Rayburn 480k Prolem keeping it off!

[johngp]

I have a Rayburn 480k, I serviced it last weekend with out a problem. Everything to spec. On Thursday I noticed the boiler burner was running outside the programmed time. It had the old timer with the red LED's none of which were on. The only way to get the burner off was to turn the boiler thermostat down on the control panel. I assumed the program timer was toast, so I just replaced it with an upgrade, new panel, timer etc. It appears to still be the same, in that outside programmed "ON" times I can get the boiler burner to fire up by turning up the boiler thermostat up....... New boiler thermostat needed?????? Not too worried that I changed the old timer over, the old one had a mind of it's own. Some of the override switches, which my wife loves tinkering with, had got a bit knackered. The cooker side is working fine and as it should. Any ideas. By the way I service this thing myself as none of our local engineers will go near it, even the guy who installed it before we moved into the house wont return any calls! Over the time we've lived here this thing has just about had everything, non electrical, changed on it now it appears I'll be working through that as well.

 

[lame plumber]

out of interest do you have pressure gauges and an fga to do the service as if you dont its not really going to be set up properly.re the boiler turning itself on theres probably a short somewhere to be traced a resolved. if you go onto the rayyburn site and look up the guild section youll find a local rayburn specialist. Problem with these is the world slots them in, rayburn used to commission them and then the installer runs off. they are magic just need a few bits of knowledge, such as the 400 series nozzles have changed recentlyand due to the aggresive characteristics of kerosene now some pump seals will be failing etc (just had the latest tech update this morning 🙂 )

 

[johngp]

out of interest do you have pressure gauges and an fga to do the service as if you dont its not really going to be set up properly.re the boiler turning itself on theres probably a short somewhere to be traced a resolved. if you go onto the rayyburn site and look up the guild section youll find a local rayburn specialist. Problem with these is the world slots them in, rayburn used to commission them and then the installer runs off. they are magic just need a few bits of knowledge, such as the 400 series nozzles have changed recentlyand due to the aggresive characteristics of kerosene now some pump seals will be failing etc (just had the latest tech update this morning 🙂 )

Yes I have all the kit to set the thing up properly. I did go to the 'Guild''......... our local Rayburn specialist is a joke. Massive flashy showroom but I've not met one of their 'engineers' that I'd let near my Rayburn again. The last guy from there was the reason I started servicing things myself. He set the oil pressure wrong, set the CO2 wrong and tried to con me that he had changed the jets when I'd seen him take them out, wipe them and put them back in again and used the old flame tube gaskets as well. I did make a complaint and told his employers he was dangerous but it got ignored. However they didn't moan when I didn't pay the bill! Apart from them I've tried 12 other local heating guys who all either told me they don't touch 480's or never turned up to appointments! So far over a period of time this has had a new pump, new motor, new coupler, new flame tubes, photocells as well as all the usual servicing parts. I'm beginning to get to know this particular Rayburn very well. If you think it's just a short I'll start going over it, I'm a sparks by trade...... Thanks

 

[lame plumber]

you dont want the big boys, just a small independant who knows his stuff. last 480 i had doing this was wired up wrong by the sparkie 8 years ago and the farmer never noticed! the tenants that took over 5 weeks ago did when they copped a £200 bill for 28 days a gas🙂 with all the breakdowns I presume its getting on now, check your motorised valves micro switches for bieng stuck on. still dont get why a sparkie has an fga, must be very rich

 

[johngp]

you dont want the big boys, just a small independant who knows his stuff. last 480 i had doing this was wired up wrong by the sparkie 8 years ago and the farmer never noticed! the tenants that took over 5 weeks ago did when they copped a £200 bill for 28 days a gas🙂 with all the breakdowns I presume its getting on now, check your motorised valves micro switches for bieng stuck on. still dont get why a sparkie has an fga, must be very rich

Ha I wished. As I said I've tried everyone round here, even those that were recommended to me by the local parts supplier none of them seem interested. I have the fga because when I decided to do things myself I wanted to do them properly. Yes it's an expense, for the amount it's used, it's calibration/cell replacement costs are over the top, but as I said how do you do it properly without. Just have to say up until last Thursday the Rayburn was operating fine. It must be about ten years old, so not that bad. Today while the wife and grandkids are off to the beach I'll be going over the Rayburn and the rest of the system for whatever is causing this. A new 'fault' appeared, or got noticed for the first time last night, the Hot Water/Hot Water Heating switch now doesn't seem to do anything. It was on Hot Water and the rads were getting hot! So would appear a valve is stuck/not operating somewhere. As a side point whoever put this plumbing system in was very confident it was never going to go wrong as it had been constructed into a recess and had plaster board wall put in front of it. I had to hunt around and pull the wall down to get to it! Not the Rayburn of course........;-) Just to make matters worse the house is about 400 years old and some of the walls are a bit thick, which makes trying to trace pipes/wiring a bit of a nightmare. Good job I wasn't looking forward to having a day off.

 

[Roger Welton]

Heating zone valve stuck open

 

[johngp]

Heating zone valve stuck open

Well having spent a while poking around, there would seem to be maybe a couple of faults. Firstly I found one valve refuses to move not matter what the demand is. However not as easy as that...... Access to the tank area is a bit tight to say the least with the pipework and wiring coming from the Rayburn approaching from right behind the tank. I think I can make out that the plastic ribbed conduit carrying the cables has been resting on the hot pipework....... Signs of things melting back there, so god knows what might be going on with the wiring. Another problem the colour coding of the wiring leaving the Rayburn is different by the time it gets to the other end! By the way to show how tight this all is I could only make this out by using a borescope on a laptop! So tomorrow the whole lot is going to have to come out so I can find out what the hell is going on. Just one thing, the valve that isn't moving has Honeywell P36-0036 marked on it and has 5 wires coming out of it rather than the 6 I would expect. They are Blue,Brown,Grey,Orange, Green/yellow so I'm assuming Blue/Brown for the motor and Grey/Orange is just a SP/ST on/off swtch, green/yellow being earth. I can't find anything online about this valve.

 

[Roger Welton]

Just fit a standard Honeywell V4043, wiring is as you describe. The valve body will have jammed, possibly due to muck in the heating system, check condition when you drain to replace the valve.

 

[lame plumber]

nice one. have fun.

 

[WHPES]

Take the actuator head off the valve and see if the spindle turns freely. If it does, replace the actuator (no need to replace the entire valve). If the spindle is stiff, replace the whole thing (needs draining down to below the level and don't forget to add inhibitor when recharging system)