Should my boiler have hot water control?

[MarkHanlon]

Recently moved into a newly built house running a Vaillent EcoTech Plus 618 boiler. Is it right that the only setting on here is to control the rad temperature - the left button doesn't have a tap icon above it to set HW temp as the manual says it should?

There is a thermostat on the HW tank, so maybe it has been specifically deactivated on the boiler?

The reason for my concern is that there have been a couple of days where we've had no hot water in the morning. I did notice that if I turn up the thermostat on the HW tank until it clicks, the boiler comes on at full power, the temperature rises very quickly to 80C and then it shuts itself down displaying an hourglass icon - all within a minute.

Just wondering whether there's user error here, or whether the plumber needs calling back?

Thanks,

Mark

 

[Dan Robinson]

Sounds like a cock up on the installation.

Can you post pictures of the boiler, timer, airing cupboard and anything heating related (other than all your rads).

How new is new? Newbuilds are notorious for being done badly.

 

[MarkHanlon]

The only pic I have right now is of the boiler display:
https://goo.gl/photos/i3q3wtJPqc22GXTQ7

House was built last year, we moved in in November. The heating system is pretty complex, as we have underfloor water heating downstairs, rads upstairs and electric underfloor in the upstairs bathrooms. Downstairs every room has a thermostat, there's a HW & heating timer in the airing cupboard and a thermostat timer for the upstairs rads in the master bedroom! Trying to balance all this out to get every room at a reasonable temp is an ongoing process, and I get the feeling that if there's heating demand for the downstairs, the upstairs rads and HW don't heat up.

But what I want to understand right now is whether there should be a HW tap icon on the boiler - I have a feeling I saw it when we first moved in, but I might be remembering the similar boiler in our previous house... I've set HW and heating to continuous on the timer for a few days and that has kept the house warm and water hot - but probably not the cheapest way to run it!

 

[Agile]

So have you bought the house or are you renting it?

There are some very simple settings which need to be made when commissioning a system.

Your boiler is a heat only system boiler and just has one single temperature control knob which is best set to 70 C with the cylinder set to 60 C. [ Unless its has a complex control system which gives hot water priority ]

Tony

 

[MarkHanlon]

It's bought Tony.

Sounds as though the lack of the HW tap icon isn't a problem. Maybe I just need to keep fiddling with timings, to make sure the HW is on when the heating isn't so that it has a chance to heat the cylinder instead of the rads/underfloor...

 

[Dan Robinson]

The knob on the boiler is for a particular set of options that are sold by your boiler manufacturer, that you almost certainly don't have fitted by the house builder.

I would politely suggest that you get a professional in to suss things out and give you proper instructions. Or, of course, a list of remedial works.

 

[dilalio]

When attending a new site, for the first time, us heating and plumbing engineers spend a good chunk of the first hour; sometimes more; which is chargeable by the way; familiarising ourselves with the installation, before we can attempt to diagnose any faults or defects. Especially on new builds where any number of modern installs/setups could have been employed.
It often involves a bit of 'tinkering' which is impossible to do over a medium such as this, hence you need to get someone in!

 

[Phill Peck]

If the house was built last year it'll all be under warranty.
You'll often find the company that installed will leave information in how to contact them in the airing cupboard. Or on the boiler itself