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5 yr old Alpha 240E failed to light 3 months ago. Fault finder in manual highlighted the ignition PCB to be the problem. It turned out to be dirty contacts in one of the relays on the Ignition PCB. A gentle tap with a screw driver on the relay brought it back to the life..... BUT......
Two other problems have recently developed.
1. You can only get hot water if you have the central heating switched on!! Fine in winter but I'm dreading summer. Also the water isn't HOT it's luke warm at best.....Not sure what the problem is here. Got a feeling it's something to do with a valve somewhere in the system
2. The boiler fails to light on the first ignition cycle when in the Central Heating mode. The burner lights for a couple of seconds then goes out. It then lights... and goes out. It does this several times before it actually stays on. Occasionally the RESET switch cuts in and the whole thing shuts down. One thing that I've found is that running a hot tap for a couple of seconds lights the boiler and keeps it going.
The user manual suggest suggests changing the flame sensing electrode and then the ignition PCB. I've got no problem doing this and found the bits online for £100 ish.... only thing is I'm not too keen to throw £100 into a PCB + £??? on the other problem to keep a 5 year old boiler running when the whole thing can be replaced for £370.
Anyone else had similar problems with an Alpha boiler or can give advice?
Two other problems have recently developed.
1. You can only get hot water if you have the central heating switched on!! Fine in winter but I'm dreading summer. Also the water isn't HOT it's luke warm at best.....Not sure what the problem is here. Got a feeling it's something to do with a valve somewhere in the system
2. The boiler fails to light on the first ignition cycle when in the Central Heating mode. The burner lights for a couple of seconds then goes out. It then lights... and goes out. It does this several times before it actually stays on. Occasionally the RESET switch cuts in and the whole thing shuts down. One thing that I've found is that running a hot tap for a couple of seconds lights the boiler and keeps it going.
The user manual suggest suggests changing the flame sensing electrode and then the ignition PCB. I've got no problem doing this and found the bits online for £100 ish.... only thing is I'm not too keen to throw £100 into a PCB + £??? on the other problem to keep a 5 year old boiler running when the whole thing can be replaced for £370.
Anyone else had similar problems with an Alpha boiler or can give advice?
