British Gas 430/i EA No Flame

[johnny_t]

My British Gas 430/i suffers from sporadic 'No Flame' failures, but at the moment it seems to come on, work for about 20 minutes, and then drop out again, which is making heating up water very laborious.

I have heard some talk about cleaning up the flame sensor - Is that something I can do myself (and, if so, how) ?

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

No it is not a task you are allowed to carry out.
Not unless your are qualified and registered gas engineer that is?

 

[johnny_t]

Okey Dokey.

 

[AGAS]

thats a refreshing change with that answer

 

[hertsboilers]

British Gas 430 is actually from Worcester. Even for gas men EA is not an easy fix for newbies, so call a good boiler repair man.

 

[johnny_t]

A slight follow-up question.....

After three days of having to reset it every 10-15 minutes if I wanted hot water, we have had 'the man' out today. He called me at work to say that he had had it running continuously in 'service mode' and it wasn't cutting out at all. At first I was preparing to write this off as 'typical', but I asked him to try advancing the Hot Water so that it was in normal Hot Water heating mode and see if that made a difference.

Anyway, my wife called me later and it had gone 'EA' again whilst he was still there, the man diagnosed a bearing plate and has got one on order. All fine, and it's covered by insurance anyway.

However, if I can get a tank of hot water by running 'service mode' for a bit, is that something I can do, and if so, how (I didn't speak to him before he left, but I got the impression it was a 'buttons and software thing, rather than a spanners thing)

 

[ollski]

service mode puts maximum output round the circuit, just wait for the bearing plate it will be fine after.

 

[hertsboilers]

service mode puts maximum output round the circuit, just wait for the bearing plate it will be fine after.

Some of us will probably remove the fan slapper by first visit.

 

[johnny_t]

So, a quick update.

Had the bearing plate replaced, and it didn't initially improve things, in that I was still getting flame failure after 10-15 minutes of service. The boiler man's next guess is that, whilst the boiler has been serviced, it hasn't had a full strip-down service and, consequently, is full of debris and other crap that is causing the issue. Before we go further, I have agreed to get Worcester out to do a full service as requested.

One thing that seemed strange is that, I am sure, my boiler has always heated water and the CH by having the flame on for about three minutes, off for about three minutes, and then repeating until the right temperature is reached. The boiler man is adamant that isn't normal, but I'm sure it always has. (Bearing in mind he also tried telling me that the hoses from my LPG bottles needed replacing as they were from 1992, but they are a year old and the 1992 was obviously part of the BS marking, I don't take everything he says as gospel)

Anyway, he did get it running for a while, with both temperature dials set to the maximum position and it hasn't 'flame-failed' for two days now. Maybe the various service modes etc. burnt off enough crap that I have a stay of execution, but I still plan to get the service done. Problem is, that it seems to stay on now and my water tank is getting to nuclear heat. The temperature gauge on the the boiler is showing numbers like 92, and the thermostat on the tank doesn't seem to be kicking in. I'm now using the Hot Water Advance button to stop it heating, as it is so very hot.

So, as a guess, is it possible that we have somehow cooked the thermostat on the tank, having run the boiler in 'service mode' so many times during faultfinding ? I'm guessing that a thermostat change is a good first port of call so, are they pretty much universal (e.g. normally open or normally closed) ?