Glowworm Hideaway 120OF tripping

[rijid]

My Glowworm Hideaway 120OF worked perfectly for 11 years. Following an annual service visit by a ***** engineer in July the boiler started tripping out after burning for 4 minutes. You can hear the gas valve clicking shut and then the burner and pilot light go out. I have used an independent plumber to investigate this and he has replaced the gas valve and thermocouple but the boiler still trips out. Can anybody suggest what might be causing this as I'm getting pretty desperate, the boiler having been off for 2 months now! Thanks.

 

[45yearsagasman]

These have a flue safety device which interrupts the thermocouple. They can have a high resistance and cause shutdowns like you describe.
There are lots of checks that your man should make. Such a simple boiler to fix. I hope he has checked the basics before chucking parts at it.
I cannot be more specific as the work is gas related and the site doesn't allow it.

 

[rijid]

Thanks Pete. The boiler worked fine for 12 years and was given a clean bill of health every year by the engineers from the two large organisations with whom I had a service contract (one to 2009, another since then). In July the boiler received its annual inspection and another clean bill of health. The next day it stopped working - tripped out. The service company came back, said it was a complete coincidence that it happened after their guy had "serviced" it and tried unsuccessfully to fix it. They then decided that the entire system, from gas meter through to flue, was "unsafe" and disconnected the gas, telling me I needed a new condensing boiler. When pressed, the company manager said it would be better to get the Hideaway up to standard as the condensing boiler had a limited life and might not power all our rads (big house). I contacted the builders who originally installed the Hideaway and they have attended to all the, so called, "safety issues" free of charge. They then tried to fire up the boiler again but of course it's still tripping. They have been here ages trying everything, including new gas valve and thermocouple. They spoke to Glowworm tech dept this morning and they said either the new gas valve was still faulty or the regulator was broken. Builder's plumbing engineer is coming out tomorrow to test regulator before ordering yet another gas valve. From what you say there are some more, fairly basic, checks he needs to do before going down this road. Is there any documentation that leads you through these checks as the Hideaway manual is a bit light on troubleshooting.

 

[45yearsagasman]

The checks involve testing the millivolt circuit and gas pressure checks at the boiler and at the meter. Any experienced operative should know how to carry out these checks. I have very rarely ever had to replace the gas valve on these boilers. The Sit gas valves are very reliable.

 

[Agile]

This is such a simple boiler!

But it is surprising that some RGIs cannot do the simple electrical and gas checks required.

I do hope you were not charged for the new gas valve which was wrongly diagnosed?

Tony

 

[rijid]

Just hoping I don't have to bear the cost of 2 new gas valves as that's what Glowworm Tech Dept think the problem might still be. Same question as before...is there a set of instructions anywhere that are more comprehensive than those that come with the boiler - e.g. a checklist of what to test and what the results should be? This problem defeated 4 engineers from a major national company with whom I had a service contract (they have now disowned the boiler despite continuing to take my monthly direct debit!) and is challenging the team from the builders who originally installed it.