Vailant Turbomax 282 Intermittent ignition

[Johnking]

Hello!

Our ageing combi is developing a fault. It either takes a long time to ignite, or fails to ignite at all. When it takes a long time, all the usual noises happen, several clicks and a fan, then normally where you'd hear the sound of gas burning, nothing for maybe 15s, then it lights. Or doesn't light, in which case the red light with a crossed out flame comes on and I have to reset the system to get it to light.

Is there anything I can do as an amateur, either to fix or at least to diagnose? I'm not totally naive - I have repeatedly changed the microswitch on the diverter over the years, and fitted an external controller - but I obviously don't want to go anywhere anything that could blow us up or gas us.

Many thanks. This baby is about 15 years old, I was hoping she'd make it to 20!

John

 

[Johnking]

Hmm, no response, fair enough. I was hoping to get a sense of whether to condemn it. Does anyone have anything to say about this company

Vaillantservice.co.uk

Fixed price repair sounds too good to be true.

 

[Agile]

There are several possibilities but all gas related which we do not give DIY advice on here.

The most common cause though is one which last time I fixed at a total cost of £112.

Tony

 

[Bunnyman]

Ur boiler is obelete from march next year so if u want vaillant to fix it get in

 

[Johnking]

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll try one round of fixing rather than getting it replaced, but...

As a rough estimate, what would it cost in London to have a new boiler fitted in place, and what model would be a good equivalent?

 

[Agile]

So many different boiler models. Here most like Intergas, Viessmann and Vaillant!

Usual cost a bit under £2000 without extras like mag filter and TRVs.

Tony

 

[Agile]

They are still quite serviceable and most are repaired and not replaced when faulty.

I even have one in service at home!

Tony

 

[Johnking]

That's reassuring, thanks! But they must get condemned at some point surely? Does the comment by Bunnyman about it being obsolete soon mean parts and repair will become unfeasible?

 

[Agile]

There are perhaps 200,000 still in use as it was a very popular model.

Most spares are likely to be still available for at least 5-10 years.

Makers service departments usually stop covering boilers after about 10 years from last manufacture date because that simplifies their staff engineer's spares stock.

You might think that it brings forward the replacement of the boiler but the reality is that most repairs are done by independents and large firms like British Gas anyway.

Tony

 

[Johnking]

It's certainly been a great workhorse. Mostly neglected, all it's ever failed on is a new microswitch every three years. I'm going to try and get this fault fixed and have it serviced in the hope of another few years' work.