The Ideal conundrum......(sick Response 120)

[NoIdeal]

My first post

Ive got a wonderful Ideal Response 120 that has got a little sick

Basis analysis is that when the hot water is demanded (via tap or CH) the boiler starts up as normal and fires, you get about 5 seconds of gas burning and hot water but then you can here the gas stop burning and the water runs cold. BUT the fan keeps running and the boiler obviously thinks that it is still producing hot water!

Ive had a Corgi guy take a look at it last night and he thinks that its either the: Water pressure switch OR the DHW flow switch that is clogged with lime scale or something as the hot water pressure is less than the cold water pressure when you run the tap.

So in essence the theory is that the pressure is sufficient enough at the start to fire the boiler but as it passes through either of these parts it is being reduced enough for the combustion part of heating the water to stop.

So the Corgi guy now tells me that he will not charge me for the diagnosis but he is not interested in repairing it because the parts are hard to get to on the boiler and it to difficult with this kind of boiler!!!

Both parts come to about £100 inc. VAT. The boiler is about 7 years old I think.

-Do I seek further Corgi help to try and persuade someone to fix it?
-Is this the actual fault or is this guy just guessing?
-Anyone know the sort of labour charge I can expect in London to get these bits replaced?
-Am I better off looking for a new boiler?

Any help would be very gratefully received

Thanks

 

[Agile]

I dont think the fault is caused by either of those guesses.

I think that his honest reaction not to charge you is because he knows that he is unable to correctly diagnose the fault.

All the parts are available apart from the heat exchanger ( which might be leaking in your case but probably less likely.)

How much it will cost to repair depends on what the fault actually is.

We always charge to diagnose the fault on a fixed price basis, what the customer does after that is up to him if he wants to do the repair himself.

I would guess that a part has failed, possible something simple but perhaps a more expensive part. I would advise you to budget on £100-£200 if you have a more reasonable repairer. I gather that BG will do a fixed price repair for about £290 ?

Tony

 

[ChrisR]

The heat exchangers are available again, on a 2 week delay apparently. If you really want one
The fault does sound a boit unusual. The flow switch is extremely easy to test - the chap sounds to be unfamiliar with the boiler. If it's a pcb then many of us have several removed from dead and buried boilers! The Fault finding guide says "test by substitution" all too often on those.

 

[NoIdeal]

Thanks for the reply, when you say BG are you referring to an Ideal engineer coming to repair the boiler? I spoke to them and they quote £210 (not sure if its +VAT) to repair any boiler as long as it economical to do so.

I cannot see any water leaking around the boiler so I'm guessing that the heater exchange is ok??

In your opinion is it worth the outlay of £200+ considering its age? Its a 1 bed flat (4 Rads) so any replacement I would be a 24KW combi with a ballpark at about £1000 including flush and fitting??

fortunately the weather is ok at this time of year so I don't want to rush a decision but I dont want to start forking out on what could be a lost cause!

 

[NoIdeal]

The heat exchangers are available again, on a 2 week delay apparently. If you really want one
The fault does sound a boit unusual. The flow switch is extremely easy to test - the chap sounds to be unfamiliar with the boiler. If it's a pcb then many of us have several removed from dead and buried boilers! The Fault finding guide says "test by substitution" all too often on those.

I think your right he did not seem to know much about this kind of boiler. I need to find someone in north London that does! Any tips?


I'm taking by your response that this is a pretty bad boiler? Ive read a lot of bad thinks about the heater exchange.

Any advise would be grateful at this stage.......I'm at a bit of a loss

 

[Agile]

Most of the faults I go to on that model are just jammed low water pressure switches. Really apart from that problem which only comes to light when the owner forgets to check the pressure they are quite reliable.

The only serious problem is that some of the heat exchangers leak and if that happens then its usually new boiler time.

A new boiler is likely to be about £1500 upwards for a 24 kW model but your Response 120 is about 35 kW on hot water power and you would probably notice the difference. I would recommend a minimum of 28 kW as a replacement.

Tony

 

[DP]

Noideal, are you saying the burner fires for 5 seconds because the front panel light comes on, or is you assumption based on getting hot water at the tap. If later, burner may not be igniting at all, but 5 second delivery might be the water sitting in the heat exchanger when HW is demanded (due to earlier or present CH run)

The fact that you have a fault that is solid, makes it easy to locate. Post your location and if you are lucky, you might get one of the regulars responding to your call for help.

 

[NoIdeal]

Agile, do you work in North London at all? (Near Archway/Holloway Road area) You sound like you know a lot about this kind of boiler!

 

[NoIdeal]

Noideal, are you saying the burner fires for 5 seconds because the front panel light comes on, or is you assumption based on getting hot water at the tap. If later, burner may not be igniting at all, but 5 second delivery might be the water sitting in the heat exchanger when HW is demanded (due to earlier or present CH run)

The fact that you have a fault that is solid, makes it easy to locate. Post your location and if you are lucky, you might get one of the regulars responding to your call for help.

Hi DP, the burner light comes on for about 2-3 seconds and then it goes out. The fan continues to run though until you turn the tap off or turn the CH off (depending on which you turned on)

I'm at N7 6RR

 

[Agile]

Yes, we cover North/West London but you need to contact me through the contact details in my profile.

Tony

 

[petit_pablo]

What does the boiler do in CH mode? Does it run ok?

 

[CORGIGASMAN2]

if you complain hard enough to ideal they will arrange to supply you with an ideal icos 35 for £587 including vat