Hi All,
I am after some help and the saga so far is quite long winded so I have below a short version and long version, depending on how interested you are in helping!
Short Version:
Have a Glow Worm 18HXI with an F13 Fault (PCB Fault), have tried a new PCB which at the time did not clear the fault. Fault is intermittent, can not show up for 3 Months then be back every 2 - 3 Hours for a few days.
Long Version:
Boiler is roughly 9 Years Old (New Build roughly June 2005, been in house since July 2009), about a year ago first got an F13 fault, which cleared with a power on/off. Fault came back a few months later and on/off cleared it.
about 6 months ago it came back and wouldn't clear, as was summer just used Immersion heater as CH not needed, managed to clear the fault by taking all connections off and taking PCB out. once PCB relocated and reconnected cleared fault for a few months. Spoke to a Heating Engineer who services the boiler at this point but he said F13 can often not be the PCB and something causing it to think PCB (bit of a vague code), and without it being broken is difficult to diagnose.
A few months later fault appeared and strip down didn't help, read on here (//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1488747#1488747) about someone replacing the relays on here, which I did (for the same model/values as the existing one), this fixed the fault for a few months.
October it came up F13 again, so having had enough bit the bullet and got a refurbed board from eBay, put it in straight away and a few hours later F13 came up (Luckily managed to return board for part refund, however did cost £60, but helped to diagnose as probably not the actual PCB broken). Refitted original PCB and after much plugging/unplugging worked again for a few months.
Jan 2014 it came again and after unplugging/plugging it worked fine.
Yesterday/Today (Mid Feb 2014) it came up again, I've tried unplugging one header block at a time to see if I can track it down further but to no avail, however I have tried some other ways to get it working again, these may help an experienced engineer diagnose? If it goes into F13 then I can turn it off, CH is on permanantly but controlled by thermostat (usually set to 18 Degrees), HW is on for hour in morning and 1.5 in evening, with the boiler off I turn the thermostat up till it "clicks in" and then wait 30 seconds and turn boiler on. Boiler powers up and straight away ignites (from CH), fault then clears. If I was to just power up without it trying to ignite it would go straight into F13. Not sure if it was always doing this all along or not.
Bit of background into the boiler, not sure on previous owners servicing (but doubt any), we have had it serviced 3 times (2011/2012/2013) but by different companies (long story!), final engineer said that all previous ones had missed a seal that needed replacing from factory (burner door seal?) so he did that. Fault had occurred before 2013 service, 2014 service is due middle of March.
My background, I am an electrician (in the event industry) and have a background with a bit of electronics in it. I'm happy looking at the electrical and electronics side of it but don't want to touch any gas side of it. I'm happy to get an engineer out to look at it but don't really want them to just say "replace PCB" as that is what fault code says and I'm confident it isn't the PCB. Maybe if the answer is "gas" related or outside my expertise I could get the fault from here and nudge my engineer in the right direction?
I hope that someone could help me as it is driving me crazy and seems no logic as to when it fails, what causes it and through trying to fault find what removes the fault!
Thanks in advance and apologies for the long story/post.
Dan
I am after some help and the saga so far is quite long winded so I have below a short version and long version, depending on how interested you are in helping!
Short Version:
Have a Glow Worm 18HXI with an F13 Fault (PCB Fault), have tried a new PCB which at the time did not clear the fault. Fault is intermittent, can not show up for 3 Months then be back every 2 - 3 Hours for a few days.
Long Version:
Boiler is roughly 9 Years Old (New Build roughly June 2005, been in house since July 2009), about a year ago first got an F13 fault, which cleared with a power on/off. Fault came back a few months later and on/off cleared it.
about 6 months ago it came back and wouldn't clear, as was summer just used Immersion heater as CH not needed, managed to clear the fault by taking all connections off and taking PCB out. once PCB relocated and reconnected cleared fault for a few months. Spoke to a Heating Engineer who services the boiler at this point but he said F13 can often not be the PCB and something causing it to think PCB (bit of a vague code), and without it being broken is difficult to diagnose.
A few months later fault appeared and strip down didn't help, read on here (//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1488747#1488747) about someone replacing the relays on here, which I did (for the same model/values as the existing one), this fixed the fault for a few months.
October it came up F13 again, so having had enough bit the bullet and got a refurbed board from eBay, put it in straight away and a few hours later F13 came up (Luckily managed to return board for part refund, however did cost £60, but helped to diagnose as probably not the actual PCB broken). Refitted original PCB and after much plugging/unplugging worked again for a few months.
Jan 2014 it came again and after unplugging/plugging it worked fine.
Yesterday/Today (Mid Feb 2014) it came up again, I've tried unplugging one header block at a time to see if I can track it down further but to no avail, however I have tried some other ways to get it working again, these may help an experienced engineer diagnose? If it goes into F13 then I can turn it off, CH is on permanantly but controlled by thermostat (usually set to 18 Degrees), HW is on for hour in morning and 1.5 in evening, with the boiler off I turn the thermostat up till it "clicks in" and then wait 30 seconds and turn boiler on. Boiler powers up and straight away ignites (from CH), fault then clears. If I was to just power up without it trying to ignite it would go straight into F13. Not sure if it was always doing this all along or not.
Bit of background into the boiler, not sure on previous owners servicing (but doubt any), we have had it serviced 3 times (2011/2012/2013) but by different companies (long story!), final engineer said that all previous ones had missed a seal that needed replacing from factory (burner door seal?) so he did that. Fault had occurred before 2013 service, 2014 service is due middle of March.
My background, I am an electrician (in the event industry) and have a background with a bit of electronics in it. I'm happy looking at the electrical and electronics side of it but don't want to touch any gas side of it. I'm happy to get an engineer out to look at it but don't really want them to just say "replace PCB" as that is what fault code says and I'm confident it isn't the PCB. Maybe if the answer is "gas" related or outside my expertise I could get the fault from here and nudge my engineer in the right direction?
I hope that someone could help me as it is driving me crazy and seems no logic as to when it fails, what causes it and through trying to fault find what removes the fault!
Thanks in advance and apologies for the long story/post.
Dan
