IDEAL ICOS HE18 - Firing problem ...help..

[s1black2000]

hello

This is my first visit to this forum after finding it through the power of a google search!

I have an IDEAL ICOS HE18 thats about 3.5 years old and for the last 5 days its been a nightmare!!

On Wednesday last week the boiler failed to fire up first thing in the morning with L and F being displayed. After reading the manual it told me to reset the boiler. I did this and everything started working - job done... I thought.
The next morning it failed to fire again, with L and F being displayed. After 5 or 6 attempts at trying to reset it I gave in and called an engineer.

I've been getting the boiler annually serviced and the first engineer came out and said it looked like everything at been serviced OK, but they had missed the "condenser trap" or something like that. He cleaned this and it started working... Excellent I thought...

2 days later is failed again.... Second engineer came out and after a good 90 minutes checking it out he said it was the pcb. OK, get the pcb ordered and changed and still not working.

He now says its the 'Spark Generator' that has gone....

My question or worry is that is this going to turn into one attempted fix after another? is there an IDEAL expert on here who could offer advise?
Could replacing the spark generator solve everything?

The symptoms of the problems are that for the last few weeks, before the boiler failed, I had noticed a louder ignition - like an explosive type ignition...
When the boiler is reset it attempts to fire, you can hear the fan working etc, but doesn't fire.
There is gas to the house and water pressure appears OK (could water pressure affect this?)

Would appreciate any advise that could be offered.

thanks
Simon.

 

[Agile]

The spark generator might be at fault but so could the ignition electrodes or the leads or the gas mixture.

As always you need a competent boiler engineer who can diagnose faults and not just a parts changer!

If the replacement PCB did not fix the fault then you should NOT have to pay for a new part ( have the old one put back ) or the labour to wrongly diagnose the fault.

We charge a fixed diagnostic fee and we certainly dont charge for parts which are not needed but then we try to diagnose the faulty part first time.

Tony

 

[gas4you]

Have any of them removed the burner off the top of the HE?

If not they could not have checked anything properly.

90/100 times it is the spark electrodes warped in the heat so the gap is too big to create a spark.

As Tony says the WP at the meter needs checking as these are susceptible to failing if this is low.

Where does the condensate drain terminate? Check that the drain this terminates in is not blocked otherwise the result will be the same as the condense trap blocked.

 

[s1black2000]

Hi thanks for reply
He had everything off the boiler, so I assume everything was checked.

Are the spark electrodes the same component as the spark generator?

 

[gas4you]

No, it is like a giant spark plug that is fitted to the right of the HE.

I assume he removed the ignition electrodes and held them about 3mm from the HE to prove whether there was a spark or not?

Sounds like a parts changer to me

 

[s1black2000]

I wasn't in today, the wife was.
But message coming back is that there was electrical current going to spark generator but no spark being created....

I'm having to take his word for it at the moment....

 

[Agile]

Its a pretty simple part to check!

Not sure about the later Icos/Isar but the response spark generators are abiout £26 so not such an expensive part to check.

I doubt there was any current going into the generator! There should have been a VOLTAGE applied though!

Tony