I too have a recurring lockout problem with my Barcelona boiler. It was repaired once under warranty for this fault but now Baxi are quoting 195 Pounds to come out and look at it. I'm trying to convince them to fix it again (for the same problem) under warranty. We'll see what they say. Has anyone else managed to get them to fix this problem ouside of warranty for free? It sounds like this is some sort of inherent design fault. Anyone fancy being on Watchdog??
Baxi Barcelona Lockout
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Sitting here reading these posts is like deja vu! Allow me to tell you our story...
We had our barcelona installed around spring 99, it arrived with bashed side panels. Our installer called Baxi who said it would be fine and they would dispatch new panels. He installed the boiler.... some weeks later our replacement panels arrived...they were for a Bermuda... it had begun!
all was quiet for 11 months, then, one very cold winter morning it stopped, dead. we called baxi who agreed to send out an engineer. half a dozen engineers and 6 months later Baxi relented and replaced the boiler with a new one!
all was quiet for 11 months, then, one very cold winter morning it stopped, dead. this time we had the foresight to join British gas' celsia cover. the first of a troop of engineers arrived and replaced the PCB, 2 months later he replaced the fan, then the condensate trap a few months after that. some 12 visits and numerous parts and engineers later we still have a boiler that is totally unreliable.
This morning it was cold, so it stopped, dead. a new engineer came today! (welcome Simon! i think Lee was probably suicidal at this stage, and Dave did a runner after last winter....). Now we have a leak causing it to go into lock out. he fixed it and blew dust from the ignition area and again I have heat and water..but for how long?
The ignition is so loud it wakes us up at 6am. Our neighbours complain about the huge sonic booms that frequently emit from the thing. if you happen to be washing dishes adjacent to it when it does explode beware.....many a plate has hit the floor in fright. It refuses to work for any period longer than 3 months and only likes warmer summer weather.
For 4 years I have had a boiler in the corner of my kitchen that is absoloubtly perfect.....as a holder for fridge magnets. As a boiler? forget it. but looking on the bright side, I have made so many new friends who all happen to be heating engineers.....
Jane
x
We had our barcelona installed around spring 99, it arrived with bashed side panels. Our installer called Baxi who said it would be fine and they would dispatch new panels. He installed the boiler.... some weeks later our replacement panels arrived...they were for a Bermuda... it had begun!
all was quiet for 11 months, then, one very cold winter morning it stopped, dead. we called baxi who agreed to send out an engineer. half a dozen engineers and 6 months later Baxi relented and replaced the boiler with a new one!
all was quiet for 11 months, then, one very cold winter morning it stopped, dead. this time we had the foresight to join British gas' celsia cover. the first of a troop of engineers arrived and replaced the PCB, 2 months later he replaced the fan, then the condensate trap a few months after that. some 12 visits and numerous parts and engineers later we still have a boiler that is totally unreliable.
This morning it was cold, so it stopped, dead. a new engineer came today! (welcome Simon! i think Lee was probably suicidal at this stage, and Dave did a runner after last winter....). Now we have a leak causing it to go into lock out. he fixed it and blew dust from the ignition area and again I have heat and water..but for how long?
The ignition is so loud it wakes us up at 6am. Our neighbours complain about the huge sonic booms that frequently emit from the thing. if you happen to be washing dishes adjacent to it when it does explode beware.....many a plate has hit the floor in fright. It refuses to work for any period longer than 3 months and only likes warmer summer weather.
For 4 years I have had a boiler in the corner of my kitchen that is absoloubtly perfect.....as a holder for fridge magnets. As a boiler? forget it. but looking on the bright side, I have made so many new friends who all happen to be heating engineers.....
Jane
x
Just thought everyone watching this thread may like to know I had a very helpful response from my complaint to Baxi about Barcelona lockups from the customer service manager of heatteam their service group.
Boiler now fully functioning after a replacement Ignition PCB turned up and I'm a happy camper again.
