Intermittent Littlestar

This Raver puts its flame failure light on 2 - 3 times a day, but not when I'm there. Doesn't fail during a shower, but tenant hasn't detected any pattern.
It's a vertical flue. Not sure of length, maybe 1-3 metres.
Fan is clean but I don't remember if I measured aps pressures.
Has been getting worse over a few months, worse when the wind blows, so she says.

Sound familiar to anyone? Slug?
Oh it's a WHITE Star.

Honeywell APS can be a bit oversensitive in windy conditions. Some sometimes stick.

They now tend to provide HUBA APS 0005PRE05006/0 which takes a little longer to operate. Theres a bigger chamber to move the diaphragm across.

Try the flue restrictor ring at different positions especially if theres any bends before it goes vertical. Sometimes the flue core doesnt sit centrally in the area of the venturi. Any flue header bend should not point in the same direction as the venturi.

Check the flue integrity.

I suppose you will have already blew a lung full of air down the red tube towards the venturi and checked that the fan isn't stiffening up? Fan coil should be 45-55 ohms.

If the casing isn't on properly and you hear tunes.. Roger Whittaker n stuff then that could be a problem. Earlier ones had foam seals which were crap and probably need replacing. All the casings are a twa! to get back on. Trick is to work from left to right or vice versa tucking the sides in and locating the screw holes with a mains tester screwdriver as you go.

I think most white stars are Mk2 where everything is on main control board.[No ignition box] They have been known to go. Sometimes a tap around the pcb reveals a dry joint. If its made after Sept. 2005 it may have a fan modulation board like the CSI's These are the new number one fault on Ravenheats

Ring Ravenheat if you are still stuck on 0113 252 7007 then press 2 for tech help. Might pay you to book their free training course while you are at it. You can then be privy to the out of hours helpline number.

Brilliant post by Slugbaby! I've had persistent problems with an intermittent fault leading to lock-out on a White Star. Ravers "engineer" came out about 10 times under guarantee and just messed up the gas pressure settings with his out-of-calibration pressure tester. Things looked hopeful for a while when he accidentally blew the PCB and the new one seemed more reliable, but eventually it was back to it's old tricks.

I put the problems down to it having a slightly unusual flue run, namely horizontal but with an extra bend and a slightly downward pointing length through the wall. Given that yours has a vertical flue this might indicate the root of the problem. Checking different venturi positions, as SB says, might do the biz if you're lucky.

As for my White Star, after 4 years and what looked like a PCB failure the Landlord got so fed up with the unresolved problems that they opted to replace the boiler completely with something decent (a Viessmann). I've gone right off Ravers after that experience.

Thanks Slug, aps ordered. I DO remember the case!

Mod - perhaps this would all be better in the Combustion CHamber?
Non Corgis shouldn't be playing with this stuff.