Problem with Britony SE combi boiler

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30 Jun 2008
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Location
Hampshire
Country
United Kingdom
Hi all, I was advised to sign up here and ask you chaps if you know what may be causing me problems...

We have a britony combi SE boiler and it seems we have a little problem.

We moved in a week ago and had trouble getting it stated (it hadn't been used for 8 months), it wouldn't light... It's auto ignition, so no pilot light.
However after turning it up to max and running through for 5 mins or so it seemed to work fine and has done so for the last week.

However this morning it cut out, with the shower running. The flame had gone out and the red error/alarm light was on. I pressed reset and it came back on, 2 mins later it cut out again. I tried resetting again, but no luck.
After a bit of playing, turning off and on etc I managed to get it started, but it now lights, comes on for about 10 secs, the water starts to get hot, then the whole thing vibrates and switches off. If I keep the water demand on then it'll light up again after and do the same thing over and over until it'll randomly decide it wants to sit there with the red light on.

Suggestions so far have been the pump or the flue may be causing backpressure and stopping the fan working.

Anyone have any other suggestions? And does anyone know where the best place to buys parts for this boiler is? I think they're out of production now, will this make life difficult?

Thanks

Alex
 
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Apart from the ignition lockout light are any of the lights on under the temp displays, if so which ones?
 
When it's working the temp lights flash in pairs, but it does that when it's working correctly, or atleast has done for the last week.
Nothing comes on and stays on IIRC.
The lights above the dials come on and off too I think, when it's starting up, then once it's lit the HW one stays on, the CH one stays off.
 
It does rather sound as if there is a severe blockage.

If it works OK on heating then the problem is likely to be in the hot water secondary heat exchanger.

It woiuld need to be cleaned or replaced. But the system would need to be checked to see how dirty it is. It might need to be chemically cleaned or power flushed.

Tony
 
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Well, update:

Now, it does do what I described above, pulsates etc, however after managing to get it to run on CH mode for a little while (pulsating, but is more stable with lower demand and didn't turn off so quick) it now has trouble getting going at all.

Lockout light comes on, and 60 flashes, which is ionisation pcb fault.

However, I'm not totallu convinced it's correct as it was running interminently before.

ANyway, found this - //www.diynot.com/forums/viewto...start=15&sid=517047e53ccf5f2f4c55d25efcb72eb0

which suggests the pulsating could be flue related. The fan's working, but if the flue has come out of placement that'll be a problem.

Reluctant to call somebody out if it's something simple and cheap which I can do myself, although after days of no hot water and showers at a friends I'm starting to loose patience.

Anyone know where to buy a PCB if it is that?
 
Sounds like the PCB failure to me. The relays break down on the circuit board that control the solenoid's in the gas valve causing the chattering and intermitant gas failure. Happened to my own boiler (unfortunatly was in when i bought my house)

It's a common fault on this model also

Sam
 
Yeah... I checked it last night, took out the fan and checked the flue.

It's looking like the PCB fault. I've taken off the cover and checked the board, cant see any burnt out components and the fuses are fine, but it's looking like something's up with it.

Not sure if the best bet is to take it out and replace, or to call out somebody for one of those one off fees, then they'll fix whatever it is that's wrong, whether it's that or not.

Depends how much the PCB is really... if it's £150+ then it's worth just calling somebody out, but if it's £20 I'll swap it and see first.

Where can I go about buying one?

Also, is there only one PCB or multiple ones? I can only see one in there, but there's reference to the 'ionisation pcb' and 'control pcb' in the manual.
 
Hi,

Just the 1 board in the SE. I think the manual refers to Ionisation printed circuit board fault. Ionisation being the fault on the printed circuit board.

Last time i bought a pcb for this boiler was about 18 months ago and cost me £70 (trade) but i know of someone buying one recently and he paid £135 (also trade from HRPC)! Not sure on wether he got a bad price of if the price has gone up.

Various places sell them online (just google boiler spares) but i cannot comment on how competitive they are.


Sam
 
Update:

Got British Gas out, they replaced the PCB, however it still cut out after 10 secs.

They declared it was a flue problem but wouldn't fix it as they said it meant going on the roof and they wouldn't do it.

I then phoned up loads of plumbers and none would go on the roof of the flat. I phoned up loads of roofers and they wouldn't touch a flue.

So, I got some step ladders, went into the loft, disconnected the top of the flue and ran it into the loft space. Same problem. Cuts out and stinks of gas when it does.

Ok... obviously problem lower down. Took the entire flue off and found the design is crap. The top flange on the boiler has a male pipe about 10mm long. The female joint which goes on this really needs to go about 25-30mm over it, but the pipe simply isn't long enough.

So, when the flue is knocked it's easy to get it wonky and cause leakage from the joint, feeding the exhaust into the outlet.

It doesn't help we have an S bend directly above the boiler so the weight is offset too.

So.. stuck it all back togther properly, switch on, perfect.

Just need to make sure the flue doesn't move again.

The really annoying thing is that British Gas came out, didn't actually work out what myself and my dad managed to work out and fix, they then stuck a label on it saying 'at risk, do not turn on' and buggered off.

Wow... that really helped.

They then offered me the homecare package where I pay £13 a month so they can fix any problem I have... I'd rather not thanks. £13 a month for somebody to come and stick a sticker on my boiler is quite a lot. I'd rather fix it myself if/when it breaks and actually get the job done.

What if I'd been an old granny... no hot water or central heating, and they just left it. Cheers.

Anyway, all sorted now and assuming British Gas get their fingers out their behinds we should get a full refund and have paid nowt.
 
Well unfortunately you seem to another who has suffered a problem with a less that helpful BG series of visits.

All yuo can do is write a letter of complaint and ask for a refund and a payment to compensate you for the waste of your time.

However, I cannot agree that you should have started to take the flue apart yourself.

This was not a fault but the effect of a badly done installation perhaps by a non CORGI installer.

For safety it should be checked by a CORGI.

Tony
 
Checked by a corgi?

I cant see that happening. I obviously tried that with BG, and look how that turned out.

When I was told you need a corgi engineer, and all this talk about balanced flues, I assumed there was actually something complicated about it. It's just a pipe inside a pipe :confused:
Not really that complicated. In fact, I found the simplicity of it quite amusing, it's just sleeved fitments with crap seals.

I'm not corgi registered, however I am a mechanical engineer who works in the gas process industry (deal with hydrogen, oxygen, VOCs and other dangerous substances, at much higher pressures than in a boiler) so I'm confident it's fine.

Obviously I wouldn't advise anybody to start taking their boiler/flue apart, but as on inspection it's a more simple less dangerous version of what I deal with daily, I'm happy to trust myself :)

Besides, to 'check' it, somebody would have to take the whole thing apart again, undoing what I did. They'd then just put it back together again exactly how I did... and if I ended up with somebody incompetent then it would just be more hassle that I could really do without, not to mention expense, for nothing.
 

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