baxi platinum 28he with no rain ingress tray surely not????

[howard5814]

Hi,

Can anyone tell me if the baxi platinum 28he should have a catchment tray to catch any water that may get into the the inlet side of the flue ? if so whats the part called

my dads boiler went down with a e160 error fan fault so got the gas engineer out who proceeded to go about looking at the fan when he opens the boiler to find it full of water and says there is no point in replacing the fan untill the water issue is solved and is convinced its a rain ingress problem due to the boiler having no tray to catch any water that gets on the inlet side of the flue .

He then calls baxi who sort of admit laibility without admitting it who offer my dad a lifleine and tell him because the boiler is out of warranty they will take a one off payment of £300s and fix and replace any parts providing it is economical to reapair

The heat team engineer then comes and replaces the fan and says i dont know were all the water is coming from i suspect water ingress he then tests the flue and places an unsafe tab on it due to the water problem and then promptly leaves

Therefore my dad has paid £300 for a boiler to be fitted with a £90 fan and then told he cant use the boiler untill the flue is chekced and heat team dont touch flues. I then got the original enigneer out who looked at the flue and said that there was nothing wrong with the install bear in mind this is not the engineer who installed it seven years ago.

I then rang heateam back up who quickly put me onto there technical department who then proceeded to tell me that there was no tray and that is was ok for the rain ingress to run back into the boiler. I find it really hard to believe that baxi would mass produce a boiler that allowed water to spill over the boiler electrical components in the event of rain ingress.

Can anyone give some advice or let me know if they have heard or know of the part number for a catchment tray for this model. i beleieve the later models of this boiler have such a tray but with this being an earlier one it was not fitted therefore in my opinion that is a baxi design fault and should come out of my dads pocket please help?

thanks

 

[ianmcd]

well what has changed if the boiler has been installed for 7 years and you only have a problem now ?

 

[howard5814]

nothing Ian when it was under warranty during a heat team service about four years ago the engineer commented on it then and was told they didnt know of a fix and it was left at that. Then over the next few years during its services it was never mentioned again but now the new gas engineer i have been using has told me that it should not be able to allow water to drip onto the electrics inside the boiler . what im after is in your opinion is this right what heat team are saying? in my opinion surely this cant be right that any rain ingress is allowed to fall back into the boiler and damage the fan, mainboard as well as corroding everything else it touches surely this has to be a fob off

 

[ianmcd]

Although I agree that rain ingress is a problem with Condensing boilers as the flue has a run back to the boiler as opposed to Standard efficiency boilers where the flue should have a run towards the outside, not many manufacturers 7 years ago actually made a sufficient allowance for this (in my own humble opinion) you should check the actual angle of the run back of the flue as this might be your problem if it is too much, you will find it extremely difficult to get Baxi to admit this is a design problem Im afraid

 

[howard5814]

A proper company would design a fix and apply it both for customer safety and general customer satisfaction. This is my problem with baxi if there is no problem with the flue as it is installed as manufactured instructions and there is no problem with the boiler were does the fault lie I cannot believe that baxi have been allowed to mass produce a boiler that can potentially electrocute people without being held liable for a design fault that needs amm ending does anyone know the part I'm after which has fixed this problem on the later models of this boiler ?

 

[ianmcd]

I have never heard of the part you refer to, not many boilers of that era had anything like this, even a lot of modern boilers do not have a way of compensating for water ingress from the outside of a flue , yes I agree it is a problem but unfortunately not many manufacturers agree

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

I wanna tell you a story.
About the same time I fitted one of these boilers. The flue went vertical 1m then off to the right 1m. It came out close to an external corner and close to an adjacent building but all was done as per the manual.
5 months later we gad some very unusual weather conditions for this area. Driving rain from the East I believe. Water got in and killed the fan! We got a new fan under the guarantee and I fitted it.
Earlier this year we had similar conditions and I fitted another fan.

The story hasn't finished yet it depends on the weather!

I believe there is an inherent fault with them and if I'm not mistaken they have allowed for this on newer models.
The fault for me lies in the design of the outer [air intake] flue allowing water ingress. If the 'hood' extended a little further round it may help a bit.
Collection trays weren't thought of by baxi at the time of their construction afaik. Maybe if they had a retrofit solution it would help!

Suggestions
1 By tilting the boiler slightly out of skew by moving the base to the right may cause the ingress to run to the left side of the boiler where it can do less harm
2 Create some sort of shield to protect the fan from the drips. Only problem with this is that you will have created an 'Ad Hoc' installation and you risk getting your botty smacked by 'gas safe' if anything were to come of it.
3 Try BBC watchdog. Baxi/Potterton or BDR Thermea as they are now are often slow to admit their faults as per the suprima pcb racket and the recent duo-tec2 gas valve fiasco. If enough people complain then they might listen.

 

[gas112]

This sounds more like an installation fault than boiler fault.

Where does the condense pipe terminate is it into a rainwater down pipe as opposed to rain coming down flue are you sure the boiler did not back fill up through condense pipe in a heavy rain storm or the likes.