So if you are getting no joy from their first line helpdesk people and feel you have a similar problem to me well worth trying to get in contact with Anthony Bicknell the service manager.
Boiler now fully functioning after a replacement Ignition PCB turned up and I'm a happy camper again.
So if you are getting no joy from their first line helpdesk people and feel you have a similar problem to me well worth trying to get in contact with Anthony Bicknell the service manager.
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About a fortnight ago my barcelona started locking out, when it got cold of course.
It'll go on for a while, sometime hours sometimes minutes, then shuts down and when it tries to restart gets ignition lock out, red light on constant.
I've noticed as it tries to light there's a click then a small "bumpff" a second later, then a louder "bumpff" another second later as it actually lights. Can anyone tell me what the first "bumpf" is? because when this bumpf occurs it always lights, when it doesn't happen I get 5 attempts at lighting then lockout. Is it the gas valve opening?
I also notice that the radiators get very hot when it's on even when I have the control knob quite low on the boiler, is this normal?
I've cleaned the condensate, checked the case pressure tube was clear and serviced the boiler via the manual. I've checked it's sparking with the case open and tried it with the 3 jumpers on and off all to no avail.
When I opened it for the first time the sensor on the condensate was off and the screw to hold the injector pipe into the venturi was loose and hence so was the pipe. I tightened the pipe and have tried it with and without the condensate sensor but no difference. Door seals seem OK.
Can anyone give me any clues as to what to try next, all the parts are so expensive I really can't afford a try it and see approach!
I cracked the threaded plastic drain at the bottom of the condensate trap putting in he drain plug but thankfully was able to seal it with pfte and a jubilee clip, thank god, £44 for a glorified U bend!
Cheers for any help at all, Richard.
PS: anywhere to get cheap parts would be helpful too, especially the ignition PCB which I'm a bit suspicious of!
It'll go on for a while, sometime hours sometimes minutes, then shuts down and when it tries to restart gets ignition lock out, red light on constant.
I've noticed as it tries to light there's a click then a small "bumpff" a second later, then a louder "bumpff" another second later as it actually lights. Can anyone tell me what the first "bumpf" is? because when this bumpf occurs it always lights, when it doesn't happen I get 5 attempts at lighting then lockout. Is it the gas valve opening?
I also notice that the radiators get very hot when it's on even when I have the control knob quite low on the boiler, is this normal?
I've cleaned the condensate, checked the case pressure tube was clear and serviced the boiler via the manual. I've checked it's sparking with the case open and tried it with the 3 jumpers on and off all to no avail.
When I opened it for the first time the sensor on the condensate was off and the screw to hold the injector pipe into the venturi was loose and hence so was the pipe. I tightened the pipe and have tried it with and without the condensate sensor but no difference. Door seals seem OK.
Can anyone give me any clues as to what to try next, all the parts are so expensive I really can't afford a try it and see approach!
I cracked the threaded plastic drain at the bottom of the condensate trap putting in he drain plug but thankfully was able to seal it with pfte and a jubilee clip, thank god, £44 for a glorified U bend!
Cheers for any help at all, Richard.
PS: anywhere to get cheap parts would be helpful too, especially the ignition PCB which I'm a bit suspicious of!
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ok, now it's not sparking, although it was this morning ....
arrggghhhh
arrggghhhh
ChrisR said:
Re various comments on Barcelona. I too have had no end of problems - everything changed at some point - including replacement boiler. General comments -Noise can come form vibration if water pipes are not well secured near boiler. Condensate trap design has been modified by Baxi. Vibration can cause combustion chamber door seals to fail early. In my area there are only a couple of BG engineers who have any idea on condensing boilers - the training of engineers needs to be improved.. My boiler now only fails to ignite once every three months or so in the winter - Ignition Lockout and always fires up on reset. Not sure what the problem is - any ideas? Not a blocked trap or sensors. Maybe the ignition PCB (not changed for a couple of years)I have written to Which? complaining about thier support in the past for condensing boilers - pathetic reply.
