IDEAL icos M3080 condensor intermittent failure

[abe_crab]

My mother has this boiler - IDEAL icos M3080.

Periodically it fires for a few minutes and then flames fail with the error code - I think she said L/F came up on the display (for flame detection problem.)

Sometimes reset or off/on works, but often not.

She has had the repair man round 8 or 9 times. I believe he has replaced the flame detector and 1/both thermistors.

I don't think he's replaced the PCB.

He asked Ideal and they got him to check the condensate trap - which he didn't think there was a problem with.

He never actually knows how he's got it going again, and now he can't. Ideal won't offer more advice or send anyone out (they say they're too busy and only do warranty work.)

Any suggestions whatsoever??

Thanks for any help.

Abe

 

[ollski]

Its almost always the condensate trap blocked, the black plastic thing underneath needs removing and flushing through.

 

[abe_crab]

Thanks very much -

Our man is supposed to have done that, and it was what Ideal advised too.

Maybe we need a new man.

Do those traps block and dampen everything inside, making it hard to get them going again, or something like that?

Regards,

Abe

 

[abe_crab]

My mother seems to have found an expert - not sure if they're from Ideal.

Apparently it is a sticking gas valve - he greased it and has ordered a new one.

I don't know how he diagnosed it (the PCB can't tell it's this specifically and just says "flame failure", so the first man thought it was the detectors rather than the gas supply.)

So that's a happy ending.

Should the man have been able to say it wasn't the detector and so it must have been the gas supply? I wonder how you diagnose that gas is not getting to the burners.

Anyway problem solved - thanks for your reply.

 

[abe_crab]

In fact the manual does give a flow chart for L/F (flame failure.)

After checking the detector is clean and correctly positioned, one checks the wiring loom between both detector and pcb and gas valve and pcb.

After that it says "replace the gas valve", so our man didn't do this.

The successful repairer were "Boiler diagnostics" who downloaded a lot of saved diagnostic info from the pcb onto a laptop. I think they still had to use their heads for the gas valve though - the data just recorded all the flame failures.