Glow Worm - no-one can fix...

[bengasman]

well, you never know.

my mate married his first wife, and then divorced.
same for number 2
then he married number 3 and did not divorce her.
at least with a pcb you will know after 4 months if you solved the problem.

 

[boiler34]

Thanks Agile - glad to know that my internal exasperation is shared by others

The beauty is that because the board was replaced while the electrics were incorrect, the incorrect electrical polarity may conceivably have caused the new board to fail. On the other hand, the new board may have been faulty when fitted. I never got to the bottom of this as the boiler repair guys failed to keep the **3** follow up appointments we made to carry out further tests; seems they just cant be bothered to do any real work - just bung in a new chargeable part. Shame though - I've known these guys for 5 years - maybe familiarity bred contempt in this case.

Will never be using them again of course.

Basically I am almost completely re-doing all work carried out so far - consumer unit and boiler replacement parts.

And I know what you might be thinking... the thing is - I didn't pay peanuts in the first place!

 

[boiler34]

OK, I was going to post the final results today so I could be told how much or little the actual part would have cost....

Guess what - it's still not fixed. The guy from BG brought a *new* circuit board and fitted it ... and it doesn't work. He reckons it's the board as there were signs of the box having been opened already.

He'll be back tomorrow.

 

[bengasman]

would that be board number 4?
i thought all good things come in three

 

[boiler34]

yes, tomorrow will be board number 4.

 

[bengasman]

don't want to spoil your day, but i am not convinced a new board will fix your problem

 

[Agile]

they will probably just send another engineer!

They have about 5000 different ones they could send so that would keep you occupied for quite a while!

Its amusing to watch but such a pity when I could have identified the fault in one visit !

Tony

 

[boiler34]

don't worry - has been going on so long that I'm now watching with a detatched amusement at the whole thing.

Maybe amusement is not the right word, but what is the emotion, you know, when you start off at mild annoyance, then get to frustration, then exasperation, then seem to start again at the beginning, while all the time you know you are funding the merry-go-round yourself...?

I think I may have done better to have taken a distance-learning IEE regs & CORGI registration course & done it all myself.

Mind you, next time all I'm going to do is simply replace one part after another until the thing starts working. Seems that this is the only way boiler repairs are done these days.

 

[BigBurner]

Mind you, next time all I'm going to do is simply replace one part after another until the thing starts working. Seems that this is the only way boiler repairs are done these days.

Yep most of them just do that as they haven't a clue how to fault find. That means testing components to do that. Any competent DIYer can change parts as they do.

 

[gas4you]

Yep most of them just do that as they haven't a clue how to fault find. That means testing components to do that. Any competent DIYer can change parts as they do.

And any competent DIYer can recommend boilers etc from reading manuals googled on the internet without knowing anything about them in the real world, as you do and don't respectively

 

[matt1e]

hi a few questions
1)what sequence of led's do you have when the boiler is going through its ignition stage?
2)at what stage in the sequence does the "buzzing" start?
3)is it a gravity HW or fully pumped system?

 

[boiler34]

Hi matt1e

Firstly in response to your questions:

1. I get light 1 lit, light 2 lit, and then it becomes interesting.
The fan starts up, ignition lights the pilot, light 3 comes on, then the gas supply is immediately shut down and light 3 goes off. This on/off of light 3 takes 2 or 3 seconds so it's constantly starting/stopping. Buzzing is happening all the time.
Light 4 is always off.

2. Buzzing starts immediately that power is applied to the unit and continues until the burner gets hot after about half an hour, when the burner then stays lit.

3. it's a gravity system.


Secondly - the British Gas guy came around today with board number 4. Fitted it, and apparently the thing is now WORKING CORRECTLY again (according to my wife - I've not seen it yet)!!

I can't quite believe it was just the board, but I'm prepared to accept this if the unit is now working OK.

Tentatively ... this might be the end of the problems with this boiler until it finally dies in a few years or so...

Thanks for all your help and/or information.