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After all the complaints on here, I just wonder what is the ratio of 'barcelonas' sold to complaints?
Anyway, to add my 2p's worth.,
I installed my baxi in Jan 02 - and within 4 weeks the heat sensor on the 'flow' side started to play up. The Baxi engineer said it's always happening and he bypassed the sensor by connecting a jack plug and twisting the pair of wires together.
4 weeks went by and something esle 'went' so he fitted a new PCB.
And now here we are just over 2 years later...and the 2 yearly rot has set in!!
Now I wished I'd taken out the Baxi extended guarantee!!
Today, the cut out tripped in , it fired up ok. but wouldnt move onto the yellow light...eventually it failed after the 5 or 6 attempts.,
(Of course I tried it several times before realising that it wasnt just another rogue misfire)
I first went through the routine of checking the condensate trap and it wasnt blocked.
( I've looked hi and lo for my installers manual that goes through the fault finding routine and cant find the damned thing anywhere) and so I looked on the web for any help....
I was stunned to find a whole site dedicated to 'Barcelona's.
Thanks to all the contributors!!
Thanks to whoever suggested checking the door seals,Although when I looked inside my door seals werent actually damaged - what I did find inside the firebox was lashing of insulation from the back of the door- that had burned onto the aluminium heat exchanger fins - which in turn was creating dust over the burner.
Somewhere I read that the burner is ceramic and fragile so I covered it with a sheet of paper and promptly hoovered off the heat exchanger fins.
Then held the hoover nozzle a few millineters off the burner and cleaned that off.
Reassembled the lot and ....
still it wouldnt fire up.!!
Then, thanks again to whoever suggested that even a small bit of moisture on the condensate sensor can cause a trip out. So I dissassembled the lot - took it totally off the boiler - and put a hair dryer inside the chambers for 10 minutes.
Now dont ask me if it was that which actually worked. but. I reassembled the lot and it fired up first time !!
I got the screaming banshees howl from the fan - but a tightened up the twin butterfly nuts( underneath the fan housing) and that seemd to quieten it.
Dunno whether this will help anyone but.. good luck!!
Anyway, to add my 2p's worth.,
I installed my baxi in Jan 02 - and within 4 weeks the heat sensor on the 'flow' side started to play up. The Baxi engineer said it's always happening and he bypassed the sensor by connecting a jack plug and twisting the pair of wires together.
4 weeks went by and something esle 'went' so he fitted a new PCB.
And now here we are just over 2 years later...and the 2 yearly rot has set in!!
Now I wished I'd taken out the Baxi extended guarantee!!
Today, the cut out tripped in , it fired up ok. but wouldnt move onto the yellow light...eventually it failed after the 5 or 6 attempts.,
(Of course I tried it several times before realising that it wasnt just another rogue misfire)
I first went through the routine of checking the condensate trap and it wasnt blocked.
( I've looked hi and lo for my installers manual that goes through the fault finding routine and cant find the damned thing anywhere) and so I looked on the web for any help....
I was stunned to find a whole site dedicated to 'Barcelona's.
Thanks to all the contributors!!
Thanks to whoever suggested checking the door seals,Although when I looked inside my door seals werent actually damaged - what I did find inside the firebox was lashing of insulation from the back of the door- that had burned onto the aluminium heat exchanger fins - which in turn was creating dust over the burner.
Somewhere I read that the burner is ceramic and fragile so I covered it with a sheet of paper and promptly hoovered off the heat exchanger fins.
Then held the hoover nozzle a few millineters off the burner and cleaned that off.
Reassembled the lot and ....
still it wouldnt fire up.!!
Then, thanks again to whoever suggested that even a small bit of moisture on the condensate sensor can cause a trip out. So I dissassembled the lot - took it totally off the boiler - and put a hair dryer inside the chambers for 10 minutes.
Now dont ask me if it was that which actually worked. but. I reassembled the lot and it fired up first time !!
