Ravenheat big problem! HELP!

[Carolina]

Hi, my friend's Ravenheat RSF84(or 100?)ET combi boiler suddenly packed up. Called a Corgi plumber yesterday, he spent all day working on it, eventually got it going after replacing 'gasvalve pcb and main pcb', but after 4hrs it started making loud noises so my friend switched it off and called the plumber back at 10am this morning. He replaced 'HT lead' and 'spark igniter' but eventually gave up at 4.30pm leaving my friend still with no heating or hot water - but £272 out of pocket!! Plumber wrote down the problem as "boiler lights but does not stay lit and continues to try and ignite".
Any suggestions? That's an awful lot of money to spend NOT to put the problem right!!! Might've been better investing in a new boiler.. And the house is freeeezing!
Huge thanks to anyone who can help.

 

[Agile]

Hi, my friend's Ravenheat RSF84(or 100?)ET combi boiler suddenly packed up. Called a Corgi plumber yesterday, he spent all day working on it, eventually got it going after replacing 'gasvalve pcb and main pcb', but after 4hrs it started making loud noises so my friend switched it off and called the plumber back at 10am this morning. He replaced 'HT lead' and 'spark igniter' but eventually gave up at 4.30pm leaving my friend still with no heating or hot water - but £272 out of pocket!! Plumber wrote down the problem as "boiler lights but does not stay lit and continues to try and ignite".
Any suggestions? That's an awful lot of money to spend NOT to put the problem right!!! Might've been better investing in a new boiler.. And the house is freeeezing!
Huge thanks to anyone who can help.

That makes BG look cheap and at least they try to fix it for longer before giving up!

He is obviously a "parts changer" with no diagnostic skills at all.

Its difficult for me to make any suggestions as they would only be appropriate for a CORGI engineer.

My advice is that your friend should NOT have paid this muppet as he is clearly lacking the necessary skills to repair boilers. Unfortunately when I say this I get a lot of stick from some of the less capable engineers who think that they should still be paid for trying.

As we do all repairs for a fixed diagnostic charge and on a no-fix no-fee basis its not surprising that I am so scathing of these muppets who fleese you for their inabilities.

What more can I say? ( Quite a lot actually but I dont want to bore you? )

Tony

 

[Nixt]

Could be something simple like dirt partially blocking air to APS which should be the first thing checked. Or even water flow switch not making contact.

 

[The Baker]

Ask for a refund.

Tim

 

[bengasman]

Unless you got the guy out to “see what he can do”, you don’t have to pay him, or you can cancel the payment.
Normally I am asked to repair the boiler, not to see what I think or just fiddle around.
It does happen on a rare occasion that it looks like a pcb, but can not be sure if that is just the fault or something is causing it to blow. If it is a really expensive one and I do not want to take the risk, I do not charge.

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

1 If your man has a genuine interest in fixing the boiler.I suggest he calls the helpline for advice. They are busy at this time of year and it may not be easy to get through.

2 If he is just a parts changer or just can't handle the pressure call Ravenheat and they will give you details of a local recommended installer.

Unfortunately being corgi only means that you can work with gas safely.
Like the others I have doubts as to his ability and in this instance I believe he may be at the start of a learning curve and has possibly not installed your gas valve correctly.
In his favour I believe he has only recouperated what he has paid for parts and it is always possible that your boiler has other issues.

Brace yourself for the bad news

Before you mentioned the strange noise issue which is likely down to a part he has replaced I had three areas of the boiler in mind for being at fault.
The first would cost nothing in parts
2nd would cost about £15
3rd could either cost nothing or about £35 ish

Notice how I go through the cheap things first before banging a pcb into it.
I am hopeful that your man is genuine but just has a lot to learn. He obviously never had a good teacher unlike Tony and will have to do it the hard way like I did.

 

[DP]

Good post slug

 

[gas4you]

Have to agree with Tony and Slug.

If I am incompetent enough not to fix a fault then I don't charge, even if I had fitted a part that hadn't worked.

He should do the same and put it down to the great learning cycle in life.

None of us know everything.

Ask for a refund and call Ravenheat out on a fixed price repair.

 

[Carolina]

Thanks to everyone who's taken the trouble to reply. Looks like we're just going to have to get someone else out.

 

[weareleeds]

Very common problem on these is the pilot injector as there are 2 minute holes which are difficult to clean & are easily blocked so ign pcb never realises that pilot is actually lit

 

[alan m 1974]

get some air (can of compressed air),and see the million screws on the cover,undo them yake cover off and see the air pressure tubes pull them off from the aps and blow clear ,is the rad cap on ,on top of boiler ,ask your gas fitter if he can do it for you as he owes you that at leaST