Vaillant Ecomax 18e rapidly switching on & off

[edscratcher]

Hello. I have an ECOMax 18E condensing boiler on which the burner periodically starts switching off and on rapidly - about every second. It does this for several minutes and then shuts down followed by an increasing noise of the fan. After a while the burner will relight and often do the same thing again.
I have followed the procedure in the manual to look at the last 5 fault codes which are, from F1 to F5, 1,17,1,13,1.
There is a film of the fault here - http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b29/indigoflair/Boiler Fault/?action=view&current=4b8b303d.mp4

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[mickyg]

when was it last serviced? and do you know if and when it had a replacement burner door seal? Usually after fitting a sticker will be placed on the boiler to show that the burner seal has been fitted and on what date. I would suggest you stop using it until its been looked at, as a) it could be dangerous and b) it could be doing more damage the longer you use it

 

[edscratcher]

Thanks for your reply mickyg. It was serviced exactly 2 years ago. The burner door was not replaced at that time but there is a sticker saying that it has been changed though the date wasn't filled in. The heat exchanger was replaced by a Vaillant engineer under guarantee back in 2006 a few months after installation. I imagine it was changed then?
It has been doing this for at least 2 years because I remember asking the service engineer what he thought and he had no idea what the cause might be. It doesn't seem to have got noticably worse - it just has bad phases. I want to sort it because the property is going to be let.

 

[mickyg]

well at least you have an upgraded seal, but its definately overdue replacement. The main problem seems to be an ionisation issue, which is gas stuff, so you'll need to get someone in. Try and find someone with a bit of know how on modern condensers. its a sad state of our industry that your average gas fitter will probably struggle

 

[edscratcher]

I'll have to get someone in to look at it. I wish it would go wrong reliably so that I don't get into a position of paying engineers to scratch their heads and replace parts on a 'suck it and see' basis. Vaillant say I should get 'my engineer' to call their technical advise line on site. Thanks for your help.
Cheers