Ideal Minimiser Boiler problems

jodyc

Hi,

I am having problems with my Ideal Minimiser boiler. We bought the house about a year ago and since then we have had to call out a gas engineer four times to service/clean out the boiler (at £55 per visit) to get it to work properly. The house is only 10 years old and I believe the boiler is the same age.

I am told that the problem lies in the steel heat exchanger which gives off a lot of dust that accumulates and prevents the burner from lighting properly. Once serviced the boiler runs fine for around 2-3 months before working intermittently and then failing to light the burners at all.

The engineers we have spoken to have all recommended replacing the boiler with a new one. Is there no alternative fix/repair to this ? Is replacing the boiler the only option ?

In addition to the burner problems, there is a persistent drip from the bottom of the boiler which forms a pool of water on the worktop in our kitchen. Is this normal or fixeable ?

If the answer to the above questions is to replace the boiler, what make would you recommend. I have heard Vaillant and Worcester boilers are reliable.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks

paul_h

First of all, welcome to MSE! :j

This is a known problem with the older Ideal Minimiser condensing boilers, you get a build up of aluminium hydroxide ash on the burner plate, but this is not normally bad enough to require cleaning more than once a year. It can also cause lock outs due to the flame-failure device being fouled. The general advice is to get the burner plate checked out and reset the burner pressure.

Also, when these boilers are serviced, they must be cleaned out very meticulously, especially the fins inside the heat exchanger - use some type of implement to clear the spaces between the fins, particularly at the bottom near the burner plate.

When the boiler is next serviced, get the engineer to check the O-ring when replacing the burner, if this is damaged, worn, or incorrectly fitted it can cause the leakage of condensate. This needs to be fixed as the condensate is mildly acidic and will damage internal components.

The condensate on these boilers drips onto the burner and is collected to be discharged into a drain - this does seem to cause some problems on these models, and could be linked to your 'dust' problem if the condensate is not being discharged from the burner properly.

If you do eventually go for a new boiler, most installers have their favourites - but either of the boilers you mention would be OK.

Hope this helps!

bird1137

Hi, Many thanks for this tip/explanation, it is exactly what our boiler is doing at the moment. Out of interest out condensate seems to appear at the top of the boiler where the burner outlet (exhaust) is, any ideas???

Also the condensate dripped down into the PCB (what a place to put it!), which caused all manner of issues.

Just waiting for O ring kit to arrive and we will be warm again!

Thanks once again for some excellent advice.:beer:

gas4you

Sadly the only good advice is to rip it out.

Another in the long line of Ideal rubbish, where the customer is left high and dry and extremely out of pocket.