Ravenheat CSI 85 Boiler

[Alison556]

I got a frantic phonecall from my elderly neighbour tonight.

Her Ravenheat CSI85 boiler was making a funny high pitched whining noise and when I looked the red overheat light was on. I noticed that the pressure was right down as well. I topped the boiler up first - just in case that was the problem.

I tried resetting the boiler (switched it off and on again like it says in the manual) and it seemed OK - till I turned the tap on and the whining started again and the red light came back on.

I left it switched off for 10 minutes and then tried it again - same thing happened.

I've switched it off now.

Anybody got any idea what could be wrong with it? Did I do the wrong thing in topping it up? I don't know how long the pressure had been down on it - my neighbour didn't even know what the pressure gauge was.


I know that these boilers have a 3 year warranty now, but I'm not sure if that warranty applied when this one was put in. I was going to phone Ravenheat in the morning to find out - but should it be Ravenheat that would deal with any warranty claim or the company that installed it?

Many thanks for any help - I feel sorry for the old girl - she's 80 and just out of hospital and I've went and left her with no hot water or central heating.

 

[advancedplumber]

to start with i trust we are talking about an gas fired combi boiler. a white cased type mounted on the wall. you can rime of the name and models all night and it wouldn't help me to understand the type of system we're dealing with here. i can see your only a woman trying to help someone so lets see if i can help you. you probably turned the top up valve to the heating system on the boiler. this should be pressurised to 1 bar on the visable pressure gauge located on the front bottm of the boiler. this should really be done when the system is cold cos water expands when heated and can drop when cools again. if you over pressurise the system don't panick. there is a relief valve built in and should dischagre the excess pressure safely from the system. once 1 bar has been reached turn off the top up valve. i can't really explain the whinning noise . it could be just the pump but get a corgi registered plumber out to check the boiler in the morning. only quailfied enginerrs should work at this.

 

[Alison556]

Yes, sorry it is a combi boiler.

I topped it up OK - my mum has the same boiler and it's a constant battle keeping the thing topped up - I'm quite the expert at it now!!

Don't worry, I wouldn't ever go into the innards of the thing - I know my limitations. I was really just looking for some pointers - just in case she gets somebody that's going to just see a little old lady and try and tell her that it's all sorts of expensive things wrong with it - not everybody is honest!

According to the Manual - a constant red light on the front is a flame failure whilst an intermittant red light is the overheat thermostat.

She is getting a constant red light.

Fingers crossed that I can get somebody out to her tomorrow - it's a bit chilly up here not to have any heating.

Thanks again.

 

[Agile]

It sounds as if the fan has failed! Its not very common on that model though.

Usually running a boiler with no pressure would spoil the pump but that would not explain the red light coming on now.

This just demonstrates how an old person needs to be visited regularly by someone who understands how things round the house have to be set and adjusted.

Tony

 

[Alison556]

I phoned Ravenheat for her this morning and yes, the boiler is still under warranty - as long as it had been serviced annually.

Went to see the old girl and discovered that since she bought the house 2 years ago (from the council), she hadn't had it serviced. Her son was meant to organise it for her (along with a service contract) and hadn't got round to it - so I guess that's the warranty null and void.

Her daughter came in so hopefully she will have phoned someone out to get it sorted. I'll pop round later to see her to make sure.

I'm amazed that her son hadn't ever noticed that the pressure was down. She said that she tried to run some water for a bath yesterday and there was no hot water - but with no pressure, I'm not surprised.

I tried to explain to her that she need to check the gauge - just have a look at it every morning or whatever, to make sure that the needle was up at the 1.5 mark and if it dropped below the red arrow, then she needed it seeing to.

The noise it was making sounded like something was wanting to work but wasn't.