I got the screaming banshees howl from the fan - but a tightened up the twin butterfly nuts( underneath the fan housing) and that seemd to quieten it.
Dunno whether this will help anyone but.. good luck!!
breezer said:
On reading this i had to laugh. If your planning on phoning the technical helpline at baxi be prepared, get yourself a hot flask of soup candles and book a week off work and expect a high phone bill as the baxi help line is a total waste of time you will be waiting on the phone for days. best of luck
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The plot thickens ....
Yesterday the boiler did the safety loclout, flashing red light once a second, for the first time (normally it locks out with the red on constant). I followed the fault finder and the flow thermistor was open circuit.
I got a new one this morning and sure enough it stopped the safety lockout but didn't help the ignition problems. So, I bit the bullet and bought an ignition pcb and it's been igniting first time all day since, so all's well eh? NOPE!
It now heats the water to warm, not hot, then stops! No red light, simply goes back to green only as if "the water's hot enough now I can stop"
Its now going on quite often for a minute or so just to keep the water warm. I can only assume the voltage from the new thermistor is telling the boiler the water is hotter than it actually is. Is there a way to calibrate this? e.g. a pot somewhere on the control PCB?
I've another question about my pump which is now making an irregular watery cliclety rattling noise. Is this likely to be something in it? If so should I clean then protect the system? Can anyone tell me how to do this and recommend some products? (the boiler's got an aluminium heat exchanger). If I have to drain it as part of the flush would that have to be done from the lowest point meaning I'd have to open a pipe below a groundfloor radiator?
Cheers for any advice and good luck with your own boiler hell, Richard.
Yesterday the boiler did the safety loclout, flashing red light once a second, for the first time (normally it locks out with the red on constant). I followed the fault finder and the flow thermistor was open circuit.
I got a new one this morning and sure enough it stopped the safety lockout but didn't help the ignition problems. So, I bit the bullet and bought an ignition pcb and it's been igniting first time all day since, so all's well eh? NOPE!
It now heats the water to warm, not hot, then stops! No red light, simply goes back to green only as if "the water's hot enough now I can stop"
Its now going on quite often for a minute or so just to keep the water warm. I can only assume the voltage from the new thermistor is telling the boiler the water is hotter than it actually is. Is there a way to calibrate this? e.g. a pot somewhere on the control PCB?
I've another question about my pump which is now making an irregular watery cliclety rattling noise. Is this likely to be something in it? If so should I clean then protect the system? Can anyone tell me how to do this and recommend some products? (the boiler's got an aluminium heat exchanger). If I have to drain it as part of the flush would that have to be done from the lowest point meaning I'd have to open a pipe below a groundfloor radiator?
Cheers for any advice and good luck with your own boiler hell, Richard.
Robjackson. Boiler WILL be factory fitted with dedicated controls which (when working correctly) control boiler operation. Failure of control can cause the water to boil. Having no external controls would not effect boiler operation, In fact many an installation has no external electrical controls except timers.
Going from open vented system to a sealed system may open another can of worms. This is system integrity. Do you know if your system has NO leaks. If it has, you will be topping up the sealed system regularly to detriment of the installation. Be aware hot water delivery is poor from a combi.
twincam-escort. I am a heating engineer- I would never dream of stripping a gas valve. Gas valve manufacturers are the only people who can assemble gas valves and ensure no leaks and correct operation.
Timwickington- 3 minute burner off time is there so that the burner does not cycle rapidly when boiler has reached target temperature. Heat produced by the boiler has to be dissipated to the load. If the boiler produces heat faster than the load can dissipate, burner shut down allowing pump to circulate primary water. Let us say that the anticycle delay was not fitted. In this case as soon as the circulating water cools down sufficiently ( say 30 seconds), the burners would relight.
All boilers shut down when they reach target temperature. Fair majority of boiler (and all modern I have worked on) are fitted with anticycle delay.
