Condensing boilers - reliability statistics?

[pcavaney]

Posting here following DIYnot's advice on Screwfix - The topic of boiler reliability seems to crop up regularly on this forum since there is little information officially available on which boilers cause problems - particularly relevant now that more expensive and complicated condensing boilers have to be fitted. Here's my two pennorth worth - I had a Baxi 130HE fitted a couple of years back. It failed about six months in with a gas diverter fault - I diagnosed the problem with the lead and contacted Baxi who sent an engineer without the replacement part. As a backup I had ordered the part from Baxi also - it arrived some 10 days later. Eventually it was fixed, took all told about a week.
Out of warranty the same part failed again, so I investigated myself. The lead contains some electrical components and is potted, presumably to keep moisture out - but it doesn't, and unfortunately the manual bleed valve situated above it had been dripping. I fixed the damn thing myself using the lead I had originally ordered - next fault was the flow switch leaking, guess what, it's just above the same lead so it blew again. Built my own plug up which has worked successfully for some time but it would now appear the diverter valve itself has packed up. Baxi's attitude is poor - they'll charge a mint for a callout but aren't interested in keeping me happy given the number of failures on such a young boiler. A Friday afternooner? Does anyone else have some input on this?
PS I understand DIYnot's comments on boiler repair, but seriously is a Corgi registered plumber going to be more familiar with the components making up the diverter interface than me, a degree level electronics engineer? When I have no hot water, what do you think I'm more scared of, the regulations or my missus?

 

[PEDANTICVINDICTIVEMAN]

Definately the missis.

Everything in britain is crap so please dont just pick on boilers, all that has happened is that boilers and plumbing equipment has come into line with everthing else, we had it good for so many years with boilers and cylinders lasting 35 years ect but no more,the goverment love it, vat on all those spares, prescotts fat gut wobbles with excitment at every new reg he dreams up.

 

[Agile]

Firstly, I would expect that a CORGI registered engineer with a degree in electronics is more likely to be familiar with the components in a boiler than you are. I even know an ex Plessey CORGI reg with an electronics PhD.

You mention a "gas diverter valve". This is an on/off and modulating gas valve NOT a diverter valve.

The lead contains a diode bridge and was a common failure point a couple of years ago. It was so bad that at one point there was zero stock at Baxi. A friend of mine had the same problem and I would have made it to work for her pending the replacement part but she had used a cheap non CORGI plumber to install it rather than our quote.

Any leaking of water will obviously be likely to damage electrical parts. Stop the leaking and the electronics will be fine.

You can measure the resistance of the solenoid coils on the gas valve and see if this is the problem. It could be however that the valve is sticking as a result of the glycol which Transco put into the gas and which causes some valves to stick when the weather gets warm.

Replacement of the gas valve is a task for a CORGI registered engineer as it involves interupting the gas supply train and the replacement valve has to be set up for min and max gas pressures and checked for correct modulation.

As for CORGI people "charging a mint", in my opinion they are only charging what any competent engineer would need to charge to earn a reasonable living at about £35 k which is a typical electronics engineers salary.

Tony Glazier

 

[gazthepottertonengineer]

Well put Tony ? i woud like to say that i dont think Baxi are ripping anyone off by charging £170 to fix a boiler thats under 5 years old especially as this includes all parts and as you quite rightly said its not the leads that are faulty but the fact that the installers werent checking the manual air vent wasnt tightened and this was dripping onto the electrics ! which im sorry but you cant expect to be water proof ???

 

[JPC]

put the electronics where the water wont drip onto ?
have a tray obove the electronics that would gather the water and pipe in to the a visible area..a bit like a warning/overflow pipe ?