Vokera Flowmatic 20-80 RS

[Agile]

I've had another engineer out who spent about an hour and a half looking at the boiler and came back saying that he couldn't locate the fault. What I can't understand is that if I've paid someone to fix a problem they should be able to find it if getting paid.

Just because they are getting paid it does not mean that they will be able to find the fault. They may not have the necessary skills.

However, if they dont find the fault then I don't think that they should have the cheek to ask to get paid.

I operate a no-fix no-fee and would never ask for any payment if I was unable to diagnose the fault. So far that has never happened yet though.

Its totally unfair for anyone to charge for not finding a fault.

Tony

 

[chrisdicko]

This may not be any help mate, but I have the same boiler.....dont know anything really about boilers, but this is what mine was like.....

* Moved in to my new flat, and the pressure guage read zero. So I filled it to 1.5Bar.
* Turned the tap on, no hot water. Put heating on constant, not heating. So, it wasnt firing up at all.
* British gas came out and repalced an Air Pressure Switch. Now the hot tap and central heating work!!!
* My pressure kept dropping, so kept filling it up with water as I didnt know what I was doing, and the pressure was going up to 3 Bar.
* So I got British Gas back out, and the guy repressurised the Pressure/Expansion vessel, and put the correct amount of water back in the system.
* All was well, but I noticed the pressure was still dropping very very slowly......which ive now realised there is a tiny leak at the bottom of the read central heating pump.


I know you've already had gas guys out. But if you called British Gas out, they have to fix it! Where as an independant guy obviously hasnt......I know its more money, buy worth a though.

 

[nickso]

I've had another engineer out who spent about an hour and a half looking at the boiler and came back saying that he couldn't locate the fault. What I can't understand is that if I've paid someone to fix a problem they should be able to find it if getting paid.

I asked him if either the pressure switch or flow device (at the bottom left of the boiler) was faulty. He visually showed me these electrically sound using his multi meter. He also showed me the board saying that it hadn't burnt out. He said that replacing the PCB on a whim wasn't good sense

I'm not sure where this leaves me standing now. It seems that I've had pretty much everything tested. The fan does not run slow at all, only when the flow switch arm presses the lever on the microswitch does the pump start to run (this occurs when the hot water tap is turned on), even then the boiler doesn't fire up. When heat is put on constant nothing happens other then the pump runs.

you have picked the wrong guy if he cant locate a fault on a boiler that isnt firing. intermittant faults can fool us all but you are not much of a heating engineer if you cant logically trace a fault like yours. if i had 8 totally dead boilers a day id be home by lunchtime everyday.

if the fan isnt running slow it is usually the diaphragm is burst or the venturi is blocked. did he check for either of these? did he get his multimeter out and follow the 240v all the way round the boiler? its not rocket science on this model.

 

[DP]

If the fdan is not slow running, I would say it is either the flow switch or knacked 560R resistor. Venturi only comes into play when fan is running at high speed.

Chrisdicko. Your info is very sketchy. Any good engineer would automatically (without thinking) verify these components. Am surprised you had to get two visits to get one fault fixed.

Having read this thread, all I can say is, this boiler is in need of proper service!!!!

 

[tanker]

Thanks for your continuing support guys.

The flow switch has been checked, wouldn't know about the 560R resistor though. Is this part of the PCB, if so all I can say is that he did give it the once over.

Not sure if I should be asking him back to double check things. If I can check the resistor and find it faulty maybe I could use this as leverage to get him back

Tank

 

[nickso]

checking the resistor is easy enough.

its screwed onto the underside of the combustion case and has a gold coloured heatsink with two brown wires coming from it....you cant miss it.

you will need a multimeter and as its name suggests it should have 560 ohms of resistance.

 

[chrisdicko]

Chrisdicko. Your info is very sketchy. Any good engineer would automatically (without thinking) verify these components. Am surprised you had to get two visits to get one fault fixed.

I didnt mind the two visits, as its a one off payment and they keep coming until its working.........well, within 21days.

 

[DP]

Where is the proffessionalism if one fault has to be cleared in two visits. Maybe you are happy with this lack of pride in work, but it sure smacks of lack of working knowledge.

 

[chrisdicko]

It wasnt one fault really though. It was a pressure switch replacement and pressure vessel needed repressurising. Also, the second engineer gave me a free electronic timer as that wasnt working.

 

[Agile]

The first engineer should have run the system on hot water to check the performance and measure the maximum gas burner pressure.

He should have then run the boiler on heating to measure the heating burner pressure and noted the rise in the pressure gauge as being excessive.

If we did not find all the faults on the one visit then we would have to return free to deal with any others. Thats not cost effective.

Tony

 

[chrisdicko]

The more I read on here, the worse BG are sounding!!

 

[nickso]

The more I read on here, the worse BG are sounding!!

depends who you get. perhaps you have been a bit unlucky.

whilst i doff my cap to DP's knowledge of vokeras i would take any of tonys rantings about BG with a pinch of salt.

 

[DP]

Please go easy there or I will get a big head

 

[tanker]

Fellas,

Checked the resistor and found the reading was 589 ohms, is this regarded as good or bad?

 

[tanker]

Futher to my last posting I am still no further on.

I've been let down by a 'recommended' engineer so changed the resistor and flow micro switch in the hope that this would remedy the problem. Unfortunately it hasn't. The fan does still not run slowly

When the micro switch is pressed the fan does start so I know that the fan operates (atleast on high speed).

Any further advice would be appreciated, is it now likely to be the PCB?

Tank