All planituims and duotecs i see now have got a tray to collect anything coming down flue to be getting a few inches in to kill fan would certainly suggest another fault


Slug what do you mean about being slow regards the GA gas valve baxi did not waste anytime at all when this came to light and tried a few things at to get to the bottom of it and unlike a lot of companies issued a national recall which has fixed the fault .I done 10 GA `S and 2 played up which were fixed next day

 

[howard5814]

Cheers for the suggestions slug in my opinion it is a definite design fault there is a tray to catch the condense but no tray at all to catch anything for the intake side it really is unbelievable there is no fix for this

Slug do you happen to know wat the part is that they have used on the newer models

As for the installations it meets every aspect of the manufacturers instructions also the condenser pipe terminates external to the building and Is not blocked and working correctly

If baxi have revised this model and allowed for this on newer models technically is that not them admitting liability otherwise no fix would be needed as the old saying goes if its not broke don't fix it ?

 

[howard5814]

Hi gas on my dads particular model there I'd only a tray to catch the outlet condense side of the flue thisis the whole problem rain iingress is getting in on the inlet side and there is no tray at all to catch this thus it runs back onto the top of the heat exchanger then down onto the fan

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

This sounds more like an installation fault than boiler fault.

Where does the condense pipe terminate is it into a rainwater down pipe as opposed to rain coming down flue are you sure the boiler did not back fill up through condense pipe in a heavy rain storm or the likes.

All planituims and duotecs i see now have got a tray to collect anything coming down flue to be getting a few inches in to kill fan would certainly suggest another fault


Slug what do you mean about being slow regards the GA gas valve baxi did not waste anytime at all when this came to light and tried a few things at to get to the bottom of it and unlike a lot of companies issued a national recall which has fixed the fault .I done 10 GA `S and 2 played up which were fixed next day

I fitted a GA for a Lady July 2012 after I was told they had sorted the problem out and it was due to the valve being washed with chlorine and the chlorine not cleaned. Her son tried to persuade me to fit a worcester but I still had faith in Baxi at the time and insisted everything would be okay. Then the excuse was the valve wasnt opening properly and still sticking so they changed the software to open the valve fully and then quickly close it to the required setting and then they changed the make of the valve altogether because the original ones simply didnt do their job. Every time it went wrong it was always a Friday and usually a bank holiday meaning she had to wait for up to 5 days for an engineer. this has happened at least 6 times that I am aware of and she has had at least 4 pairs of gas valve and pcb's. I just text her to see if she actually managed to get a replacement from them. I'll report back later. I know from way back when barcelonas were on the go and talking to an independent baxi tied repair man that they test their stuff in the field so they can rush out their new products. I don't like their business ethics and fit other makes now so that I can confidently walk away from the job knowing I have have a decent back up if I need it. Because I personally recommended Baxi I feel my personal reputation has been affected by their incompetence.

In my instance on the platinum these were the days before they had a drip tray and these were the days before they knew about the fault.
I could see the water trails where the ingress occurred through the flue and stripped and treble checked its integrity.

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

Cheers for the suggestions slug in my opinion it is a definite design fault there is a tray to catch the condense but no tray at all to catch anything for the intake side it really is unbelievable there is no fix for this

Slug do you happen to know what the part is that they have used on the newer models

No sorry I never fitted anymore after that

As for the installations it meets every aspect of the manufacturers instructions also the condenser pipe terminates external to the building and Is not blocked and working correctly

If baxi have revised this model and allowed for this on newer models technically is that not them admitting liability otherwise no fix would be needed as the old saying goes if its not broke don't fix it ?

Most manufacturers will dodge responsibility until the issue is stuck so far up their nose that they have no choice but to deal with it. In this case I think there might be too much water gone under the bridge to get them to consider the matter seriously.

I did have another idea BTW and that would be to fit a deflector plate above the flue as if it were too close to a gutter. Hopefully this would also deflect the rain and prevent ingress.

 

[howard5814]

Hi slug I am in agreance with you about a deflector and that is our next port of call baxi said no fix no fee now in my eyes they got the fan working but that would not of broke if water could not get inside therefore the issue that needs fixing cannot be fixed so should my dad be given a full refund ?

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

Hi slug I am in agreance with you about a deflector and that is our next port of call baxi said no fix no fee now in my eyes they got the fan working but that would not of broke if water could not get inside therefore the issue that needs fixing cannot be fixed so should my dad be given a full refund ?

Sorry I am not in a position to judge that. My opinion is yes but it isn't down to me.

Also I just got a text back from the Lady with the GA duotec 2. She did not get a replacement either, even though I am told it is industry practice to replace a boiler under guarantee after 3 unsuccessful call outs for the same fault.

Here's hoping you can see what we are up against and may this little post serve as a shameful memorial to the way Baxi have dealt with some of the less popular failings of their products.

 

[howard5814]

Heat team are due for a return visit using a fresh set of eyes as they put it I'll get some pictures and let people know what was said does anyone happen to have a picture of the inside of the newer revised model of the platinum ?