No HW, No CH

[markfraser]

Hi. I'm in desperate need of help after my heating and hot water have packed up. The set-up is a Boilermate 2000 with a Ideal Classic FF350.
After a short interruption to the gas supply - around 12 hours - the boiler kicked in and heated the water as normal, but after around 10-15 minutes some horrendous banging started. I think that the Boilermate was the source of this, certainly it was from the plumbing one way or another. This went on for a few minutes, then stopped.
I was then left with a tank full of hot water, but the central heating never came on and since then, the boiler had never started. The Boilermate appears to be working normally, but the boiler appears to be dead. I can't be sure if the Boilermate is calling for the boiler to kick in but the LEDs and panel (as far as I can work out) are operating correctly.
Calling in an engineer simply isn't an option budget-wise so I'm in desperate need of some help to find any possible consumer-level fix if one exists.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Mark

 

[mcmoby69]

have you tried to reset the over heat stat?

 

[markfraser]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

have you tried to reset the over heat stat?

No, I've not - where might I find that?

 

[McCombi]

Look around the bottom or sides of the boiler, think its at right hand side bottom on those models, you're looking for a red plastic button that has popped out as boiler has overheated. Push it in, it will click if it has popped and that is it reset.
However, I suspect the heating pump on the boiler mate may be gone, going by the banging noises you described so unfortunately it will probably happen again, and you may have no choice but to get someone out.

Good luck

 

[McCombi]

Just realised where you are, if you're stuck let me know, can maybe visit tomorrow.

 

[markfraser]

Wow - you were exactly right.
I've just reset it and it fired up right away.
We'll see what happens now then. I guess you're probably right though. It's not going to have activated for fun. Whatever caused it to overheat last time is probably going to happen again I suppose.
I shall report back!
In the meantime, thanks so much for your help.
I'm in Ellon BTW.
You?

 

[markfraser]

Okay, so yeah, it was basically a repeat of last time. It heats the water - fully, then some crazy banging noises. I assume the overheat stat has popped again as the boiler is off now. I turned the heating off before resetting the boiler, so I thought it might heat the water and then just stop firing and settle down.

I don't know how the thing is supposed to work. Maybe after heating the water, it's supposed to open the CH circuit to divert hot water from the boiler circuit to prevent overheating? If the CH pump has failed as you suspect, that would all fit, right?

 

[McCombi]

Hi, sorry I went to bed so could not reply last night.

There are a few models of boilermate, and I may not be 100% but I think the 2000 has one pcb and 3 pumps.

Sounds like the middle pump (heating circulating pump) is failing and needs to be replaced.

Are you handy with a multimeter? If safe to do so, you could check that it is getting power from the pcb to the pump, if it's getting mains voltage, could be that pump has jammed/seized, take off the front bleed screw and see if it turns at all.

If the pump has to be replaced, it's unlikely that the isolation valves at either side will hold I'm afraid. And remember if anything leaks there, the whole volume of water in your radiator system is in that circuit, so it's a big mop up if comes out.

If it is a pump fault, it could be due to system water being dirty/corroded, so simply replacing it may only work for a short time.

That's about all the advice I can give on here, if you do need a call out my number should be on your profile page.


Ps.. If you're getting power to pump and pump spinning, it could be a blockage in the pipes, most likely at where the cold feed tied into the system, not an easy fix.

 

[markfraser]

Look at that - I'm back after just 8 short months!

So, yeah . . . everything backed up for months. I gave up on it and one day I decided just to power everything up again and amazingly, it all worked. This was the case for a few weeks but recently it's all reverted pretty much to how it was before. HW is fine, but eventually overheats, spews out to the expansion tank etc, and CH never comes on. I had a plumber out scratching his head at it this afternoon and to his credit, told me he just didn't know enough about it to start ordering parts. However, he was able to confirm that the PCB is NOT sending power to the CH pump.

So, the conclusion of that I guess is that the PCB is faulty, but I imagine there will also be sensors / stats feeding into that which might equally be where the problem lies.

Not sure what to try next really.