Ideal Isar Boiler - Heating won't turn off?

[Bev137]

BOILER: Ideal Isar
AGE: approx 6 yrs old
LOCATION: Birmingham, UK

HISTORY:
New Diverter Valve fitted 5 months ago, due to heating not coming on and new Thermostat/Programmer/Remote Control (herinafter referred to only as "Thermostat") supplied at same time. No major problems overall.... until 2 days ago!

NORMAL CONDITIONS:
Boiler (in kitchen) permanently on 24/7 for hot water; Heating has been off around 3 or 4 wks. 'Thermostat' is located by front door. No individual room or radiator thermostats.

Upon returning from holiday 4 days ago, we felt cold so put heating on for the evening - it came on and off as it should and was switched "off" the next morning.

Then 2 days ago, I'd been complaining how hot it was and when hubby went to bed, he quickly re-appeared saying "The heating's on?"

'Thermostat' (by front door) was turned "OFF". Boiler (in kitchen) was showing "L" normal running conditions - it wasn't showing "C" which indicates when heating is on?

I turned all settings on 'Thermostat' to -5degsC (frost setting) and waited for heating to turn off. It continued to pump out tremendous heat, climbing up and up! It soared past our usual room setting of 20degsC! When it reached a very uncomfortable 25degsC , I had no option but to turn the boiler off!

Around 4hrs later, so hubby would have hot water when he got up, I changed batteries in 'Thermostat' and turned boiler back on - it resulted in a very hot uncomfortable night with heating belching out heat!

We had no option but to turn off the boiler completely - no hot water - but at least we're not being cooked alive!

Could it be 'Thermostat/Programmer/Remote Control' rather than Boiler

Please ask further questions if necessary in order to help ascertain the problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated and even contact from a local Heating Engineer in Birmingham, B37 area.

Regards,
Bev

 

[muggles]

You've got a working Isar!? That's a novelty...although an L-code with heating is a bit suspicious, it might be about to revert to the standard Isar condition of "broken". Is it definitely just a continuous L, or does it alternate between L and another letter/number?

What make/model programmer do you have? If you don't know, can you take a picture of it, and also of the receiver by the boiler, and post them here?

 

[Bev137]

OOps! Apologies, it's not an "L" (typical female not checking)

- normal status is "0"
- when heating water "d"
- central heating "c"

Have just been and switched it on to confirm "0" not "L" and the heating has kicked in straight away!

The Thermostat is a Honeywell CM921 Wireless 1 Day Programmable Room Thermostat

Sorry for initial confusion and hope this helps?

 

[Bev137]

The Receiver (see photo) says Sundial Systems on it?

 

[muggles]

Press the grey button on the receiver. Does this make a difference?

 

[Alex10]

Receiver needs re-binding. Turn control stat to off. Press and hold the button on the receiver until it flashes once per second, then release your finger. Then hold down the up and down arrows at the same time on the stat, and press the back button all at the same time. This is Inst mode. Then press ok after 10 seconds

Then turn it to on and put temp up and green light should be on and no red light. Follow that to the word and that will fix your problem

 

[Bev137]

Hi Alex/Andrew, I pressed and held the grey button, it started the lower light flashing, which hasn't stopped as yet 10 mins later! And, I'm afraid to say, the heating is still coming on even though the boiler is showing "0" and batteries have been re-removed from the Thermostat. There's no way the heating should be overriding all those factors?!? Confused . Should I call a heating engineer tomorrow I'm really angry as I've only just cancelled my heating cover with "rip off merchants" HSE (because the monthly DD premium they took from my Bank - with no prior notice - had trippled!) Upon return from holiday, I was going to transfer back to British Gas who I'd been with for donkey's years prior to HSE! It's my own fault for not sorting it prior to going away, but I was so annoyed at the humongous increase in premiums and didn't want another coming out of my bank whilst I was away, so cancelled it

 

[Alex10]

Without being there it's difficult, try and speak to friends who have had a good inderpendant engineer British Gas and Co are a complete rip off. What you need is a honest guy who can help and reasonable prices. Just incase BG say otherwise you don't need a new boiler!

Good luck

 

[Bev137]

I know Ideal Boilers don't appear to have a good name or reputation.... but touching wood (my head).... we've been really pleased (lucky) with ours to date at least, lol

 

[Alex10]

Honestly, ideal have really changed there wats the last five years there new boilers logic and vogue are best sellers with 10 year warrantys to back them up!

Isar wasn't a good boiler for them but all manufacturers have there skeletons ! Trust me I worked for them for years. That isar you got will keep going with a bit of tlc.

My advice is ring ideal on 01482498660 Tuesday £280 for a fixed price repair and you can join there contract for about £8 a month. There own engineer turns up with parts on can and fixes it there the experts so let ideal deal with the ideal! Sod it!!!!

 

[Bev137]

I will let the system stand overnight (all turned off) then switch on and go through your procedure again, with a fresh head. At least we've got a "C" showing on the boiler now... even though it shouldn't be there as I've removed the batteries from the Stat again?!? Fingers crossed by going through it a second time, step by step, it might just work.... here's hoping and I'll let you know how I get on. I sincerely thank you for your time, help & assistance you've given. <3 Regards, Bev

 

[muggles]

Don't take the batteries out of the programmer, that'll just confuse things - it won't make it turn off, it'll just leave the receiver in the last mode it was told to be in, and eventually make it lose its binding information. If the last signal said "turn on" then it'll stay turned on

 

[DP]

I know Ideal Boilers don't appear to have a good name or reputation.... but touching wood (my head).... we've been really pleased (lucky) with ours to date at least, lol

If one know how the ideal you have works, it is or a bad boiler
Millions of these beasties were sold, only a small percentage hence becomes a large numbers yen a failure occurs
Give me an ideal Isar/ Icos any day of the week over some other brands, I will be happy as a bear with a pot of honey
My suggestion to keep this boiler in good working order is to have it serviced as per the makers instructions, get the syphon checked/ cleared etc. It will be about time the hot water heat exchanger seals were replaced too

 

[Bev137]

@muggles @Alex10 Many thanks to you both - the information you supplied was very helpful in re-binding the Thermostat to Receiver. I have repeated the steps given, everything flashed and came on when it should. Unfortunately, the heating is still on and won't turn off. Hence, I need to contact a local heating engineer to see if they can help and won't charge me too much!

Obviously, I don't know much about these things, otherwise I wouldn't have been here asking for help! Could it be the Diverter Valve again? In January, the heating wouldn't come on, so HSE changed the Diverter Value - this time it won't turn off, so could it be the same problem - but opposite, if that makes sense?

Thanks again to everyone for your input and quick responses.

Kindest regards
Bev

 

[DP]

What letter is displayed at the boiler control panel (display unit button right corner)