Viessmann Vitodens WB1A Noisy (Video attached!)

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I have a vented Vitodens 100. the flapper valve was replaced a few months ago under warranty. It is about 3 years old. The system was very clean before installation but was powerflushed anyway. The house has a water softener and the system was filled using 2% Sentinel X100, so there should not be limescale or sludge in it.

A few weeks ago I heard a brief tinkling sound which lasted some seconds and then went away. It seemed to me that it was like a bit of grit rattling around the heat exchanger coil and then being blown out in the flow. It did not return.

In the last week or so the boiler has been making what sounds like a kettling noise. It comes on when the flame is high and disappears when the flame is low. It does not vary with flow temperature.

I have attached a video with the noise, showing how it varies in volume with flame speed. I don't think it's the fan speed, though I suppose it might be.

Is it really kettling, or what? The system does not have a filter on it, the idiot installer took my Spirovent off it because he thought it was interfering with flow.


http://youtu.be/eJKnT89rXPk
 
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Not listened to video but sounds like air, get it serviced and point the issue out, all should be simple enough
 
Depends on which spirovent, if dirt wouldn't make any differance, if dirt and air doubt youd have this issue, better if it's on the flow as well unlike other filters that go on the return
 
video now loaded

how would air get in?

and how do you get it out?

I usually do my own (non-gas) plumbing work
 
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Could be fan now I've heard it, either way case needs to come off which you can't do legally, other option is if they have left a drain valve above boiler put hose on and flush through, gather its open vent (small tank in loft) if not check pressure in system, I'd still get it checked and serviced
 
yes, it is vented.

there is a drain-cock on the flow pipe. I take it you mean a powerful squirt would blow the air bubbles out of the coil? How would they get in? F&R are both 22mm pipes going vertically out of the top.

pump, 3-port, cylinder, F&R and vent are all in the airing cuboard which is next floor up, about two metres to the side
 
Air can enter through tank in loft, use drain cock leave running for 10 mins see if it improves
 
Your flow temperature is rising far too rapidly, which indicates poor circulation, almost certainly caused by air in the heat exchanger. The heat exchanger is a coil of large-section rectangular pipe with the axis horizontal. There are 15 high points. You need to flush water from the cold feed tank through the heat exchanger to a drain until you get a stream of water with no air bubbles. If the pump is on the flow with the cold feed and vent in between the boiler and pump, this can be done as follows: Close the pump outlet isolation valve, and open a drain as near as you can on the return side - anywhere except between the boiler and pump. Let it run until you get water with no air bubbles. If you get sludge or dirt, that is another problem you will have to sort out. Close the drain, vent the pump, open the pump iso valve and you should be OK.
 
thanks!

will try to get a good gush of water through it to wash those pesky bubbles out. I take it the circulation pump hasn't got enough power to do it.

Should I get a Spirovent on the Return pipe to catch future bubbles?

BTW I can only get it to rise the temp that fast by turning up the knob while it is firing. Normally it regulates itself to warm up slowly, but I turned the knob up and down while filming so that so you could hear the difference in the noise it makes when the flames are full on, and at the more usual 2 bars. Does that make a differernce?
 
No

Right I'll make this really simple, leave all as is, put hose on drain off by boiler open up drain off, leave everything running inc pump, heating, hot water the lot, leave it for 10 mins and close drain off, bleed all rads as usual and see if it improves, if not and your stuck get a engineer in.
 
thanks eaton

I don't understand if you mean using the drain cock on the Flow pipe will cause the air to come out of the coils. It must be lying at the top of the coils, and if it isn't being pushed round by the pump, surely it will take a very powerful gush to push it out.

If there isn't enough gush to blow the air out, it won't go up the flow pipe. If it does go up the flow pipe, it can escape up the vent.

The drain cock is an ordinary 15mm one with a hose connector.

Mysteryman is an engineer working in the british ofice of a German company beginning with "V" so I am listening carefully to him.
 
What speed setting is the pump on? Try turning it up to "3" for 10 minutes with all TRVs open and see if that makes any difference.

I was not really able to hear these noises but its quiet compared with one I know of which I may be able to record soon.

Fiddling with the temp settings durin g recording can hardly be classed as "normal" operation!

Tony
 
it's one of those self-regulating Grundfos Alphas, but I turned it up from the auto blob to the big end of the arrow setting last night. All the rads have TRVs so I will wait until the morning when they will have opened.

The noise is louder than it sounds on my recording, I would say it is about as loud as the kettling I hear on my old mum's Potterton Profile 100e as it comes up to heat. Sort of a random tinkling fizz. It only makes the noise when the flame bars are up to max, so I've only noticed it in the recent cold spell when the timer has just come on or after a bath. Usually the boiler only has abour 2 flame bars, so maybe the air has been there a long time but I've only just noticed it. AFAIR when I tried out the Test setting for max burner briefly last summer, I didn't hear it then, I think I would have noticed.
 
Dan might prefer http://www.youtube.com/******

If you try to purge air and do not succeed to stop the noise then it might well be lime scaling on the main HE.

If so a simple DIY solution is usually to add X200 to the system water and leave it in the system. ( Does anyone know what X200 contains? )

Tony
 

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