Hello, experts. I certainly hope that someone can help me. There is an intermittent problem with a Vaillant EcoTEC Plus combi boiler (824). It has been installed for a little over five years and is now out of guarantee. Ever since I can recall, on odd occasions, the domestic hot water would start to run stone cold. I imagined that this failure was caused by the user (me or my wife) not opening the tap to its full extent. In view of what a heating engineer told me, my understanding of the matter was mistaken, but, for a very long time, I tried to avoid it happening, by always turning the hot tap full on. When it failed (on fairly rare occasions), i would blame my wife for not running it full on, and so this went on. It never occurred to me to ask for help under the guarantee, as I expected a fairly new boiler to be perfect for a long time (This is the first boiler of this kind that we have had. Our earlier ones were Instantaneous Multipoint-type boilers). The way the hot water supply was restored was that I simply switched the boiler off, then, after a minute, on again. When this was done, the display would show "LOADING", and everything would be all right — sometimes, for weeks. However, at about the beginning of March this year (2018), there was, relatively speaking, a spate of these failures. Admittedly, the weather was very cold. Now, however, it is not nearly as cold as it has been. In the last ten days or so, it must have failed about five times — twice when, early in the morning, and just after the central heating cycle starts (at 7.00am), I went into the bathroom to wash. The hot water would come from the tap, then start to run cold — icy cold, and did not come back until I had re-booted the boiler, in the way described above. I think that the radiators also lose heat at these times, and they recover when the boiler has been re-started.
Twice in the last week or so, I have called out a firm of heating engineers, and they have looked for blockages at the gulley, where the acid pipe ends and dribbles waste-water from the condensation system. They have cleaned the ignition electrode and checked the gas pressure. In short, they have done everything they can do, and still it fails, now and again, to the extent, nowadays, that I am fearful of it running cold every time I turn the hot tap on — especially early in the mornings. I cannot afford such expensive visits from the engineer, and now, I don't know where to turn to.
The error alert that showed in the display, in the last several days, was F28 (previously, I did not see any error alerts). However, since then, it has changed to F29, and it says: "Failure of ignition in op". Previously, with the F28, it said: "Failure in startup. Ignition unsuccessful". By the way, the last time this happened (at 7 this morning), I did not stop the boiler, then re-start it, as before. I simply pressed the ignition button, and the "LOADING' message appeared, and all was well.
The engineer said that, if I wanted to, they could bring Vaillant out to look at it. He said that they would plug a laptop into it, study what the readings were, and would certainly (he said) cure the problem. He said that this would cost about £300.00, which is far more than I can afford. Besides, who is to say that, a day or so after Vaillant leaves the premises, it will not fail again? After all, I expected the first visit from the engineer to have solved the problem (but was disappointed), and it is money, money, every time you seek help.
With thanks in hope of a life-saving reply from someone,
A.W.
Twice in the last week or so, I have called out a firm of heating engineers, and they have looked for blockages at the gulley, where the acid pipe ends and dribbles waste-water from the condensation system. They have cleaned the ignition electrode and checked the gas pressure. In short, they have done everything they can do, and still it fails, now and again, to the extent, nowadays, that I am fearful of it running cold every time I turn the hot tap on — especially early in the mornings. I cannot afford such expensive visits from the engineer, and now, I don't know where to turn to.
The error alert that showed in the display, in the last several days, was F28 (previously, I did not see any error alerts). However, since then, it has changed to F29, and it says: "Failure of ignition in op". Previously, with the F28, it said: "Failure in startup. Ignition unsuccessful". By the way, the last time this happened (at 7 this morning), I did not stop the boiler, then re-start it, as before. I simply pressed the ignition button, and the "LOADING' message appeared, and all was well.
The engineer said that, if I wanted to, they could bring Vaillant out to look at it. He said that they would plug a laptop into it, study what the readings were, and would certainly (he said) cure the problem. He said that this would cost about £300.00, which is far more than I can afford. Besides, who is to say that, a day or so after Vaillant leaves the premises, it will not fail again? After all, I expected the first visit from the engineer to have solved the problem (but was disappointed), and it is money, money, every time you seek help.
With thanks in hope of a life-saving reply from someone,
A.W.
