Ideal minimiser SE boiler fault - advice please

[glider26]

That's very interesting Nickso, could this water ingestion be the result of the condensate drain freezing up? Because that's exactly what happened 3 weeks ago.

 

[plumbplumb]

I thought Ideal did a modification for the water in the sense tube fault?
I remember converting around 150 of them on a housing estate years ago for Ideal (Kerching!!)

Sure did I remember doing them too. Also remember the bog brushes issued by BG soley for cleaning the heat ex's

 

[glider26]

Guys, is it possible that a blocked condensate drain caused this pressure switch to become faulty which in turn causes the burner to go out after a few seconds on cold starts?

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• glider26
• 8 Mar 2012
• 1

When the condensate drain was blocked last month, water was dripping from what seemed to be very close to the pressure tube tapping underneath the boiler. The pressure switch is located to the side of the fan, underneath the burner. See page 37 of this link for a drawing http://www.idealheating.com/downloads/manuals/111813-5.pdf

If that is the case, then I could just go ahead and buy a replacement switch so that when the engineer comes to do the service in two weeks it can easily be replaced while the fan has been removed.

Thanks.

 

[plumbplumb]

I'd get the service done first before purchasing parts. It may be something as simple as faulty meter governor or just needs cleaning

 

[glider26]

I had a BG service yesterday. The eng + his trainee did some routine checks for leaks and I mentioned that the boiler took a few manual starts before it would light up after having been shut down for a few hours. The eng agreed to look at the detection and spark electrodes as recommended by the manufacturer. To do this he removed the pressure sensing pipe (from the fan), the fan itself and widthdrew the burner. See pic below. He said everything looked fine and there wasn't much deposit. He added that in order to clear the fault he would have to see the boiler NOT working (and it was as it had been running that morning), so best just wait until the fault goes from being intermittent to continuous. I don't think he did anything to the detection electrode other than perhaps touch it but miraculously last night and this morning the boiler auto-started at the 1st attempt after 6 weeks of needing 3-7 attempts. Could it be that touching the detection electrode removed enough oxides to clear the fault? Or that there was moisture (now removed) in the kink of the pressure sensing pipe following a blocked condensate drain 6 weeks ago? I'm pleased but baffled.

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• glider26
• 23 Mar 2012
• 1

 

[45yearsagasman]

I thought Ideal did a modification for the water in the sense tube fault?
I remember converting around 150 of them on a housing estate years ago for Ideal (Kerching!!)

Spot on BM2.

 

[45yearsagasman]

That pic shows that a modification has been done on this boiler.
The oxides collect on a ledge inside the burner chamber. When BG man removed burner he would have removed deposits on burner, and that would have assisted ignition. I hope he cleaned heat exch and removed all the debris. It is not visible without a mirror.

 

[glider26]

I hope he cleaned heat exch and removed all the debris. It is not visible without a mirror.

No he did not. He removed the fan and burner only after I mentioned that the reason I had a service scheduled was to have at least the burner cleaned as per the manual's servicing schedule and as promised by the BG call centre employee. But nothing was actively cleaned and the exchanger was not looked at. Is this standard and should I complain to BG?

 

[45yearsagasman]

When I worked at BG it was ALWAYS part of the service on these, that the heat exch was cleaned as much as is possible. It may be that your man was not well schooled in these boilers. It's worth asking a question.
One of these did the trick View media item 44168

 

[Agile]

I always knew there was something missing from my tool kit.

Probably on sale from Parts Centre at about £12.