Boiler problem. Any ideas?

[Mullardman]

Only a year or so back, I had a Baxi 105 HE condensing boiler fitted. It has been fine until just a few mins ago when it stopped producing hot water. If I try to reset it, it will appear to be OK until I turn on a hot tap, whereupon it tries, and seemingly fails, to fire up and goes into fault mode.

It is showing 2 faults. 'Flame failure or Condensate Drain blocked' and 'Fan or Flue fault'. I'd be amazed if all of the above occurred simultaneously, if at all and I'm suspecting a control/circuit board fault, but really have very little knowledge if these boilers. Any tips?. Or do I bite the bullet and call out an engineer.?
Mull

[neil w]

does it work for central heating . also you should have a 2yr guarantee if fitted by a baxi rewards member

[matt j]

call 999

[Mullardman]

Originally Posted by neil w

does it work for central heating

Nope. It won't fire up at all.

[Central Audio]

Long shot but you could check you have enough pressure in the system,usualy over 1bar.

Cheers Tony

[Brian]

Originally Posted by Mullardman

Only a year or so back, I had a Baxi 105 HE condensing boiler fitted. It has been fine until just a few mins ago when it stopped producing hot water. If I try to reset it, it will appear to be OK until I turn on a hot tap, whereupon it tries, and seemingly fails, to fire up and goes into fault mode.

It is showing 2 faults. 'Flame failure or Condensate Drain blocked' and 'Fan or Flue fault'. I'd be amazed if all of the above occurred simultaneously, if at all and I'm suspecting a control/circuit board fault, but really have very little knowledge if these boilers. Any tips?. Or do I bite the bullet and call out an engineer.?
Mull

Have you checked the condensate waste pipe to confirm it isn't blocked?

Do you not have breakdown insurance on your heating/water system?

If it's a control board they can be very, very expensive. I had a Worcester Bosch combi boiler fitted by British Gas 2 years ago (well, that's when they started to fit it, it took them 6 months to fit it properly so it's 18 months in use) and one of the things they broke was the control board. A bloke came directly from Worcester Bosch and fitted a new one at a cost of a few hundred quid to British Gas apparently.

[zener]

I think the "condensation drain" is blocked , maybe check that first as its easy to do. Also check the flue , might have something living in it (nice and warm in there)

[Wilky]

Hi Mull.

As some of the others have suggested - the condensate drain may not have been installed correctly and has blocked (frozen?).

Shut the power off and try and disconnect the 3/4 plastic drain and temporarily rig it to discharge into a bucket or similar.
Power back up, reset and try it again.

Dave.

[Mullardman]

Thanks chaps.

I tried to check the drain. It's made of plastic piping and the 'fitter' seems to have glued all the joints together. I'll have to check very close to, or inside the boiler, when I figure out how to get the front panel off. The boiler is mounted high up in a one time airing cupboard with the flue emerging from the top and straight out onto an outside wall which is difficult to access even with a ladder. I'll have to think about that a bit and anyway it's dark now.

I can stay warm enough as I have a decent enough gas fire, a number of electric fan heaters and a leccy oven/stove. It's my shower I'll miss most. I suppose I'll just have to slum it and boil up enough water for a hot bath.

I don't have breakdown insurance. The original installer came very highly recommended and also told me that the negative things I'd heard about Baxi were all wrong, just rumour etc. Claims to only fit Baxi including in his own home and has no problems with them.

Wilky,

The drain seems to be all glued together. It is extremely unlikely to have frozen, as it is discharging into the bath/shower waste, inside the house. However, it doesn't have a proper 'fall' on it. It is run behind the bath panel in the bathroom and the fitters have propped it up on a bit of old pipe to relieve a couple of high spots which would otherwise form. I am not impressed. There's no way I'd have bodged it like that, and I'm not even a plumber.

Mull

[neil w]

[QUOTE=Mullardman;744179]Thanks chaps.

I tried to check the drain. It's made of plastic piping and the 'fitter' seems to have glued all the joints together. I'll have to check very close to, or inside the boiler, when I figure out how to get the front panel off. The boiler is mounted high up in a one time airing cupboard with the flue emerging from the top and straight out onto an outside wall which is difficult to access even with a ladder. I'll have to think about that a bit and anyway it's dark now.

I can stay warm enough as I have a decent enough gas fire, a number of electric fan heaters and a leccy oven/stove. It's my shower I'll miss most. I suppose I'll just have to slum it and boil up enough water for a hot bath.

I don't have breakdown insurance. The original installer came very highly recommended and also told me that the negative things I'd heard about Baxi were all wrong, just rumour etc. Claims to only fit Baxi including in his own home and has no problems with them.[/QUOTE/]

If none of the above work
ask him if he registered youre warranty online thru baxi rewards / bonus direct if he did you should have a 2yr warranty . He will have a phone number where he can get a baxi engineer there next day , which will be tuesday

[Wilky]

Hi Mull.

You shouldn't need to remove the front panel - worst is to cut through the plastic drain and stick a bucket under it.

If it's blocked you should get some water coming out as you cut it (inside the airing cupboard) so have a few old towels ready.

It can always easily be rejoined with a socket (coupler) later on when you are out of the jam.

Dave.

[neil w]

to remove front casing drop the flap at the bottom to exppose controls . There are 2 screws at top left and right of black fascia unscrew these and the front panel slides up and off . the screws dont have to come all the way out .

condensate trap is to the front right

[simonbrown]

You would be a brave person to hack into a boiler that may well be under warranty !

Do check the pressurisation, if a sealed system. Boilers can do strange things when water pressure is too low, and it is usually very simple to top up using a stopcock and filling loop you should be able to access. I don't know this model, but there may well be a water pressure gauge showing the operating range and current pressure

[Mullardman]

Got the front cover off. Just two screws which when removed allow the panel to come off upwards and also allow the control panel to flop forward.

There's a small transparent plastic sort of 'header' tank at the top of the condensate drain. Completely empty. Just a few traces of water in the bottom, around the outflow. With the mains off (naturally!) I stroked my beard thoughtfully and tried to look intelligent as I carefully prodded assorted connectors, lightly tapped micro switches with my screwdriver and performed other, no doubt useless, rituals.

I switched back on and reset...... nothing.
Reset again. This time it fired up. It ran for about 2-3 minutes while I checked that I was getting hot water and the rads were starting to warm up. Then it stopped again, showing the same faults. The pump kept running, but the burner was out. I got a washing up bowl of water for the dishes and back to square one..... bugger!

I'm out of ideas now.

Mull

Edit. Sorry Neil. Only just spotted your post!

PS. The insides of the unit are totally spotless and dust free, it looks like new and there's just nothing obviously wrong. No visible leaks, burnt wires etc.

Pressure is fine. Currently at just over 2 Bar.It does have a tendency to lose pressure slowly over a period of months, but is easily pumped up again. I think I may have one or two very slow leaks in the rad circuit.

[Mick Parry]

Chaps

My house was built in 1979 and still has the original Potterton Cast Iron boiller.

I have been advised by several plumbers never to replace it. It goes on and on and on and has never once broken down.

It is just simple and basic with very little to go wrong.

I sometimes think, we upgrade our heating systems needlessly.

Regards

Mick