Baxi Barcelona Lockout

[breezer]

as an electronics engineer I would expect more than two yeats service from a pcb.

but when did you last see a pcb inside a boiler? the changed one may have been a re con.

and any way how long is a yeat?

 

[timwickington]

Plz Baxi Barcelona owners... how noisy is your boiler when it fires and then runs in condensing mode?

 

[twincam-escort]

I have just stumbled upon this site after a search on google. I am stunned to see that I am not the only one who has this barcelona problem. Reading through the posts is like reading a case history of my boiler. 1. works great for 3 years. 2. Starts behaving like a jet on take off. 3. Struggles to ignite then almost blows up. 4. When it did start it made the most incredible trumpeting sound. 5. Gives up completely. I had the baxi engineer visit in May and after 4 visits he had replaced every and I mean EVERY internal component before it would work properly!! Now guess what, its locking out again!!!!!! I fitted a Potterton Profile in my last house and never touched it for the 6 years before I left. I think I am going to have to bite the bullet and replace this pile of ........

 

[robjackson]

I had been experiencing the lockout/overheat problem for the last few weeks when this weekend disaster struck. Having had THREE visits from a local plumber and numerous tinkering, the header tank collapsed. The reason for the collapse - the boiler kept showing the lockout light lit up but continued to heat the water in the tank. The water then passed directly into the header tank - which of course is plastic and as everybody knows boiling water and plastic don't mix. Water everywhere!

An emergency plumber diagnosed the problem which my boiler experts failed to spot and now i'm left with a damp house and unable to find a reliable plumber. Have just spent 5 and 1/2 hours waiting for a plumber to turn up - its not like i've got a job to do!! Next plumber (no.4) due to fix tank and boiler tommorow.

It turns out the boiler was originally not fitted with a thermostat for the heating (more expense!) and that the thermostat or wiring for the water is faulty. So called experts told me it was a lockout light NOT and overheat light.

 

[breezer]

i am not wishing to defend anyone, but plumbers are NOT heating Engineers.

In this day and age regretfully almost everything requires a "specialist"

I asked the heating engineer who put in our heating (sadly he has passed away) would he like to quote to install a new bathroom suite, he said no, because he only does heating now, because that is what he specialises in, not fitting baths, toilets etc

may i suggest to anyone that if you have a problem with your heating you call a heating engineer not a plumber, and then ask are they experianced with xyz boiler.

I had a similar problem (not quite as bad i admit) with our heating, 2 plumbing companies, 3 engineers, umpteen visits and it lasted about a week.

Got bg in, in the end , cost a bit, then got 3* service, now i do not worry about it

 

[stevieb]

Turns out the ignition pcb had a has a fault, I got a new one fitted today. I'm a few quid lighter but at least I'm warm

and beezer..

a yeat is 12 munts long

 

[robjackson]

Thats the point the guys who tried to fix the boiler originally were so called heating engineers. The guy who actually diagonosed the problem was a plumber!!! He wasn't Corgi registered so couldn't fix the problem but he was extremely knowledgable about the boiler as he had one himself.

Waiting paitently for the next heating engineer to turn up now. Sometimes so called experts aren't always the ones with the best answers.

 

[timwickington]

Do Baxi read this column? If you do guys, would like to defnd your product, namely the Barcelona? We *must* the the only four people in the country to have had these issues and would, be very British, just accept your heart felt apologies...
The Barcelona was replaced by the 100HE... is it exactly the same?

 

[robjackson]

Heating Engineer visited this morning and merely laughed at my boiler. He must have listed 20 things that were wrong with the original installation. Including putting a 22mm pipe connecting into a 15mm further down the route, no thermostatic control, incorrectly sized boiler for 8 radiators and one cylinder.... Anyway the upshot of his laughing is its going tomorrow!!! Hurrah. Baxi Combi it is for me - well no more leaking tanks - only downer is it'll cost £1500 to replace the hunk of @*$!.

PS Don't ever get Lexus Maintenance to install your boiler if you live in Sheffield!!!!!!

 

[timwickington]

So you're staying with Baxi Rob... even though moving to a combi... I thought you'd give Baxi a miss.

An amazing thing has happened since I first wrote to this list... my Barcelona has stopped playing up!! Ut must know I'm talking about it!

Would still like to know from *any* Barcelona owners how much noise theirs makes while running plz...

 

[robjackson]

Tim, my Baxi hasn't ever made much noise only really a gentle hum. I don't have to sleep near it but none of my housemates have ever complained. Obviously the usual clicking sounds occur on fire up. It did make a racket when it reached boiling before killing my tank.

The reason for Baxi is all heating engineers have told me they make the best boilers. The Baxi Barcelona is apparently the best condensing boiler on the market. They all say that it is the best of a terrible bunch. The Combi's are supposed to be less environmentally friendly, but will save me money as they only heat the water up when i need it. Here's praying for the next five years (plus hopefully!).

Baxi Combi Rob

 

[twincam-escort]

After my latest problem with this boiler I've had some success which may be of assistance to some of you suffering barcelona owners. My lockout light was on continuously which according to the installation manual suggested an ignition fault. It recommends that you check for a blockage in the 'sensing tube' but gives no indication where this is located. I guessed it was refering to a small bent copper tube coming off the gas valve going into the case. This pipe and the part on the gas valve itself was full of water. I removed the whole valve and foolishly sucked the end of the pipe!!!!! I got a mouth full of water which wasnt nice.I replaced the now functioning pressure switch/gas valve assembly and yippee no more lockout. You can do this job without stripping out the gas valve if you have a syringe. Just undo the nut holding the sensing tube to the gas valve and remove it from the case. Then replace it back on the gas valve but this time 180 degrees ie pointing out . You can then use the syringe to suck out the water until you can hear the pressure switch actually working.You may need to do this a few times before it gets all the water out. Must be getting in there from condensation because there isnt a leak anywhere. Hope this is of help to someone......PS Be safe and turn off all supplies.Cheers

 

[johncoward]

Eventually fixed my problem in a roundabout way. I stripped the boiler down and cleaned the inside of the burner chamber - unfortunately the burner was damaged - I had to replace the burner (£170) and at the same time replaced the seal on the fire chamber itself.

Boiler now working fine and at full temerature (but at a cost).

I would try replacing the fire chamber seal if there is a lockout problem.

Soft copy of the manual - see the baxi website and download the one for the HE100 - it's exactly the same boiler and the manual is good.

Regards, john

 

[AnonymousImport]

We've had a Baxi Barcelona installed for about 4 years. About 6 months ago it started to howl when it starts up. A really loud almost trombone-type noise comes out of the boiler, and is reverberates around the house as the noise is carried along the water pipes of the central heating - not very good at 7am and I think it wakes the neighbours up too. Lately its also started to lock out - about once a day now that its having to work a bit harder in the cold weather. We have a really good plumber/heating engineer who has found Baxi tech. help to be hopeless. They muttered something about a later venturi modfication - but wouldn't explain or give any details. I tried to get them out to look at it but as we're not under warranty anymore, and our "area" is not covered by Baxi engineers at this busy time of year, we're stuck. They might get here in April...

Has anyone manged to solve the howling problem. It comes from within the boiler and is very loud.

 

[back2moro]

I too have had this howling problem for the last 3 months or so (2 year old Barcelona). Very intermittent although seems more occurences in this colder weather. Turning the boiler off then on again stops the noise (at least for some time).
The Baxi Service line thought it might be the fan or gas valve and suggested recording the sound to play back to a heating engineer!
I too would be interested if anybody else has come across this phenomena and solved it.