Vaillant ecotec plus 418. Many problems.

[EricTheFedUp]

Housing association, so no costs to me for the repairs. But because the pump keeps kicking in and the boiler keeps firing when not required its pushing my bills up.

The issues only appeared after the boiler change, it has not worked properly since fitting. We had no issues with the previous boiler. When serviced they always commented on how efficient it was.

They only changed the boiler and wall stat. Everything else is original.

Pipe nearest the flue gets hot when the boiler fires is that correct?

Thanks

PS. i wont mention the contractors name but its a major electrical company...

 

[Bunnyman]

Ffs right... The boiler only does what the controls tell it... The boiler DOES NOT control the system.. So if all worked ok before then it is wired in wrong or one of the external controls or valves is broken, the contractor obviously has cocked something up.. Good luck

 

[EricTheFedUp]

When i say the boiler i do mean the controls also, not just the boiler itself.

The issue is its so erratic, one minute it does one thing then another something else.

I just switched the hot water on and approx 20 minutes later there was a loud bang from the
pipework upstairs. The boiler was silent but only showing 53 degrees on the display and
code S08. It switched back on after 2 minutes.

Stayed on for 40 minutes solid. This was hot water alone and no heating.

Answer to a previous question we have 6 radiators.

They were supposed to get back to us within 2 days i didnt count the weekend so they should
have come back on Monday. No show and unusually they didnt get us to sign their paperwork
so now making me think they are going to dent it or cover up whatever the problem is.

I need to go and get this sorted, but a bit of a clue as to what they have done wrong will
hopefully get it fixed properly.


Thanks.

 

[scoobydo123]

s.8 is anti cycle mode. The boiler has reached and exceeded the target flow temp. Quite likely after the first long burn when it has modulated down but not reached the target on the cylinder stat. Boiler will then fire at 80% approx of its rated max 18kw regardless of d.0 due to heat in pipes and the water around the heating coil being hot the boiler will then be going into short cycle mode. The boiler probable behaves a bit better when both CH&DHW is calling for heat. You could park the lever of the motorised valve in the mid position to prove this. Old boiler was probably a cast iron HEx or much less restrictive HEx and was ok with the dirty system you have. Did the "installers" do any power flushing how long did the do this for. Do you still have the F&E tank in the loft, this is the small one check that this has water and is not getting hot and pumping over when the boiler is on.

Reckon you have a wiring fault and also a dirty badly piped system, sure I asked earlier is this a microbore system? Also should have put in a 415 still wont help with bad wiring and bad system condition.

Also likely that it was displaying S.53 which is delta of flow and return out of range believe when like this the pump will run. Maybe no bypass on the system so when controller shuts down massive thermal shock to system as well.

Get them back urgently. Dont worry about cost of running a pump it is pennies, you have a good boiler that you have not paid for they will have to sort. They could have installed something much cheaper.

 

[EricTheFedUp]

Not microbore. The old boiler was new in 1998. The old boiler worked fine the problems
only started when they fitted the new system.

I doubt they powerflushed the system when installing the new boiler. Just drained it
down and refilled i think.

If its switched to hot water and heating then only the water gets hot, no heat to the radiators.

I switched the hot water on 40 minutes ago and it has heated up and shot down 3 times since.
When its all quiet everyones alseep and just my computer on i can hear the pump running.

42 minutes on from me switching the water pn and the pumps just switched off as i type this.

That seems right to me, but i have a feeling that the thing will kick in again soon..

Type that too slowly.. its kicked back on again, less than 2 minutes from switching off, the
code is S0 = no heat required but the damn pumps running again.

Thanks.

edit: I switched the HW off on the controller and it went to S30, heating is on timer and not
due to come on until 6:30. Is that correct?

 

[scoobydo123]

Just get them back they have messed up the wiring. However putting that boiler on a potentially dirty system may be the cause of other issues. S30 is fine means no call for heat from either the roomstat or cylinder stat.

 

[Agile]

Has the pump been properly wired back to be supplied by the boiler?

Tony

 

[EricTheFedUp]

We will see tomorrow, another electrician coming to.. well i wont say fix it, maybe add another
fault to the list?

Maybe I am just cynical and have my doubt they know their A... from a boiler.

I was just hoping someone on here could give me a clue as to what they may have done, I did wonder
if they plumbed the water pipes in backwards, or mixed the wires on water/heating so it
does the opposite to what we set it to.

Luckily its not that cold yet and my funds are low, otherwise i would have called in someone that
knows what they are doing and sent them the bill.

 

[Agile]

Surely you don't expect a Housing Association to employ the leading heating engineers do you?

Tony

 

[DP]

Surely you don't expect a Housing Association to employ the leading heating engineers do you?

Tony

Tony I take it you say that tongue in cheek. I know a few HA guys who could run rings round you as well as me

You need to stop having myopic views

 

[Agile]

No it was not!

I have not been particularly impressed by those I have spoken to at HAs. Most seem to feel they are over worked and not very happy with their jobs.

Since the pay rates don't seem very good then why would anyone be very keen to work at an HA when BG and others pay so much more?

 

[EricTheFedUp]

Wired up wrongly upstairs it seems, not convinced everything is working 100% but the pump is no longer switching on
when everything is off.

I think the pump switched off when the heating was supposed to be on though?? Stat set to 30 degrees so it should have been
running, but he was getting me to switch it on and off in stages.

Did not get a chance to test it lasty night or this morning.

Is it worth altering the kw rating and pump afterrun as mentioned elsewhere?

The company is NP....

I would have thought that after fitting several hundred of the things they may have got it right
as i must be one of the last to get it done.

thanks

 

[Agile]

Like those who work for HAs, most who work for large companies seem not to take a great deal of interest in their work.

Tony

 

[denso13]

Like those who work for HAs, most who work for large companies seem not to take a great deal of interest in their work.

Tony

Why do you keep spouting rubbish like that? How many is "most"?

 

[Bunnyman]

I'm sorry tony, u used to take advice but now u seem so thick skinned u are impervious to advice you are given.. U show your inexperience but diyers don't know that so please stop talking *******s