Ideal C80FF gas-fired boiler - repair or replace?

[BrianS]

We have an Ideal C80FF "wall-mounted, gas fired, fanned flue, combination boiler" which, when working properly, is perfectly fine.

However, it goes through cycles where it trips out (usually first thing in the morning) and I have to climb into the attic to press the orange lockout button to get things going again. No pilot light on these. The light is a "failure to ignite lockout" warning.

It seems that one possibility is that when the central heating switches on in the morning that is tripping it out.

I managed to get it to do that one day whilst faffing around in the attic - SWMBO switched on the heating and tripped the cut-out.

Work done whilst we have been in residence:
• April 2006 - £250 spent on new fan unit
• August 2006 - £200 spent on new heat exchanger

Trawling through old threads ) I see that a few owners have the same problem.

The suggested causes include:
• It could be caused by many different things, faulty gas valve, fan, air pressure switch, ignition PCB etc.
• the gas valve is not set up correctly. The min/max needs to be checked but few engineers seem very competent at doing it.
• it could be anything at all to do with the combustion process and the fan/venturi would be a prime suspect.
• sludge in the secondary heat exchanger or blocked heat exchanger
• the fan venturi needs cleaning
• the dhw flow switch
• ignition control box on gas valve - common fault apparently

The question is how far do I go with the existing boiler or do I consider replacing it?

Anyone know the approx. cost of a replacement gas combi boiler supplied and fitted?

If I persevere with the current boiler and try and get a fix, do I find an Ideal boiler specialist or should any competent boiler engineer be able to find the fault?

Thanks in advance for any help and advice!

Brian

 

[Agile]

Your boiler is now about 16 years old and a relatively budget boiler.

I still repair them and keep the spares too.

But any competent engineer who does repairs should be able to manage to fix it. But few are in this category.

Most will want to replace it and seeing it is a distressed purchase will try to charge extra.

The routine cost would be about £1800 for a reasonable quality boiler.

Tony

 

[easyflow]

I look after a 80ff for a customer and have done for about 10 yrs,
This particular one has been faultless and put the more expensive boilers to shame.
Not sure how your boiler has been looked after but a competent engineer should be able to sort it, they are a simple unit to deal with.

 

[BrianS]

Thanks guys! Think I am going to chuck some money at it and see if it can be fixed. Is there such a thing as no fix no pay?????