Vaillant ecoTEC plus

[vpuzzled]

My boiler seems to spend more time displaying the code S.53 than it spends heating up water. The result is that many of the rads in my house cool down before they get the chance to get properly warm.

Manual says: S.53 means Appliance is within the waiting period of the operation block function due to water shortage (VL-RL spread too big)

Please can anyone please shed any light on this (I am cold! )

 

[gas4you]

This is becoming a very common situation with these boilers and I suspect there is a latent defect within that the boiler does not recognise as a fault.

Personally I would call Vaillant out under warranty saying you have very little heat.

 

[softlad1971]

Try turning down the heat output ( I think it is under d1 in the install settings ) . If it is set too high, these boilers seem not to like a large temp difference between flow and return pipes when they first start up.

 

[gas4you]

I think you mean d0; this is where you range rate them.

d1 is the pump over run delay, factory set to 5 mins but I always set to 8 mins.

 

[gas4you]

Found out today thet this S53 is quite common because some boilers have been leaving the factory with the flow and return ntc's fitted to the concave part of the bent pipe in the boiler, therefore not making contact with the pipe properly to register temp difference when pump cuts in.

You need to slide the ntc onto a straight bit of pipe.

Also some boilers have been supplied with the ntc's back to front. Red and black wires are the flow ntc and blue and black is the return.

 

[simond]

Thats because they are all assembled from kits by your favourite company in Belper, Dave.

Glowworm curse strikes again.

 

[vpuzzled]

Thanks for all the advice. Had to balance the radiators as well as we had 5 new rads fitted when the boiler was installed.

The new rads are still struggling to get hot. They only get warm if the boiler is running for a long period of time. The new rads are at the end of the circuit and are on smaller bore pipe than the old ones.

The boiler keeps shutting down (pump overrun thingey) or the S53 problem. If I turn the output down I don't get as many S53's but it seems to take about 3 hours before the boiler will stay on for a long period of time. every time it shuts down (pump overrun) the water cools down and the rads don't stay warm.

 

[gas4you]

If everything is sized correctly, balanced and boiler working ok then rads should be hot in 30mins max.

 

[MalcToy]

Hi Guys

I have exactly the same problem with my new EcoTech plus 428 as verypuzzled has. It's a real pain in the butt and wife not happy about being cold!

Being a simple travel agent, can someone tell me what 'NTC' means and what it's for ?

Sorry to be of any bother !

MalcToy

 

[Agile]

Hi Guys

I have exactly the same problem with my new EcoTech plus 428 as verypuzzled has. It's a real pain in the butt and wife not happy about being cold!

MalcToy

Why dont you do what everyone else does and call back the installer?

I am sure that when travel plans go wrong your clients bother you. I have a friend stuck in Thailand but that does not bother me much as he doesn't do much when he is back here and only goes over there to find new girlfriends.

The NTC is a little device which senses the temperature within the boiler. I expect its about 28 ° C in Thailand today.

Tony

 

[brett007]

Check out my topic entitled "S53 Code on Vaillant ECOTec plus 428- 28KW Boiler" on Thu Nov 27, 2008 1:35 am. Glad to know I am not the only one still. This seems to now be a very common problem with these

Maybe there might be some info there that might help

 

[brett007]

sorry you will find it under Dec 1st which was when the last post was

 

[brett007]

ECOTEC PLUS 428 - MY S53 code seems to be solved!!!!!

Firstly we fitted a gate valve on the HW pipe between the pump & Cylinder and I opened it 2 & a half turns. This slows down the water through the HW system and pushes more through the Heating side.
I also made sure there was no air in the system!!!
BALANCE THE SYSTEM - try balance it without the HW cycle on.
The main and final thing is I dropped the KW rating to 24KW. Agile has also suggested 1st work out what your heat output should be for all your RADS and then adjust it accordingly.

Hope this helps!

 

[mickyg]

ECOTEC PLUS 428 - MY S53 code seems to be solved!!!!!

Firstly we fitted a gate valve on the HW pipe between the pump & Cylinder and I opened it 2 & a half turns. This slows down the water through the HW system and pushes more through the Heating side.
I also made sure there was no air in the system!!!
BALANCE THE SYSTEM - try balance it without the HW cycle on.
The main and final thing is I dropped the KW rating to 24KW. Agile has also suggested 1st work out what your heat output should be for all your RADS and then adjust it accordingly.

Hope this helps!

this should all have been done by your installer.

 

[clivepage]

Try turning down the heat output ( I think it is under d1 in the install settings ) . If it is set too high, these boilers seem not to like a large temp difference between flow and return pipes when they first start up.

This is a bit puzzling, as when they start up from cold the inflow is bound to be pretty cold, maybe 10 C in a cold house, whereas the hot will be, well as hot as the boiler can manage.

Anyhow, our boiler gave me the S.53 code several times over when we came back to a cold house after a holiday: I rebooted it several times and eventually it got over its problem, but S.53 was still evident from time to time.

Following advice here, I have reduced the power output from 30 kW (surprisingly high for a boiler supposed to have a maximum of 28 kW) to 24 kW. You do this as follows:

Press + and i together to get into diagnostic mode: screen shows d.0

Press i: screen shows power output in kW (30 in my case).

Use - and + to adjust it (to 24 in my case)

Press and hold I for at least 5 secs to store the changed value.

Press + and i together to exit from the diagnostic mode.

This seems to have reduced the incidence of S.53 state a lot, but I've still seen it once.