In our Village Hall we have a Ideal Concord CXS/SD40/H central heating boiler. This was installed new when we had an extension built and the existing boiler needed upgrading. The Mechanical Engineers advising the architect insisted that we had a conventional cast iron combustion chamber boiler rather than a more modern condensing boiler and the Ideal Concorde was specified.
Unfortunately it been unreliable from the start and like Triggers broom has had more parts fitted than his broom has had heads and handles
In November 2022 it developed another fault. The boiler kept tripping the ELCB and it turned out to be a faulty??? ignition board that was replaced by our normal heating service engineer. After working for a while the boiler failed to light and we found the fuse on the new Ignition board kept blowing. I finally tracked this down to the leads going to the ignition coil which had touched the heat exchanger, melting the insulation causing a short. I put some insulation sleeving on these and taped them up and the boiler started working again. Hence the question marks after the faulty ignition board which we were charged for. It's more likely the short that I found was causing the problem.
After a few weeks of working normally the boiler again developed a fault. This time the lockout button kept tripping. When reset the boiler would try and ignite generally successfully but often with an explosive ignition they blew the front cover off the boiler!!! At this stage when reporting the fault the Service Engineers said we needed a new boiler. Not very helpful as we were right in the middle of all the Christmas festivities with the Village Hall in constant use.
They finally came out again after Christmas and fitted a new Gas Valve and flame detector probe. Initially the boiler lit again although the first ignition of the heating cycle was still explosive it continued until the timer switched off. This went on for about a week but didn't fix the problem as it began to lock out again.
I called them out again and despite the engineer saying he still thought it was a mixture problem I told him I thought it was related to the ignition and I asked him to remove and check the electrodes which he did. He found that one of the electrodes was bent and straightened it but said the connection of the leads was iffy and ideally needed replacing.
Since then they have not returned to fit new leads and we are now in dispute with them over the number of parts fitted without fixing the problem.
We want to replace the boiler but need to save up enough funds so need to keep it going until the end of the heating season and believe the fault should be able to be fixed. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what parts might be faulty or need checking. For example there are two ignition electrodes. Does the spark travel between these or from the electrodes to earth. Perhaps the gap is all wrong now. Also where is the high voltage spark created? I assume it s this in the spark generator secured to the gas pipe leading to the burners rather than the ignition board itself?
We are tearing our hair out over this problem. Being classed as a commercial boiler we are limited locally with Gas Safe qualified engineers who can work on it. I have now put in a call to Ideal Heating for a call back from their commercial boiler department but as I am not a Gas Safe engineer I doubt they will talk to me in any detail.
To clarify we have no intention of carrying out any work on the boiler ourselves (we would probably void our insurance if we did) I am just looking for experience/suggested areas to pass on to the service engineers who are trying to fix the issue
Unfortunately it been unreliable from the start and like Triggers broom has had more parts fitted than his broom has had heads and handles
In November 2022 it developed another fault. The boiler kept tripping the ELCB and it turned out to be a faulty??? ignition board that was replaced by our normal heating service engineer. After working for a while the boiler failed to light and we found the fuse on the new Ignition board kept blowing. I finally tracked this down to the leads going to the ignition coil which had touched the heat exchanger, melting the insulation causing a short. I put some insulation sleeving on these and taped them up and the boiler started working again. Hence the question marks after the faulty ignition board which we were charged for. It's more likely the short that I found was causing the problem.
After a few weeks of working normally the boiler again developed a fault. This time the lockout button kept tripping. When reset the boiler would try and ignite generally successfully but often with an explosive ignition they blew the front cover off the boiler!!! At this stage when reporting the fault the Service Engineers said we needed a new boiler. Not very helpful as we were right in the middle of all the Christmas festivities with the Village Hall in constant use.
They finally came out again after Christmas and fitted a new Gas Valve and flame detector probe. Initially the boiler lit again although the first ignition of the heating cycle was still explosive it continued until the timer switched off. This went on for about a week but didn't fix the problem as it began to lock out again.
I called them out again and despite the engineer saying he still thought it was a mixture problem I told him I thought it was related to the ignition and I asked him to remove and check the electrodes which he did. He found that one of the electrodes was bent and straightened it but said the connection of the leads was iffy and ideally needed replacing.
Since then they have not returned to fit new leads and we are now in dispute with them over the number of parts fitted without fixing the problem.
We want to replace the boiler but need to save up enough funds so need to keep it going until the end of the heating season and believe the fault should be able to be fixed. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what parts might be faulty or need checking. For example there are two ignition electrodes. Does the spark travel between these or from the electrodes to earth. Perhaps the gap is all wrong now. Also where is the high voltage spark created? I assume it s this in the spark generator secured to the gas pipe leading to the burners rather than the ignition board itself?
We are tearing our hair out over this problem. Being classed as a commercial boiler we are limited locally with Gas Safe qualified engineers who can work on it. I have now put in a call to Ideal Heating for a call back from their commercial boiler department but as I am not a Gas Safe engineer I doubt they will talk to me in any detail.
To clarify we have no intention of carrying out any work on the boiler ourselves (we would probably void our insurance if we did) I am just looking for experience/suggested areas to pass on to the service engineers who are trying to fix the issue
