W/B 26CDI XTRA, Hurrendous noise, air flow fault.

[Ti]

Hi,

My mother has the above boiler which was installed in 2000 and serviced up until last year by British Gas. Sod's law it started misbehaving just as she came out of homecare or w/e they call.

No matter CH or DHW it would struggle to heat up from cold; making slight booming ignitions, ignition sparking when flame visibly lit, solonoid clicking, flame light on and off, sometimes even ignition lockout, would happen for a couple of minutes until it warmed then it would run no problems.

Friday morning she did the washing up and shortly after went to turn on the CH when she heard a horrible noise coming from the boiler and quickly switched it off for fear of it blowing up.

I have since tried the DHW and it sounds exactly like this but louder and continuous and ends with the boiler not firing and flashing: Air flow fault.

I am trying to find out the fault/s, a rough estimate on repair cost and also opinions on if it would be better to replace altogether?

Thanks for your time.

 

[Agile]

Very foolish to cancel homecare when a boiler gets older!

They make their money when its new! They will not usually take on old boilers because its not profitable for them.

Thats still a totally repairable boiler!

The only way to diagnose is in front of the boiler. Sounds as if it could be a blocked condensate drain or a blockage inside the boiler or seriously wrong combustion settings ( which we dont advise on here ! ).

Unlikely to be too expensive. Meaning probably closer to £100 than £300.

Tony

 

[Ti]

Thanks for your swift response Tony.

She had a bit of falling out with BG after the last engineer visit, he was cursing and moaning a lot about having to work on it and trying to convince her she needed a new one. There was also an issue with pricing but I wont go into that here.
Though we both agree it was foolish to cancel the homecare.

Anyway back to the Boiler itself, I lifted the front off to have a look see if the condensate trap was full of sludge and was surprised to see a manky piece of kitchen roll stuffed in on top where the black pipe connects; seemingly covering up a small leak! You can tell it has been wet and dry numerous times with dirty water.
This is the kind of service she has been paying for; bodge it 'n scarper.

The rear portion of the trap is full of water with just a few small bits of sediment in the bottom, certainly not full of sludge, the front portion is ~1/3 full; would this indicate a blockage here?

 

[Ti]

After a little search it seems this is normal for the trap to remain partially filled to prevent fumes escaping via the condensate drain instead of the flue.

As I cannot get it to fire up; I'm guessing a (non-power) flush wouldn't help much as it's recommended to be ran with the CH on?

 

[Ti]

Called W/B in hopes they'd put it onto a service plan but it's too old. They do a fixed rate repair for £250, would I do better just getting in a local engineer?

 

[Andygasman2010]

Sorry to hear about the bad service from BG.

Your fault could certainly end up being a lot more than £250, on the other hand it could be £100 or less so the WB fixed price repair is a reasonable option.

Tony... BG take on pretty much anything out there, regardless of age or condition (within reason)

 

[Ti]

From W/B online T+C's.....

In the event that the fault is not product related, or alternatively if the fault is due to an installation error or because the system requires cleansing, then our engineer will advise you of this on the day and we reserve the right to charge an inspection fee.

might not be such a good idea after all.

 

[bolshy]

To get some perspective on this, why not ask BG what their fixed price repair quote is........

 

[Ti]

To get some perspective on this, why not ask BG what their fixed price repair quote is........

Because I expected them to be overpriced, nothing to lose from giving them a call I suppose.

 

[Andygasman2010]

BG charge about £80 for 30 mins, £200 for 2hrs and £400 for 2hrs plus.

 

[bolshy]

As I thought, a reputable local RGI is your best bet then.....

 

[petit_pablo]

haha, that will be a fun fix. Id say the condensate sump is blocked, as jobs go thats a ****ter to unblock

Edit - hang on ive just watched the video. Thats a newer model than a cdi xtra in the video

Go with agiles 2nd suggestion

 

[Ti]

haha, that will be a fun fix. Id say the condensate sump is blocked, as jobs go thats a ****ter to unblock

Edit - hang on ive just watched the video. Thats a newer model than a cdi xtra in the video

Go with agiles 2nd suggestion

Yes the boiler video is not mine; it was the only one I found that sounded like the same noise, albeit quieter and not constant.

When you say a ****ter of a job it sounds expensive.

 

[bolshy]

Get a decent local independent in. It will be cheaper than BG.

 

[Ti]

Local engineer's (W/B accredited installer) verdict; "lots of problems, not worth throwing hundreds at, need a new one."