ive no experience of working on boilers so i would probably do more harm than good.

I guess then that if a new valve is £100 for me to buy, then Ideals £210 fee is perhaps not such a rip off.

Might ring a few plumbers and get an estimate from them first, before deciding whether to use Ideal.

Cheers

 

[Paul Barker]

Get a competent person to fit a cartridge. whole job no more than £120.

But the boiler is prone to other issues and if Ideal will take you on contract following this repair bight their hands off.

 

[gas4you]

I would recommend getting Ideal out.

I couldn't replace the DV on this for this price

 

[Paul Barker]

the DV cartridge is quite an easy job on them.

 

[LeadFarmer]

I rang Ideal today to see if it was still under guarantee as there is a date of 02/10/09 printed next to the seriel number. I wondered if this was the guarantee expirey date but they said it wasnt under guarantee.

Paul Barker, I might see if they do a service contract once its repaired. I considered a contract with either British Gas or similar company but even if they repaired this fault under contract, they average about £120 for the year plus £50 fee for each repair so not a huge saving.

And if they send out an engineer to do an inspection when signing up, they might spot the fault and not cover it.

Looks like I'll be getting my wallet out!

 

[Paul Barker]

Well the British Gas cover is pretty good for you, but I don't know the price of the Ideal one. In my experience I would expect the manufacturer of any boiler to be better equiped. Their guys should have every part on the van for instance.

 

[hect]

Im not sure preheat disablement kit works with this, although it is a flow switch and parallel resistor that fools the pcb into thinking no need for DHW due to low resistance

 

[nickso]

To be honest I would get us out, as it could have several faults that would be covered under the £210 fee - but thats your choice!!

To be honest I would get us out, as it will have several faults that may be covered under the £210 fee - but thats your choice!

 

[gas4you]

Sounds that Ideal, as usual, think that talking up their products will make them not have all the faults we find.

I shows Ideals main fault, that of sticking their head in the sand and pretending there's no problems with any of their boilers, whilst blaming all of us installers

The biggest problem with Ideal, apart from their products, is the head office attitude, not the engineers out on the patch who are having to do a stirling job trying to keep Ideal's name going

 

[Paul Barker]

OP don't get too weighed down by the politics.

The boiler is likely to need a proper checking over which only a few would know how to do on your particular boiler. Clearly Ideal would know, and are in a position to keep it reliable for you.

Prevention is better than cure, get the right people in to analyse it properly fix it up and you should be OK.

Cheaper option than a new boiler.

 

[LeadFarmer]

Thanks guys, think on this occasion I will get Ideal to come out and repair, and then consider afterwards whether to go for a service contract or not.

I now know their fee isnt extortionate, which was my original concern.

Thanks

 

[gas4you]

Go for their £299 fixed price repair and a further 12 month warranty on all of the boiler.

Believe me you will need it