Feroni/Ferroli FalconII boiler burner cutting out/restarting

Hi there

Would appreciate any advice re the following problem - I have an approx 5yr old Feroni Falcon II combi where the burner keeps cutting out - ie it runs for 2 mins or so from cold, then the flame cuts out every 30 secs or so and keeps restarting, same on HW or heating. It happened shortly before Christmas (on a day when I noticed it was particularly windy outside) - I had a look at the external flue and extended it slightly (it was flush with the wall for some reason - according to boiler instruction manual there should be 10-60mm of the flue concentric pipe visible) and it seemed to cure the problem (the boiler has been working fine again) until today when it started playing up again... It's windy again today so I'm assuming that is contributing to the problem - but of course that may be a red herring.

This model of boiler does not have a pilot light - it is electronic ignition on demand. The flue fan is slightly noisy (had been for ages) so maybe it's simply a case of insufficient exhaust pressure which is making it susceptible to gusty wind..? Or maybe the local gas pressure is iffy due to the cold conditions, but having said that it has been totally fine for the past 2 weeks in the even colder weather so I doubt it is that.

I realise DIY work on the boiler is not an option, so I'm not asking for advice on how to fix it, I'm just looking for pointers as to what may be causing this fault so I can have some idea of what kind of repair costs to expect... I do have a local RGI who I have used before who can come and look at it but he's v busy at the mo so I'd like to be prepared in terms of likely fault diagnoses and potential costs before resorting to cold-calling someone else...

Any advice gratefully received...

well typically as always in these cases it was reliably 'faulty' all day whenever I tried testing it - but then when my local RGI came round to have a look it ran for 5 mins no prob and refused to go wrong

Then of course about 5 mins after he left it went wrong again... burner turning off and re-igniting periodically... Whilst checking it he removed the push-fit blanking plate at the top LH of the boiler (in the air inlet hole normally used for 2-pipe installation) to see whether that made any difference, and suggested I could try the same if it went wrong again, as that might give some indication as to the cause of the problem. I did remove the blanking plate (to enable to boiler to temporarily draw air via the top of the boiler casing, rather than via the flue, presumably) and that did seem to stop the fault occurring. Having said that, once I replaced the blanking plate it seemed to behave itself again so I'm not really any nearer to knowing the cause of the problem. I'll keep an eye on it and call him back next time it undoubtedly goes wrong.

In the meantime if anyone has any insightful suggestions as to the cause/nature of this fault that would be gratefully received...

jvn01 said:

well typically as always in these cases it was reliably 'faulty' all day whenever I tried testing it - but then when my local RGI came round to have a look it ran for 5 mins no prob and refused to go wrong

Then of course about 5 mins after he left it went wrong again... burner turning off and re-igniting periodically... Whilst checking it he removed the push-fit blanking plate at the top LH of the boiler (in the air inlet hole normally used for 2-pipe installation) to see whether that made any difference, and suggested I could try the same if it went wrong again, as that might give some indication as to the cause of the problem. I did remove the blanking plate (to enable to boiler to temporarily draw air via the top of the boiler casing, rather than via the flue, presumably) and that did seem to stop the fault occurring. Having said that, once I replaced the blanking plate it seemed to behave itself again so I'm not really any nearer to knowing the cause of the problem. I'll keep an eye on it and call him back next time it undoubtedly goes wrong.

In the meantime if anyone has any insightful suggestions as to the cause/nature of this fault that would be gratefully received...

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phone back your rgi and tell him what happened when you removed the bung.

all engineers on here know the problem (its common on ferroli`s) but telling you what the problem is cnould lead to you touching stuff you shouldnt. (like removing that bung)

once again get an gas safe registered engineer in.it is a 10min fix so tell them the fault

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate your sentiment - although I'd be grateful if you could elaborate simply out of interest; it's no problem having the guy come back and sort/replace anything (he's a 'friend of a friend' anyway, hence his flexbility and willingness to come back and do the work at a very reasonable rate) I'm just interested to hear other expert opinions on what the fault may be...?

He did mention suspecting the fan venturis (which apparently are plastic) or the Air Pressure Switch but the symptoms were not conclusive while he was here so he was not able to proceed any further than that while the fault was not manifesting itself..

Well typically since refusing to work most of yesterday it's been absolutely fine and refusing to go wrong - I'm convinced it is related to the wind since it started behaving itself when the wind died down yesterday evening...

I appreciate there may be an unwillingness on this forum to give specific advice on what the fault may be, but based on the likely cause of this fault, is it possible that the windy conditions outside could trigger the fault? (I'm thinking that whatever part(s) are faulty may be more susceptible to the effects of wind on the flue outside than if they were in 'normal' working condition)?

Any advice gratefully received... Would be good to know what the fault is most likely to be for when it inevitably goes wrong again and the wife starts to hyperventilate at the prospect of living without heating for any period of time...

Hi jvn01, i have been having the same problems as you , i have a ferroli modena , did you get an answer on what was causing the problem

Regards Snorky

I'm also having a similar problem, but with a Bosch Greenstar Jr, which is just under 3 years old. I have an extended warranty but, unfortunately, the new engineer's just told me it was improperly installed so I have to get that dealt with before doing anything else. One of the things he's going to have to do is to deal with the flue, which isn't long enough on the outside (and is too long on the inside!) - if that might be enough to fix the problem it would help to know before he starts taking the boiler apart.

The new engineer's been out twice now and is coming back on Monday. Both times the boiler was behaving itself but it's off again now. Every time we get any gusty weather it seems to stop working again. That's often at night at the moment so he isn't getting to see the problem in action. Like previous posters, I appreciate this might be a red herring but he's got to start somewhere and he hasn't had any better ideas as to why it's an intermittant problem (and it's not showing a fault code so he doesn't have that to work from either). He's said that if it's working when he's here it's going to be hard to diagnose so if anyone can help by giving me a direction to point him in so that I don't end up replacing the entire boiler piece by piece, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks