Old Vaillant boiler keeps "whirring".

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13 Feb 2010
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Good evening,

I hope someone who knows their old Vaillant boilers will be able to shed some light on how I can proceed with mine. You guys have come good a few times for me before, so here's to hoping! I've checked existing threads, but can't find one that matches.

It is an old Vaillant boiler but I can't find the model number on the boiler so have attached a picture (see my albums) of the front of the user manual which has three models written on it. I presume it must be one of them.

The problem is that for the last month, the boiler has been continuing to make a "whirring" sound long after the central heating has come off or the hot water has been turned off. Normally, this whirring would be heard only while the boiler is busy heating radiators or hot water. There have been times when the radiators have remained cold when the central heating has been switched on manually, although the hot water is still heating as required, luckily.

Since the problem began, the whirring persists for long periods of time, sometimes several hours. And sometimes it doesn't, it behaves itself and quietens down as soon as it has stopped heating. Arbitrary. The whirring is punctuated by periodic "thuds" at random intervals, which I imagine is what re-ignition might sound like, although the little red light is not coming on. I have now taken to switching the boiler off if it continues to whirr, using the on / off button behind the white front cover, and then switching it back on as and when required.

The boiler was due a service so a few days after I first noticed the problem I had it looked at. The service man said the following:
"Probably the system has a lot of sludge in it which is slowing down the pump and diverted valve and tending to make it run hot without fully transferring heat to hot water or heating. I have serviced it and lubricated the Dieter valve." Sadly, this didn't fix it. His advice is to simply replace it as it is an old boiler and parts would be expensive, but I'd like to know if it is worth trying to salvage it before shelling out for a new one.

Any ideas would be much appreciated, thanking you in advance.

Linnea
 
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Ah, having read my post from some years ago, I now see it is a Vaillant VC GB 242 EH model. If that's any help?
 
That model is now quite old but they are pretty reliable and most engineers would say quite repairable.

Its difficult to guess at what may be wrong, particularly if your engineer really did not know, but he may have just been thinking of his cash flow and wanting the extra work!

First we would need to know what is making the noise. Probably the pump and why it sometimes runs might be an intermittent PCB fault like a sticking relay.

As its not wasting gas you could just ignore the problem. Or get a better engineer to diagnose the cause or engage Vaillant as a fixed price repair at about £300.

Tony
 
Vaillant won't do fixed price repair due to it being an obsolete model, however it's worth saving as these are excellent u need to google vaillant repair specialist not installer
 
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So what is the earliest model they cover under the fixed price repair service?

Tony
 

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