Problem with British Gas Boiler RD1

[ScottishGasMan]

The reason is that they are terrible quality. There also not suitable on gravity systems (although the instructions for the boiler state they are, gravity feeds to a cylinder heats the flow sensor (red harness) up too much and I've worked on one that needed a new set of sensors every 6 months for 6 years)

They shot themself in the foot with that one. BG took a boiler that was very very robust and had a great record for reliability (the Ideal Classic) and demanded that Ideal make it "electronic" So they could fit the PCB with the modem socket and as part of the service contract, they could tell if the boiler had overheated or there was an ignition or fan fault, and basically phone the customer to arrange a visit before the customer had even realised the boiler had failed, however the boiler that was produced, although it had the same hex/fan/chassis etc, had incredibly poor electronics and faults all the time, plus they never actually went down the road of using the modem feature for one reason or another.

 

[geoffpidge]

Just like to throw my "tuppence worth" into the arena. My BG 340 RD1 (AKA Ideal Classic) died during the week. Followed the fault finding chart - no power to fan from board. Suspected the worst that a £300 PCB would be required. Fan fuse okay. Overheat stat okay. Both LED 4 & 5 lit, so showing NO signs of sensor failure or lockout. Tested the 3 sensors - 15K on the flow and return and 160K on the fan, so within spec. All seemed to point to PCB failure. Then, I read your posts and thought, well, for the sake of £40 and a drive to the boiler spares shop, it might be worth a punt. Put the new harness kit (Ideal 171872) in and, what do you know, the old girl fired up like a good 'un. I must admit, the boiler seems ever so simple, except for that PCB......how complicated did they want to make it??

 

[FiremanT]

The facility is still being built into the new boilers (rd = remote diagnostics) and will happen at some point.

Did BG ever get around to using the facility?

 

[ollski]

Did BG ever get around to using the facility?

Only now via the worcester boiler IQ module.