intermittent leak on vaillant combi boiler on DHW demand

[oldwelshman]

Hi all.
Hope some one can advise me as my home insurance cover for CH apparently does not cover intermittent leaks!!
I had a couple of issues with my boiler so called homecare on insurance as the DHW was not very warm and boiler was giving error codes.
Also I am getting a leak which seems worse in cold weather and nearly always when dhw turned on and bolier burns at max.
The wonderful enginner told me the errors were caused by the system being full of crap and needed a fluch ( not covered for that either) and the leak was from the plastic outlet pipe even though I told him it was from top of boler by the main heat exchanger.
I traced the DHW problem to the dhw heat exchanger which was coroded inside so that was replaced and is now ok but left with the leak.
The leak happens when demand for dhw is max and when bolier powere on for first time.
The water seems to be dripping down from behind the back of the main heat exchanger.
My insurance say that as the leak is not "permanent" I am not covered!!
I looked at the service manual and procedure for main heat exchanger replacement and it mentions that there is a gasket seal to be replaced at same time between the main heat exchanger and the flue duct.
I think the main exchanger is ok and works fine so suspect the leak may be caused by this seal?
Just looking for advice/confirmation.
Oh by the way, the system pressure is ok even with this leak.

 

[bengasman]

Would that be an ecomax of about ten years old?

 

[Agile]

There was often a problem with the seal at the back of earlier Gianonni burner units and condensate leaks out. About 2005-7 maybe?

That should be covered by your insurance.

However, you did not bother to tell us the boiler model so we cannot be sure.

Dirt in the plate HE is not covered. Thats because the system was not properly cleaned on installation.

Tony

 

[oldwelshman]

Thanks for replies.
The model is Vailant ECO max 824E about 6 years old.
I think it is condensate leaking out as the water pressure is constant and yesterday there was quite a puddle in my cupboard.
It would be good to know why the insurance will not cover this as it is "intermittent".
Think I will take a hammer to the biler to make a "permanent" leak.

 

[bengasman]

Not sure if this is the same model I am thinking off, but there are known flue/flueseal problems with ecomax.
Insurance companies employ large amounts of lawyers to design contracts in such a way that it looks like all is covered, but a lot of common faults can be excluded from work.
Intermittent being the reason, sounds like a lot of old poo from an engineer who wanted to make his life easy. British people are quite notorious for doing this. Who are you with?

 

[oldwelshman]

I am with M&S for hoime insurance, I think with Axa but the heating is through them with homecare.
The engineer who they sent was rubbish. I am no heating engineer but I knew more than him!!
He tried to say the leak was from the plastic outlet pipe!!
I showed him it was coming from behind the main HE and you can see the white marks where the small leak usually evaporates but sometimes it drips down.
I think it is condensate water as the pressure does not drop which is why I thought it was the seal.
I will call Vaillant for part number for seal next week.

 

[bengasman]

Home care, why am I not surprised?
You can't really blame the guys for trying to blag it though, they work under enormous time pressure.
One of my customers had them out because the pcb had gone on the boiler.
The chap that came out claimed it was not covered because they had changed a radiator.
"Sorry sir, that is third party interference".
Customer looked rather unhappily at me as I had just finished changing the rad.
I suggested getting the refusal in writing.
****ish gas engineer suddenly felt very sorry for the customer and decided to change the board as a gesture of good will.
Maybe calling them out again and getting the "intermittent faults are not covered" in writing when he is there, will make the engineer feel generous for you too.