Hi.
Hopefully you super people one will be able to help us
I apologise for this wall of text, trying to be as descriptive as possible, skip down to bottom for quick version.
We have the Baxi 105 HE, with a wireless Drayton RF1 thermostat, it was installed about 5 or so years I think, not sure as I wasn't here then, and was serviced about a year ago etc etc.
I've helped put in plumbing and boilers in the past, as in put in whole systems years and years ago, so am pretty handy with a spanner, but only so much that I will replace easily sourced parts, and those systems weren't combi, and they had separate CH and HW valves, I get the general jist of things but everything about this combi is new spin on things to me....
Anyways no issues until about a few weeks ago, hot water worked fine and still does but sometimes the CH doesn't come on, I thought it was the wireless thermo batteries, changed them and same thing.
Then thought it was the wireless broadband router I had relocated mixing up the signals, moved it back and put the thermo closer to boiler, same thing happened.
Did a quick search (on here and other places) and people were saying it could be the diverter valve had become stuck, opened boiler up and had a look, push pulled the microswitch wires and generally had a look to see if anything was obviously wrong, cracked or broken wores etc, checked to see if the thermo receiver was working and it does (flashes when I change temp settings up and down, and green light comes on and stays on when flame icon is on the thermo display screen even if the boiler does not fire up) and it worked fine for a week, I figured it was a dodgy connection, but then it went intermittent again.
On a side note, it seems to only stop working if the heating comes on for a few minutes and turns off,like if I test it, and also seems to stay ok for a few days if CH is on for a good bit of time, but that maybe me looking into it too much, or just being hopeful.
Ok, so I started to look into how the diverter valve works, which is to say that they are same as the older ones, but just more compact and with more trickery inside.
When I put a HW tap on and both horizontal and vertical the pushrods work, turn off tap and both go back, smoothly by looks of it.
When I put the CH on no vertical pushrod movement when it doesn't fire up, but when it does fire the vertical pushrod works and flips the microswitch, and mmmm lovely warm heat.
If the CH diverter valve part was/is stuck then surely it would not move when the HW taps are turned on? Or am I mistaken?
Last night I did some testing with the microswitches, when I flip the top one trying to mimic the vertical pushrod moving, no lights happen on the control panel.
When I mimic the vertical pushrod and manually flip that microswitch, the HW icon lights up, boiler fires and we get heat (to the radiators.)
So it seems that both pushrods move, HW horizontal one is always fine, but when the thermo control is telling the vertical one to lift and to send hot water to the rads it sometimes doesn't work, what could cause this?
Wow, again sorry for that, I'm the sort of guy that likes every bit of info. Don't want to fork out for a whole new diverter valve if it isn't that.
Quick version:
Both DV horizontal and vertical pushrods work when on HW
Vertical pushrod only works when CH actually fires up (does not move when thermo says it is working but boiler isn't firing up)
Flipping top microswitch doesn't get any control panel lights working
Flipping front microswitch gets the HW icon to light, fires boiler up and warms the rads
No error icons on the control panel at anytime, even when thermo says the CH is on and it isn't firing.
Seems as if sometimes the CH vertical pushrod is not stuck but just isn't always working or getting the right instruction to lift when the CH comes on.
Cheers for any help, sorry if I have confused, any questions then just ask and I will give you the best info I can.
Hopefully you super people one will be able to help us
I apologise for this wall of text, trying to be as descriptive as possible, skip down to bottom for quick version.
We have the Baxi 105 HE, with a wireless Drayton RF1 thermostat, it was installed about 5 or so years I think, not sure as I wasn't here then, and was serviced about a year ago etc etc.
I've helped put in plumbing and boilers in the past, as in put in whole systems years and years ago, so am pretty handy with a spanner, but only so much that I will replace easily sourced parts, and those systems weren't combi, and they had separate CH and HW valves, I get the general jist of things but everything about this combi is new spin on things to me....
Anyways no issues until about a few weeks ago, hot water worked fine and still does but sometimes the CH doesn't come on, I thought it was the wireless thermo batteries, changed them and same thing.
Then thought it was the wireless broadband router I had relocated mixing up the signals, moved it back and put the thermo closer to boiler, same thing happened.
Did a quick search (on here and other places) and people were saying it could be the diverter valve had become stuck, opened boiler up and had a look, push pulled the microswitch wires and generally had a look to see if anything was obviously wrong, cracked or broken wores etc, checked to see if the thermo receiver was working and it does (flashes when I change temp settings up and down, and green light comes on and stays on when flame icon is on the thermo display screen even if the boiler does not fire up) and it worked fine for a week, I figured it was a dodgy connection, but then it went intermittent again.
On a side note, it seems to only stop working if the heating comes on for a few minutes and turns off,like if I test it, and also seems to stay ok for a few days if CH is on for a good bit of time, but that maybe me looking into it too much, or just being hopeful.
Ok, so I started to look into how the diverter valve works, which is to say that they are same as the older ones, but just more compact and with more trickery inside.
When I put a HW tap on and both horizontal and vertical the pushrods work, turn off tap and both go back, smoothly by looks of it.
When I put the CH on no vertical pushrod movement when it doesn't fire up, but when it does fire the vertical pushrod works and flips the microswitch, and mmmm lovely warm heat.
If the CH diverter valve part was/is stuck then surely it would not move when the HW taps are turned on? Or am I mistaken?
Last night I did some testing with the microswitches, when I flip the top one trying to mimic the vertical pushrod moving, no lights happen on the control panel.
When I mimic the vertical pushrod and manually flip that microswitch, the HW icon lights up, boiler fires and we get heat (to the radiators.)
So it seems that both pushrods move, HW horizontal one is always fine, but when the thermo control is telling the vertical one to lift and to send hot water to the rads it sometimes doesn't work, what could cause this?
Wow, again sorry for that, I'm the sort of guy that likes every bit of info. Don't want to fork out for a whole new diverter valve if it isn't that.
Quick version:
Both DV horizontal and vertical pushrods work when on HW
Vertical pushrod only works when CH actually fires up (does not move when thermo says it is working but boiler isn't firing up)
Flipping top microswitch doesn't get any control panel lights working
Flipping front microswitch gets the HW icon to light, fires boiler up and warms the rads
No error icons on the control panel at anytime, even when thermo says the CH is on and it isn't firing.
Seems as if sometimes the CH vertical pushrod is not stuck but just isn't always working or getting the right instruction to lift when the CH comes on.
Cheers for any help, sorry if I have confused, any questions then just ask and I will give you the best info I can.
