Ideal Isar HE24 - now what's going on?!

sherbie

Hello!

Right, something really weird has happened, and now the boiler wont work. Hoping someone can help shed light on it! This may or may not be related.

I was changing that powder stuff that's meant to stop the limescale on the plate heat exchanger. It's a fernox quantomat. The powder from last time hadn't gone, and had kinda solidified in the bottom. Anyway, I cleared it out, blah, blah. When I turned the lil black switches on, at the side of it, it didn't fill with water. I tried to see what was wrong, and figured I'd phone the helpline in the morning. I left the lil switches in the off position, so that water wouldn't go through it, but would still go to the boiler.

I turned the boiler back on, it was all ok, the hot water was working. A few mins later, I went to see if there were any leaks, and I noticed the boiler said L9.I turned it off, and checked the pressure, it was 1, but I topped it up to 1.5 to be safe. When I turned it back on it still said L9, so I pressed reset. It then changed to 0 and 3 horizontal lines. It wont let me reset anymore.

I called Ideal, they said they were over heat codes. They said to bleed the radiators, and wait half an hour for it to cool down, and it should be ok. It's been two hours, it feels ice cold, but the code wont go away! I feel sick with worry, and don't know what to do.

I've had the hot taps open, with the boiler off, and it's running freely, and there was no gunk above the filter part of the quanto thing, so I can't see how something could've come off that, but is it a possibility? Could something like that make a boiler stop working?

Anway, hoping someone can shed light on this situtation, and maybe answer these questions, even one of them! Thankyou!

1. Could it be to do with the quanto thing?

2. Any idea why the water wont go in the quanto thing anymore? I'm worried if this is part of the problem, and I get the boiler repaired, it'll just go wrong again.

3. Why, despite the boiler now being ice cold, wont the overheat code go away?

4. British gas seem to have the cheapest call out in my area, but they say they wont repair faults caused by sludge or scale. Is it likely to be due to those things?

Thanks alot for reading, and thanks in advance for any help.

jm2926

We had endless problems with our ideal boiler. Every man and his dog were out replacing parts for us and neighbours. The only firm who fixed it in the end were Homeserve. They were also the only firm who would offer a maintenance contract for it. They seem to have some link to the manufacturer.

sherbie

jm2926 wrote: »

We had endless problems with our ideal boiler. Every man and his dog were out replacing parts for us and neighbours. The only firm who fixed it in the end were Homeserve. They were also the only firm who would offer a maintenance contract for it. They seem to have some link to the manufacturer.

Ooooh, thanks I'll look into that in the meantime. We've had alot of trouble with ours too, but it was mostly caused by scale, and the plate heat exchanger. Annoyingly, scale and sludge seem to be excluded from most of these policies, but I'm seriously thinking about getting one anyway, if things are going to keep going wrong. Now off to google homeserve, thanks again.

HomeServe_company_representative

Hi

I have seen your thread, all our details are in the company profile section if you need any further information or if we can help.

Many Thanks

James
Here To help Team
HomeServe

Oldsoak

We had an Ideal He24 boiler. It was rubbish. 23 parts required replacing on the first 2 of our service contract yearly services. It lasted 5 years in total. The company that replaced it said they have ripped out literally hundreds of them. Apparently they were produced as a cheap boiler in response to the government initiative. Warmfront fitted ours but I did not see were they tied their horses up. The boiler will undoubtedly continue to give problems until it leaks, then it will be uneconomical to repair. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but now you know.
Good luck with yours.

Ruski

Please photo and upload these 'lil switches'.. sounds like one may have failed....

Russ

southcoastrgi

Turn the power off to the boiler for 30 secs to get rid of the lines, boiler is overheating because the valves you turned off are either not open or are knackered, it could also be a leaking dry fire thermistor shorting out the connections, Ideal boiler & a quantamat someone really didn't like you did they

sherbie

Hi thanks for the replies.

@OldSoak Yeah, I googled for a few hours before I asked for help on here, and was up until 2 last night trying to find info, and basically, I've learnt there's no love for this boiler! No, I'm not talking about me. We got it via warmfront too. Thanks for the info, it's best to know!

@Ruski sorry, that was my being rubbish and not explaining properly. They turn the water supply to the quanto thing on and off. I took the whole thing off the pipe, and took it apart. It turns out the reason water wasn't flowing into it, is because the holes had somehow become blocked with powder. It was a RIGHT palaver getting them clear, but I managed to solve that problem. Thankyou though.

@southcoastrgi it wouldn't reset from the 0 and lines, even after turning it off and on again, and leaving for a few hours. Sorry, as above, I didn't explain the whole switch/ valve thing properly. I'm rubbish! Anyway, hoping it'll get sorted, details below. Thanks for your reply.



Right, a bit more info, incase this appears in someones google search at some point.

After 5 hours of cooling down, I turned it on again. I thought things were ok, as the d for hot water appeared. Then there was a massive bang, and loads more lil bangs, and it gave the L9, followed by 0 & lines after reset. The same thing happened this morning, after it being off all night. I remember when I was googling that it could mean a pump, or maybe a heat exchanger was dodgy. I thought about taking it apart, to try and tap the pump, like some people had said online, but didn't fancy blowing up, so bit the bullet, and called BG.

Sure enough it looks like the pump is full of gunk. He didn't have the part, and will be back tomorrow to change it.

I accidently read a little bit about those things you put on the systems to help prevent, and collect the gunk yesterday. Gunk, as in central heating gunk. He mentioned one called spiratech magnafilter. BG install it. I'm going to try and find out about it before he comes tomorrow, but does anyone know if these things are worth it, and help prevent problems? And, if the spiratech one (may not be correct spelling) is any good?

Thanks so much for the help so far.

Ruski

Fernox TF1 - well worth it, especially as you've seen what 'gunk' does to a system.

But every plumber wil have their own favourite...

HTH
Russ

sherbie

Ruski wrote: »

Fernox TF1 - well worth it, especially as you've seen what 'gunk' does to a system.

But every plumber wil have their own favourite...

HTH
Russ

Brilliant, it does help, thanks! Gunk beware, I'm coming to get you! I like the way Fernox TF1 sounds like a terminator or something.

Doodledee

Is there any recourse for those who trusted the Warmfront scheme and who are now left with rising costs when we just cannot afford them ? Is there anyway I can get a replacement boiler, boiler broke down again last night - usual design fault :mad: I've tried to get another grant but as soon as I mention the boiler they tell me I'm not eligible because I have a condensing boiler even though it a liability. Warmfront scheme seems to have found a way of getting money for a boiler with a known design fault and then getting people to buy replacement faulty parts

Circumtance put my child and I in an impossible position and I had to replace my old boiler via the grant scheme, wish to god I'd built a bonfire :-/

Replaced so many parts its cost me more in the long run than it would to have bought one myself.

I've learned quite a lot over last several years - The boiler manual pdf meant I have saved on replacement parts eg instead of replacing all PCB at an est cost of £200 it actually only cost £13 nett for lead :-/ Hope it helps and if you know anyone that can pointme in direction of new boiler that means i can still eat - please point away :-)