Glowworm Xtramax

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25 Nov 2012
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Location
Belfast
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United Kingdom
Hi guys......not a plumber or gas engineer, but I will do my best to describe our problem.

So, Glowworm Xtramax Combi boiler.......heating the house just fine, producing hot water just fine........until this happens.

20160502_211342.jpg

Now, we had our engineer out who tested an awful lot of things but not seeing the actual problem proved it difficult to pinpoint the fault.

It seemed to be very intermittent but only recently, have I found a scenario that will recreate the problem more or less on demand......well, more or less.

So, as I say....the heating runs absolutely fine in normal use, producing oodles of hot water and a cosy house.

But.

If I come down first thing in the morning, once the heating has had its morning burst of heating the house and say, running my shower and is now sitting quiet after replenishing its hot tank.........and run the hot tap just until I hear the heating kicking in again and then turn it off (imagine giving your hands a quick wash) then I hear the heating running for a bit.....after a few seconds I hear what I can only describe as a groan starting from a high pitch going to a low pitch from the heating, after which the 14 FF error is shown and the heating stops running.

What I have also found is that if it is in this 14 FF state, it does try and restart every few minutes or so but keeps returning this error..........UNTIL.............I run the hot tap for a bit......say a minute........then the heating starts just fine.

LOL! Sods law, of course I tried to recreate it and it wouldn't happen, but will grab a vid if I can and drop that here to see if it helps.

Bear in mind, the heating is going on 12 years old now and our heating man has been looking after it but is now leaning towards the possibility of the end of its serviceable life. No hard push of course so I do trust him...........but I guess if this was an easy/cheap fix I would like it done.

Any thoughts guys?

J
 
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having problems trying to understand your post sorry .

are you saying , with the hot water running the heating comes on ?

has your engineer looked at the thermistors or pump ?

with the heating pipes cold with no demand , try running the hot tap then feeling the 3rd pipe from the right ( 22mm pipe not the small one ) to see if you feel the pipe getting hotter

what has your engineer actually done or tested ?
 
Engineer has looked at many things in the system buddy......I don't know the full detail as I am not always around when he is here. Changed 2 thermistors just in case it was them as they were cheap and worth a punt.

I don't think he has looked at the pump as it runs absolutely perfectly until the steps I highlighted (below) happen.

Likewise, the heat exchanger has been mentioned and if its that, it probably makes no sense as the replacement ones I were seeing online were like ~450 quid.


The simple version of the problem.

- heating is up to temperature (house warm and hot water instantly)
- turn on hot water tap for a few seconds
- boiler fires up
- turn off hot tap
- heating makes a mad descending groaning noise
- heating throws F14 error
- heating does not work, F14 error will stay for around 30 minutes usually
- to fix it, run hot tap, leave it on
- heating eventually starts and F14 error gone
 

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