Tearing My Hair Out !!

[Nickg]

Hi Eveyone Its my first post & thanks for letting me in.


I am tearing my hair out at a problem i have had for 2 years now & going mad as the people who come & try to fix this dont seem capable of doing so.The boiler i have is a GlowWorm Energysaver 40e the problem is every now & then it randomly wont heat the water or the central heating.Here's how it goes.When the water is on or the heating the gas would fire up & work very well but all of a sudden at any time day or night it will refuse to heat anything up.The gas fires up for about 10 seconds the clicks off.The it would click on again but as the gas is going you would get a click,click,click sound & the gas would go off then when i turn the dial at the front from the 1 postion to the energysaver postion .The gas would fire up & go off again after 10 seconds.In this time i can hear the water & the fan going. The company who deal with it have come out 14 times now & replaced every single part outside of the boiler pump etc & the electrode,Pcb board inside the boiler but nothing else.What happens is they take so long to come out (between 48 & 96 hours) the boiler is working again .So they say "sorry cant do nothing because its working now"so any advice would be appricated or help as i speak now its broken down again & my kids are freezing & i have had to turn the imerstion on for the water thanks..

 

[gasgeezer]

could be a faulty gas governor on the meter sticking and freeing intermittently have had this on new installations.could be condensate partially draining the siphon has a cut out if it gets wet on top of the siphon it will run fan but not ignite .had one the other day dripping on the cut out from h/exch. pipe union. electrode lead shorting on boiler case gas valve sticking, burner pressure out

 

[Nickg]

Still havent got the boiler to go .But have now noticed that its dripping water from the back of the boiler.Also where its dripping the case is a bit rusty so i gather it must have bin happening for a little while & i havent noticed it.They are comming tomorrow to have a look fingers crossed.

 

[andsam]

If the condensate trap is full of debris or slow at letting condensate out it will stop the boiler rectifing on ignition. This means it will send out the spark to light the boiler but will not sense the flame because it earths through the condensate trap full of water. If they are coming to look at it tell them to unscrew the red cap ( its normaly red ) underneath the condensate trap and clean any crap out. Also pour some water over the top heat heat exchanger ( small amouts ) this will help flush some of the crap away again through the condensate . Water inside the combustion chamber could be from a blocked condensate or it could be the burner leaking water.

 

[Paul Barker]

May be that the seal between inner and outer flue is damaged or missing, if so would have been an installation fault.

I really upset a very big local name for diagnosing this for a fault on a boiler he installed and stating it was due to incorrect installation. Insurance company wouldn't pay out, all I had was a well knmown and respected local firm hating my guts a customer from hell hating my guts (because his insureres wouldn't pay out, they didn't pay me, so I said get the installer back). You'd think that would be simple, last I heard was a slanderous text message from the customer stating the local big boy had just told him I was only a nurse, thanks a lot mate, were his last words. Haven't heard a thing since so I guess the bad installation big boy went back in the end.

He still won't talk to me, and I refused to do any more work for that insurance company. They can find another fool to go all round the county on a Friday night for £35 fix it or don't get payed deal! Gladly shot of them.

 

[Nickg]

I have just had them come round.I told him about the red cap & so he removed it & cleaned out the tank all seem well.Then for the first time while he was hear it played up badly.So he striped the boiler & cleaned it & put it all back & it still done it.Horray i thought he has now put it down to the Pcb,The lead & the electrode.He is going to replace all 3 as he is saying the flame is no proveing itself but dont know when that will be but he has gone now to the shop to order them.Hopefully next week but in the meantime he has left me a heater cheers.

 

[Agile]

Dont want to worry you, but saying the flame "is not proving itself" sounds to me like the same effect you would get if the condensate trap was not emptying properly.

I assume that the condensate discharge pipework has been tested for an adequate flow and that the electrode has been measured to confirm that its not the condensate trap preventing flame detection.

For those who dont know, a simple condensate trap "not full" test is made by having an electrode at the top of the trap connected in parallel with the flame detection electrode.

Tony Glazier

 

[gasgeezer]

When he comes back ask him to check the trap is draining by gettiing a small watering can and tipping it into the h/exch. tray this will verify it is draining/ not leaking if accessible do the same down the flue this will confirm fan not leaking and inner flue is ok.

 

[andsam]

You can pull the cap off the condensate trap with the ignition leads still connected if it then fires and rectifies you know it is some thing to do with the trap.