Hi,
I've been googling Keston C25 problems all night and it seems I'm not alone.
My boiler hasn't worked since May well apart from a few days here and there when the engineer replaces a part! Fortunately, I have a contract with a large energy supply company so haven't had to fork out £££'s - well not so far. Unfortunately they don't seem particularly able to correctly diagnose the fault on my boiler and repair it. They seem fairly convinced that it's the ignition pcb that's failing given that they've replaced it three times in 4 months. Each time they've replaced it the boiler will run for a day or so then eventually it'll fail to ignite displaying the ignition lockout error code. The manual suggests a few reasons for this failure mode one of which is a faulty ignition PCB. Now I'm no expert but it seems to me that continually replacing this suggests that something else is causing the problem. To date I've only seen one engineer (out of 6) actually carry out some kind of fault diagnosis; all the others have looked at it intently before asking for the manual then concluding that it must be the ignition pcb (presumably because that's what the manual suggests) The last engineer that was here did run through all the flowcharts before deciding that it was the ignition PCB which he replaced on Friday and it's failed again tonight with the same error code. Is it possible that there is a fault elsewhere in the boiler that is causing the ignition pcb to fail? The reason I ask is that if some other part of the boiler was failing why does the boiler run for a short time (1-2 days) on a new ignition PCB before failing?
You might be asking yourself why has this been going on for 4 months (technically 5 actually since I first reported the fault in April) if it only works for 2 days each time they replace the fault - well I've had 12 visits and 6 aborted visits where engineers have failed turned up. It must be some kind of record!
Anyway the real point of the post. Part of the contract I have with the 'large energy supply company' is that if they can't fix the boiler they'll replace it. However, the reason a Keston C25 has been fitted is due to the layout of the house. The kitchen is at the front of the house with the boiler mounted on a partition wall adjoining the living room with the air/flue running across the ceiling void to the back of the house. It's my understanding that (as advised by the aforementioined energy supply company) this kind of installation is now illegal. Therefore, a replacement boiler will need to be cited elsewhere in the house and presumably on or near an outside wall. Is this the case? If so, I'm not entirely sure how they are going to fit a new boiler if it comes to this as there isn't an obvious location apart from an upstairs cupboard that backs onto an outside wall. If it isn't the case is there a (more reliable!!) replacement boiler that can be cited in the same location as the Keston? I'm guessing not given the rather small diameter of the air/flue pipes (looks like standard plastic plumbing type piping) but I'm no expert and know little about central heating systems. I live on a new estate (< 5 years old) where this boiler is fitted as standard in a few 100 houses and everyone I've spoken with (some 30 households) have similar stories to tell although I'm the first where a new boiler is being suggested - lucky me.
Sorry for the lengthy post.
I've been googling Keston C25 problems all night and it seems I'm not alone.
My boiler hasn't worked since May well apart from a few days here and there when the engineer replaces a part! Fortunately, I have a contract with a large energy supply company so haven't had to fork out £££'s - well not so far. Unfortunately they don't seem particularly able to correctly diagnose the fault on my boiler and repair it. They seem fairly convinced that it's the ignition pcb that's failing given that they've replaced it three times in 4 months. Each time they've replaced it the boiler will run for a day or so then eventually it'll fail to ignite displaying the ignition lockout error code. The manual suggests a few reasons for this failure mode one of which is a faulty ignition PCB. Now I'm no expert but it seems to me that continually replacing this suggests that something else is causing the problem. To date I've only seen one engineer (out of 6) actually carry out some kind of fault diagnosis; all the others have looked at it intently before asking for the manual then concluding that it must be the ignition pcb (presumably because that's what the manual suggests) The last engineer that was here did run through all the flowcharts before deciding that it was the ignition PCB which he replaced on Friday and it's failed again tonight with the same error code. Is it possible that there is a fault elsewhere in the boiler that is causing the ignition pcb to fail? The reason I ask is that if some other part of the boiler was failing why does the boiler run for a short time (1-2 days) on a new ignition PCB before failing?
You might be asking yourself why has this been going on for 4 months (technically 5 actually since I first reported the fault in April) if it only works for 2 days each time they replace the fault - well I've had 12 visits and 6 aborted visits where engineers have failed turned up. It must be some kind of record!
Anyway the real point of the post. Part of the contract I have with the 'large energy supply company' is that if they can't fix the boiler they'll replace it. However, the reason a Keston C25 has been fitted is due to the layout of the house. The kitchen is at the front of the house with the boiler mounted on a partition wall adjoining the living room with the air/flue running across the ceiling void to the back of the house. It's my understanding that (as advised by the aforementioined energy supply company) this kind of installation is now illegal. Therefore, a replacement boiler will need to be cited elsewhere in the house and presumably on or near an outside wall. Is this the case? If so, I'm not entirely sure how they are going to fit a new boiler if it comes to this as there isn't an obvious location apart from an upstairs cupboard that backs onto an outside wall. If it isn't the case is there a (more reliable!!) replacement boiler that can be cited in the same location as the Keston? I'm guessing not given the rather small diameter of the air/flue pipes (looks like standard plastic plumbing type piping) but I'm no expert and know little about central heating systems. I live on a new estate (< 5 years old) where this boiler is fitted as standard in a few 100 houses and everyone I've spoken with (some 30 households) have similar stories to tell although I'm the first where a new boiler is being suggested - lucky me.
Sorry for the lengthy post.
