Valiant combi-boiler Fault F28

[Dorsetfella]

Our boiler is roughly eight years old and has been working fine until now.
It can run perfectly for a day and half and then a red light and Fault code F28 appears,then obviously we press the ignite button and it works fine again until the next time.
It seems to have no pattern,it can work fine for a good while and other times switch off regularly in the same evening.
The water pressure is fine and also the demands of running a hot bath,shower,central heating seems to have no bearing on the fault i.e. I can run a hot bath/shower/whack heating up high and it handles it fine.
I've rung Valiant and they say they would charge £260 for a all in one style fix which means they will get an approved engineer to visit,diagnose and repair.
All parts and labour vat are included in that but it doesn't cover the heat exchanger of expansion vessel.
After speaking to previous residents it sounds like the boiler has never been serviced ever in its life

I've included pics of the serial label inside and of the fault panel.
Any help appreciated.

Thanks
Mark

Fault code

• Dorsetfella
• 4 Jun 2013
• 1

Boiler serial

• Dorsetfella
• 4 Jun 2013
• 1

 

[Agile]

Eight year old boiler and its never been serviced!

Get a local independent to come and service it and that will probably solve the problem! Will cost about £65 !

To others this is a wonderful example of what happens if you don't bother to get your boiler serviced!

Tony

 

[Dorsetfella]

Thanks for the obvious wheelbarrow of hindsight!

 

[BxlBill]

Hi Mark,

I'm having exactly the same problem that you described above. I'm wondering, did having the boiler serviced fix the problem? Or did it take more than that? The thing is, I had the boiler serviced this year, and it's always been regularly serviced, so I'm not sure that in itself will necessarily solve the problem.

Any info appreciated.
Thanks,
Bill

 

[Agile]

A boiler with a fault code regularly showing is faulty and I would charge to repair it rather than service it.

There are also different levels of activity which different RGIs put into servicing.

Tony

 

[muggles]

Hi Mark,

I'm having exactly the same problem that you described above. I'm wondering, did having the boiler serviced fix the problem? Or did it take more than that? The thing is, I had the boiler serviced this year, and it's always been regularly serviced, so I'm not sure that in itself will necessarily solve the problem.

Any info appreciated.
Thanks,
Bill

Was it properly serviced, IE did the service engineer take significant parts out of the boiler to inspect and clean them, or did he just attach a gadget to it and fiddle with the gas valve a bit?

F28 is Boiler Failed To Start, which could be an ignition fault caused by dirty electrodes, or could be something more sinister like a gas valve or ignition transformer fault

 

[BxlBill]

Thanks to you both for your replies.

Andrew, I wasn't the one at home when the boiler was serviced but I believe the technician was here for a good while (about an hour, I think) so presumably he did what he should have (incidentally, how long should a standard service take?)

Anyway, I think I need to get someone out to investigate and fix the fault. Sometimes there's no problem, sometimes there is -- such as when I came back last night from being away three days, and the flat was freezing because the boiler failed to come on as programmed! Grrrr, brrrr. Don't need that all winter.

 

[ScottishGasMan]

how long should a standard service take?

Depends a lot on who's doing it, manufacturers working on their own product, same boiler day in day out can have it stripped cleaned and rebuilt to the last nut and bolt and tested in 25minutes, someone unfamiliar with an appliance can spend 90minutes and still have done a lot less than the other guy.