Need Urgent Help ... Boiler Condemned

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We applied for British Gas Homecare and the inspection was today.

British Gas have disconnected our boiler - Vaillant ecoMAX 635. The boiler is just over two years old. They said the heat exchanger is leaking and it has also damaged / burnt other parts.

They said Vaillant know about this problem with these range of boilers and have been paying British Gas to change the heat exchanger seals on customers boilers.

I am told it needs a new heat exchanger + other parts and it is a major job with about 4 hours labour and it would be better to changer the boiler.

Vaillant dont want to know. They said it doesnt matter what British Gas say about them knowing about the fault. They want £250 to come out and they will carry out repairs but it doesnt cover the heat exchanger.

Anyone come across this problem on these boilers?

The boiler is only two years old and Vaillant knew about the fault but wont do anything. Need advise on what to do? Should they fix this free of charge as it was faulty from new?
 
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Have a word with trading standards /citizen advice

Appliance must be fit for purpose 2 years and feked its clearly not
 
I thought Vaillant had a 2 year warranty?

Tell them you are giving the problem to BBC Watchdog and do they really want the bad publicity??
 
It is about two years 3 months old.

Trading standards say to go back to the whoever supplied the boiler. Cant get hold of the builder at the moment.
 
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The boiler should have been subject to a manufacturer's recall to deal with this problem.

They should have contacted you to fit the revised part.

As they didn't then i think you have a good claim against them!

However, if you could not be bothered to return the guarantee card to register the boiler or to have it serviced at the end of the first yeat then thats totally your own fault. Now you will have to but a new boiler!

This should act as a warning to others to have boilers fitted by competent CORGIs and to ensure all the documantation is correct and up to date AND the boiler are serviced anually!

Tony
 
Ouch......BG right to mark boiler as ID and lock off......that said it IS repairable......but it won't be cheap.......you can try phoning customer services at Vaillant and throw yourself on their mercy......they might offer a repair with parts at cost......but as Agile says getting a boiler checked is a must yearly.......
 
Be careful with calling out Vaillant for a fixed fee repair. I advised one of my clients to take there deal as I suspected that the parts alone would come close to the £210 they quoted.
Vaillant engineer came out and replaced the pump. Problem stayed.
Another one came and replaced the fan. Problem was less but still there. When called a third time, they refused to come out as the repair was only guaranteed for 3 months. I kid you not.
In the end I found out that the problem was caused by faulty flue seals that can not with stand the POC. Vaillant seemed to be aware of this to some degree but not enough to warn the owners or make it generally known so gas fitters can replace them. Apparently, a lot of their own guys don’t know either.
 
Thanks for all the replies.

Vaillant are coming on Thursday. They said they will carry out the repair for £299 including replacing the heat exchanger if it needs to be replaced (BG say it does). This will include 12 months boiler breakdown cover which can be extended after 12 months.

They said while they did have issues with leaking seals on heat exchangers the British Gas man was wrong and it did not affect the ecoMAx 635. Does anyone know where I can check if this is correct?

What can cause the heat exchanger to leak if there was indeed no known fault with this model?
 
Officially it did not affect the Ecomax series, but those of us who deal with them on a daily basis know different :rolleyes:

4 hours to replace the HE :eek: I bet Vaillant will be in and out in less than a hour.

I think the quoted time for their engineers is 20mins, or so they told us at the training day.
 
4 hours to replace the HE :eek: I bet Vaillant will be in and out in less than a hour.

Do you mean they say they will do it but wont?

I rang some local independant companies who are listed on Vaillant's site but they said it would cost them £300+ to get the heat exchanger alone. What do you recommend I do?
 
No I mean BG are having a laugh saying it is a 4 hour job. Vaillant will replace it in a lot less than 1 hour.
 

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