Baxi Combi 100 not firing from cold.

[SpeedTorque]

Hi,

Situation: I had a problem with my boiler a week ago where is didn't fire up in the morning and was displaying the error 133. I removed the spark ignitor and it was visibly misshapen from heat.

I ordered the new part and reshaped the old one in the meantime. It fired up but failed to fire the next morning. I removed the ignitor again to find it in the same shape I left it with a 5mm gap. However, it did have some orange oxidation (rust) on the electrode, once cleaned off the boiler fired up. The new part came and I changed it leaving the old one to hand as a spare.

One week later the same problem happens, with the new part. Upon removal, the ignitor was the correct shape but had oxidation on the closest points. After cleaning and refitting, it works.

Question:

Am I going to continue to have this problem?
Is the source of the problem the ignition coil being weak?
Or is my boiler not combusting properly?

Thanks

John

 

[muggles]

Afraid you'll not get any advice on this here - it's against forum rules. Call a Gas Safe Registered Engineer

 

[SpeedTorque]

Thanks Andrew, perhaps I should use a different Gas Safe Registered Engineer than the one who serviced it last month eh?

 

[AGAS]

perhaps I should use a different Gas Safe Registered Engineer than the one who serviced it last month eh?

ye my @ss

 

[SpeedTorque]

I'm not really sure on what is implied by the comment from AGAS above? That aside I have the Gas Safe guy coming tomorrow, it's the same company as the one who serviced the boiler on the 14 of December but possibly a different technician.

This problem has developed between the 14th on Dec and the 1st of Jan. Should a distorted electrode have been spotted during an inspection? A quick look through the manual indicates the burner needs to be inspected, the electrode would have been visible...

Either way, I'm going to need to be present when this next guy turns up. The points I will need to illustrate are:

-The boiler tends not to fire in the early morning locking out with E133

-If the ignitor is removed from the combustion chamber and the boiler is restarted (gas switched off) the ignitor does not produce a spark but ticking can be heard. Once electrodes are cleaned, it produces a regular spark. Naturally, once the cleaned ignitor is reinserted and the boiler restarted (gas switched on) it fires immediately.

-The High Tension lead reads at 1 ohm (possible suppression?)

-The earths have good continuity throughout.

I am interested to see the thoughts on this as none of the fault algorithms cover the "no spark/weak spark" scenario. I'm going to imagine it comes down to a new PCB solving it but I'd be interested in your thoughts...

Many thanks

John

 

[ianmcd]

you need the updated spark electrode kit, you will notice the difference immediately

 

[SpeedTorque]

Ok, what's the difference? The replacement looked exactly like the original. When ordering is there a code which identifies the updated version?

Cheers

John

 

[Terry lambert]

You shouldn’t be in the combustion chamber or messing with the boiler at all

 

[ianmcd]

well if it looked exactly the same then you have the wrong part and as @Terry lambert correctly says you shouldnt be messing around in there