Hi all,
Lots of info below and then advice on what to do, please:
The boiler is a vaillant ecotect plus 415, open water system, water tank in loft, cylinder in bathroom. There are 7 radiators in the house. Previous issues with the boiler: loud kettling which was reduced by a Fernox F3 cleaner in the water container and a new pump attached to water cylinder. The pump was vibrating so loudly when newly attached, the tradesman came back out and put it on a lower setting. This was all done around 7 months ago.
The kettling sound still exists but much better than prior to the jobs being carried out above.
Fast forward to past few days: when either the hot water or heating is switched on from the Drayton console, the boiler fires up (flame image, as well as the physical sound of the boiler firing up and the kettling sound. The radiator image is stagnant and still). The egg timer (anti-cycle) is on during this time. Then after some time, for both the heating and hot water, the boiler turns off- the radiator image starts flashing, the flame image vanishes, the egg timer image eventually disappears, the kettling sound stops and the sound of the boiler goes to silent- as if the Drayton console is turned off. When you press the ibutton it says: S7
As an example of today:
Hot water was turned on for thirty minutes this morning. The first ten minutes, the boiler was working. The last twenty minutes it turned itself off. It tried to fire up a couple of times but immediately turned off. The reason it can't stay on when it tries to fire back up is because on the display you can see the temperature rapidly rise from say 40 degrees Celsius to 65/66 within 5 seconds and so it shuts down immediately as it thinks it's reached the set temp. It seems it can't understand what the temperature of the room is.
Same scenario with the heating. It was turned on for one hour in the afternoon. The first thirty minutes it was on, it climbed to 64 degrees Celsius. The last thirty minutes (it was on for one hour from the console) it switched itself off, in the same way as the hot water. Again it attempted to fire up a couple of times and couldn't. Obviously the hot water is not hot as it should be and the heating is cooling down once the boiler shuts itself off. This has not happened before.
A tradesman came out yesterday and said that the boiler would likely have to be replaced to a closed system (I don't think a sealed system is a good idea) depending on the landlord's okay. And he also said it's normal for the boiler to function like this (no it's not!).
We used to have a Worcester Bosch in our last place. No issues with it at all apart from the three port valve next to the boiler and ball valve above water cylinder being replaced.
Please could you help with these questions:
1. Am I right that the boiler is faulty?
2. What is the issue? A thermostat type issue? (The heat exchanger has not been replaced.)
3. Am I right in not wanting a sealed system if it is offered?
4. I think Bosch is better than Vaillant- but I also read good things about Viessman (that Viessmans has a stainless steel heat exchanger in comparison to Vaillant's aluminium.) Do you experts agree and between Bosch and Viessman, which do you prefer?
5. If a new boiler is not an option should the heat exchanger be replaced? If yes, should some kind of flush be carried out beforehand? And also some kind of draining of radiators? Or is there something else I'm not aware of?
I have spent the past two days reading. I can do that but I don't have experience in the manual aspects of fixing this boiler or the technical language and so connecting the dots is a little more tricky.
Any info, ideas, advice on what I should do next would be much appreciated.
Thank you...
Lots of info below and then advice on what to do, please:
The boiler is a vaillant ecotect plus 415, open water system, water tank in loft, cylinder in bathroom. There are 7 radiators in the house. Previous issues with the boiler: loud kettling which was reduced by a Fernox F3 cleaner in the water container and a new pump attached to water cylinder. The pump was vibrating so loudly when newly attached, the tradesman came back out and put it on a lower setting. This was all done around 7 months ago.
The kettling sound still exists but much better than prior to the jobs being carried out above.
Fast forward to past few days: when either the hot water or heating is switched on from the Drayton console, the boiler fires up (flame image, as well as the physical sound of the boiler firing up and the kettling sound. The radiator image is stagnant and still). The egg timer (anti-cycle) is on during this time. Then after some time, for both the heating and hot water, the boiler turns off- the radiator image starts flashing, the flame image vanishes, the egg timer image eventually disappears, the kettling sound stops and the sound of the boiler goes to silent- as if the Drayton console is turned off. When you press the ibutton it says: S7
As an example of today:
Hot water was turned on for thirty minutes this morning. The first ten minutes, the boiler was working. The last twenty minutes it turned itself off. It tried to fire up a couple of times but immediately turned off. The reason it can't stay on when it tries to fire back up is because on the display you can see the temperature rapidly rise from say 40 degrees Celsius to 65/66 within 5 seconds and so it shuts down immediately as it thinks it's reached the set temp. It seems it can't understand what the temperature of the room is.
Same scenario with the heating. It was turned on for one hour in the afternoon. The first thirty minutes it was on, it climbed to 64 degrees Celsius. The last thirty minutes (it was on for one hour from the console) it switched itself off, in the same way as the hot water. Again it attempted to fire up a couple of times and couldn't. Obviously the hot water is not hot as it should be and the heating is cooling down once the boiler shuts itself off. This has not happened before.
A tradesman came out yesterday and said that the boiler would likely have to be replaced to a closed system (I don't think a sealed system is a good idea) depending on the landlord's okay. And he also said it's normal for the boiler to function like this (no it's not!).
We used to have a Worcester Bosch in our last place. No issues with it at all apart from the three port valve next to the boiler and ball valve above water cylinder being replaced.
Please could you help with these questions:
1. Am I right that the boiler is faulty?
2. What is the issue? A thermostat type issue? (The heat exchanger has not been replaced.)
3. Am I right in not wanting a sealed system if it is offered?
4. I think Bosch is better than Vaillant- but I also read good things about Viessman (that Viessmans has a stainless steel heat exchanger in comparison to Vaillant's aluminium.) Do you experts agree and between Bosch and Viessman, which do you prefer?
5. If a new boiler is not an option should the heat exchanger be replaced? If yes, should some kind of flush be carried out beforehand? And also some kind of draining of radiators? Or is there something else I'm not aware of?
I have spent the past two days reading. I can do that but I don't have experience in the manual aspects of fixing this boiler or the technical language and so connecting the dots is a little more tricky.
Any info, ideas, advice on what I should do next would be much appreciated.
Thank you...
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