Glow Worm 18HXI - intermittent problems - best to replace?

[OasisFan79]

Hi guys.

Wondered if I could get some advice/opinions on this.

We've got a Glow Worm 18HXI boiler in the garage. It's about 7 years old.

Occasionally we'll get up one morning and find that the heating isn't on. I go out and check the boiler and it's got F1 flashing on the display and the power light is off.

It doesn't seem to do this regularly - it's intermittent and occurs at random. This is the first time it's occurred this year. Last year about three times.

If I'm lucky (like today) I just have to reset it and it comes back on and fires up. All I have to do then is turn off the Gledhill Boilermate in the airing cupboard and the heating comes on as normal.

Previous times I've had to get a plumber out to look at it although the chap I've used hasn't been able to fix it for good - he seemed to just make various adjustments poke around in the boiler after which (possibly by luck) it comes back on.

Anyway the position right now is that it's working ok but obviously it could go again tomorrow morning (it only goes off first thing in the morning before we wake up).

I'm considering replacing it with something like a Worcester Bosch which I've heard good things about. Seems pointless just waiting for the problem to occur each time - getting it looked at - getting it working again and then repeating the process.

Any opinions on this? I appreciate that intermittent problems are the difficult to fix but I'm thinking I might be best to just bite the bullet and have a new boiler.

Cheers

 

[Agile]

Faulting every four months is hardly a serious problem for most people!

But finding an intermittent problem is very difficult as you suggest.

But a proper service/diagnostic test MIGHT identify the problem but that needs a competent engineer and I am sorry to say that probably less than 5% of gas reg people would be likely to have the required knowledge. For a start they would need to know about the settings on the interface PCB and when I asked RGIs it took 35 viewing before anyone could provide the information!

Replacing the boiler when its a reliable model and very efficient seems a very wasteful solution.

I would say that model is more reliable then current Worcester models!

Tony

 

[OasisFan79]

Cheers. Going to get it serviced and see what happens.

 

[mickyg]

intermittent faults are tricky, but F1 on one of these shouldnt be too challenging, I suspect a lack of quality servicing.

 

[CBF]

did your "plumber" take anything apart or replace anything ?

if not get an RGI that knows what he is doing & not a plumber that pokes around

when was it last serviced ?

could be a few things but one of them should have already been replaced twice if it's 7 yrs old

 

[OasisFan79]

Hasn't been serviced. I know that's not good.

Spoke to a friend of the family on the mrs's mothers side who's a plumber - getting it serviced in a couple of weeks.