Ideal Istor HE260 HE325 Loud Bang + More

[askjim]

Hi,

I have lived in a new house for 3 years where an Ideal Istor HE was provided with the house. Had quite a few problems which I will detail below for the benefit of others.

At the moment my main concern is that it makes a loud bang which is concerning. I can recreate the noise and it happens when the system has been supplying hot water and then switches to provide heat. British Gas engineer says it is the diverter valve. Is this the cause - cause I quickly searched on this forum and saw other explanations of the noise such as low gas supply.

Look forward to your responses.

For your benefit the problems I have had and some still outstanding:

1. DHW Expansion Vessel replaced - became too heavy which meant the diaphram had broke.

2. Bottom module replaced as it was leaking where the immersion heater enters the tank.

3. Loud bang as mentioned above.

4. PCB fault code which cleared after 24 hours.

5. Brown water residue present in top module - any ideas?

6. Programmer when set to auto and heat does not turn system on - lack of programmer click but when set to auto and heat and water the programmer will click and then the system will turn on and do the water and then the heat - any ideas?

7. The pressure is currently at 2 bar. The taps to open the filling loom were incredibly hard to open the other day and when I do it I do not hear any flow of water - any ideas?

Many Thanks in advance

James

 

[gas4you]

Are you saying that this bang occurs when it is firing up?

If so then yes these boilers are very susceptible to this if the WP at the meter is low. Also the spark electrodes 'warp' in the burner heat therefore making the spark gap too big and not igniting first time.

If the bang is not during start up then it could well be the DV.

 

[askjim]

Sorry I did not provide much detail about the bang. The boiler starts up, ignites (bit of a click but not a problem) and does the hot water. It then stops, reignites and does the heating. The bang only happens after it ignites when doing the heating when you have previously done hot water it does not happen if just the heating comes on.

The bang does seem to echo which the BG engineer said was because the diverter valve contains a marble which rattles around.

Thinking back to when I had the bottom module replaced the engineer from ideal mention the igniter mite need looking at.

 

[twicky]

had all the same fault as james described, ideal have had the engineers down many times changed cylinder, changed pressure reliefs, changed temp stat. now same as james programmer does what it likes. 1 thing i found the from manufacture the blue wire from the front control panel to left was actually stuck under the gas feed pipe and has been clamped flat.
just changing programmer now waiting for it to come in as changed main wiring harness on control panel as 14 pin junction was arching. banging is divertor at change over from hot water to heating,

 

[twicky]

i dont know where i got james from sorry askjim

 

[askjim]

it is james

had boiler insured with british gas after the cylinder was replaced as have no faith.

programmer was replaced and fixed the timer prob.

british gas guy added inhibitor as found system had none (new build house) - would recommend that other people check this.

when the inhibitor was added some water was removed - the pressure has dropped and I have noticed the loud bang is not as loud - therefore not going to increase pressure so much.

now the pressure has dropped i can top it up and hear the flow of water.

i always think it is good to post things that go wrong so others can find out if there is a link.

in my street loads of people have had their cylinder replaced.

just need to fix dripping noise from inside toilet now

 

[SCoomby]

Hello

I have the same problem with my Ideal Istor (Eyesore) HE boiler. The diverter valve bangs when it is in central heating mode but in hot water mode, it is fine. It often shuts down too and then starts up again when it is in banging mode. The boiler is 3 years old. 6 months ago, I had a scale inhibitor fitted to the cold water supply. Could that have caused the problem?

Thanks in advance.

Steve

 

[askjim]

Basically the loud banging noise is when the system switches modes from hot water to central heating or vice versa. the diverter valve basically contains a glass ball which moves position when the mode changes and the bang you hear is when it moves it vibrates.

I found when the inhibitor was fitted that because water was removed from the central heating the pressure dropped to pretty much 1 bar and the noise has been reduced significantly.

get it insured - it will break some day

 

[Kristoflampie]

interested to know ....... glass ball , ive had these ideal diverters in bits a lot cant say ive seen any glass balls.... would love to know where it is??

 

[askjim]

only going on the info british gas engineer said - may not have been glass though

 

[Agile]

only going on the info british gas engineer said - may not have been glass though

Its probably the glass ball he looks into to see what may be wrong with the boiler?

Tony

 

[askjim]

defo - i diagnosed the actual fault last time - was thinking of a career change