Richiereynolds- When you move jumpers what are you hoping to achieve? It is quite possible the problems listed in your post could be results of tinkering with the jumpers. What is the heat requirement of your house and what is the heat output of the boiler. When you move the jumpers, you are altering the operation parameters of the boiler. You should have a Benchmark logbook. It will tell you who the installer is, who commissioned the boiler, what chemicals were used to clean and protect the system among other things. If the system was treated, all that needs to be done is to check inhibitor strength.
Going from open vented system to a sealed system may open another can of worms. This is system integrity. Do you know if your system has NO leaks. If it has, you will be topping up the sealed system regularly to detriment of the installation. Be aware hot water delivery is poor from a combi.
twincam-escort. I am a heating engineer- I would never dream of stripping a gas valve. Gas valve manufacturers are the only people who can assemble gas valves and ensure no leaks and correct operation.
Timwickington- 3 minute burner off time is there so that the burner does not cycle rapidly when boiler has reached target temperature. Heat produced by the boiler has to be dissipated to the load. If the boiler produces heat faster than the load can dissipate, burner shut down allowing pump to circulate primary water. Let us say that the anticycle delay was not fitted. In this case as soon as the circulating water cools down sufficiently ( say 30 seconds), the burners would relight.
All boilers shut down when they reach target temperature. Fair majority of boiler (and all modern I have worked on) are fitted with anticycle delay.
Richiereynolds- When you move jumpers what are you hoping to achieve? It is quite possible the problems listed in your post could be results of tinkering with the jumpers. What is the heat requirement of your house and what is the heat output of the boiler. When you move the jumpers, you are altering the operation parameters of the boiler. You should have a Benchmark logbook. It will tell you who the installer is, who commissioned the boiler, what chemicals were used to clean and protect the system among other things. If the system was treated, all that needs to be done is to check inhibitor strength.
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Chris R -
I did a search for 'baxi barcelona' and the search engine threwup these pages.
I wrongly assumed it was a wbsite dedicated to baxi faults !!
( I didnt know that this ('DIYNOT') site actually existed til yesterday)
cheers.
I did a search for 'baxi barcelona' and the search engine threwup these pages.
I wrongly assumed it was a wbsite dedicated to baxi faults !!
( I didnt know that this ('DIYNOT') site actually existed til yesterday)
cheers.
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DP: hiya, the jumpers I removed are purely to "up the output" on this boiler. It did seem to do this (the fan ran faster) but when it didn't solve my problems I just put them back on. I didn't try this until I'd had about 10 days of infuriating lockouts so I don't think this caused anything.
To follow on from my last post about it not heating the water enough, about an hour later it started to work OK! Why would a new thermistor not work for a day then suddenly start working? I'm baffled. The only thing I tried was turning off 2 rads in a room I'm not using and setting the required hot water temp from 55 to 65 on the controller.
I've now put the temp back to 55 as that's quite hot enough for me and I don't think it was the rads as it continued the quick on off cycling and only warming the water a little for about half a day after I did that.
Now that it appears to be working I hate to complain but I'd love to know why it's working!
It's a 13 room house but I only moved in 6 months ago, afraid there was no documentation with the boiler. The reason I'm asking about cleaning is the clickety noise in the pump, what would be the likely causes of that?
Cheers, Richard.
To follow on from my last post about it not heating the water enough, about an hour later it started to work OK! Why would a new thermistor not work for a day then suddenly start working? I'm baffled. The only thing I tried was turning off 2 rads in a room I'm not using and setting the required hot water temp from 55 to 65 on the controller.
I've now put the temp back to 55 as that's quite hot enough for me and I don't think it was the rads as it continued the quick on off cycling and only warming the water a little for about half a day after I did that.
Now that it appears to be working I hate to complain but I'd love to know why it's working!
It's a 13 room house but I only moved in 6 months ago, afraid there was no documentation with the boiler. The reason I'm asking about cleaning is the clickety noise in the pump, what would be the likely causes of that?
Cheers, Richard.
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