Boiler Keeps going hot and cold

Albermarle

ThisIsWeird said:

If a part has failed in only 5ish years for no good or obvious reason, then it is reasonable to assume it was inherently faulty. If you make a fuss, you can almost certainly oblige Ideal to fix it - Consumer Rights Act and all that malarkey.

You may need to pay initially - 'under protest' - but a quick letter backed by your LegPro is likely to get results.

But first try the gently approach, explaining it's only just OOG, and hopefully Ideal will respond in the manner I've heard they are good at.

Although it might depend on if the boiler has been serviced every year. If not they will probably be a bit more reluctant to be flexible.

ThisIsWeird

Albermarle said:

ThisIsWeird said:

If a part has failed in only 5ish years for no good or obvious reason, then it is reasonable to assume it was inherently faulty. If you make a fuss, you can almost certainly oblige Ideal to fix it - Consumer Rights Act and all that malarkey.

You may need to pay initially - 'under protest' - but a quick letter backed by your LegPro is likely to get results.

But first try the gently approach, explaining it's only just OOG, and hopefully Ideal will respond in the manner I've heard they are good at.

Although it might depend on if the boiler has been serviced every year. If not they will probably be a bit more reluctant to be flexible.

Indeed - expect that argument. Even tho' annual servicing would almost certainly have had zero bearing on this failure. Of course, if servicing would have picked up or prevented this issue, then fair do's.

My ol' C3 Picasso had its steering power-assist fail when it was (trying to remember) around 7 years old, and only 45k-ish miles. It hadn't had a dealer service in my ownership, since the official warranty had run out - at around 3 years - but I kept a record of my own oil changes and stuff.

Anyhoo, a Google soon showed that this was a 'known' issue, and that Citroen would honour repairs up to 10? years and 80k miles. My local outfit said 'non', of course, and cited lack of official servicing as part of their 'reasoning'. I 'insisted', and cited the selling dealer's take on this - they'd fix it - and when local still said 'non', I contacted Citroen central. One call did the job.

Bottom line - this was an issue that was inherent in the vehicle, and servicing would have had zero bearing on whether it was going to fail or not.

nofoollikeold

1. Get someone to watch the boiler while you are running the bath.
2. If, with a steady flow of hot into the bath, the boiler keeps firing up then turning off then firing up again, the problem is likely to be with the boiler.  The flow turbine is a probably cause.  
3. If the boiler keeps steady, there may be a Thermostatic Mixing Valve (TMV) in the hot water pipework to the bath.  These devices automatically mix cold with the hot to stop the temperature going too high.  They can easily become faulty (particularly without their annual service) and could give the symptoms you describe.  Usually installed under the bath.  

ratrace

ThisIsWeird said:

If a part has failed in only 5ish years for no good or obvious reason, then it is reasonable to assume it was inherently faulty. If you make a fuss, you can almost certainly oblige Ideal to fix it - Consumer Rights Act and all that malarkey.

You may need to pay initially - 'under protest' - but a quick letter backed by your LegPro is likely to get results.

But first try the gently approach, explaining it's only just OOG, and hopefully Ideal will respond in the manner I've heard they are good at.

Thanks got it booked in for next week so hopefully they can get to the bottom of it

ratrace

nofoollikeold said:

1. Get someone to watch the boiler while you are running the bath.
2. If, with a steady flow of hot into the bath, the boiler keeps firing up then turning off then firing up again, the problem is likely to be with the boiler.  The flow turbine is a probably cause.  
3. If the boiler keeps steady, there may be a Thermostatic Mixing Valve (TMV) in the hot water pipework to the bath.  These devices automatically mix cold with the hot to stop the temperature going too high.  They can easily become faulty (particularly without their annual service) and could give the symptoms you describe.  Usually installed under the bath.  

Thanks, when set the hot water temp on the boiler to say 48 degrees c, it takes a about a min to get to approx 42 then dosent really go above that then jumps to to approx 49 for a moment then jumps back down to the high 30's and the cycle go on

I have someone coming out next week so hopefully they can sort it

Had a valiant before this ideal and it was very good not had any issues with it for the first 12 years then it started to play up so was advised to get a new boiler instead of keep fixing the old one

ThisIsWeird

Please report back - it's an interesting one.

ThisIsWeird

Any update, Ratrace?

ratrace

ThisIsWeird said:

Any update, Ratrace?

Really sorry forgot to update this thread

So the boiler has been fixed last week i have been away so delayed the repair, A diffrent engineer came out reccomended by a family member... he came checked for fault codes, looked at the boiler saw what it was doing ie: not getting up to pre set temp (hot water) and kind of new what the issue was...

It was the main burner that was faulty, when he took it off we could see all the black marks etc... sorry didnt get a picture, so we replaced it with a brand new unit from ideal and job done, water coming out nice and hot and not dropping in temp, back to having a decent shower, im glad i found someone who actually tests things and know what they are doing

this is the part he replced if you are interested, hope this helps

FreeBear

ratrace said: It was the main burner that was faulty, when he took it off we could see all the black marks etc...

Black marks suggests poor combustion - You'd have thought that it would have been picked up instantly with an exhaust gas analysis (standard part of a service ?).