Vailant Ecotec 837

[Jogon]

Year on year I have a problem with the central heating at home, it often catches us out right when you don't want it to (coldest weather)

History, used to have a Trianco Oil Fired Boiler, was 20 years old, never a problem with it until it's last year and where it was letting water in the boiler, had to suck it out every day so it wouldn't enter the burner. No Gas in the road I live on.

7 years ago, paid for gas to be brought to the house and on the recommendation of a friend had a Ferroli Gas Combi boiler installed, worst move made (or so i thought) first year it broke down, sorted by service and continued to break down until enough was enough and decided to purchase a Vailant Ecotech 837, persevered with the Ferroli for one last year (it's fifth) and then decided to have the Vailant fiited by a competent fitter, Gas Safe etc.

The boiler has been in two years, tried to have it serviced under the usual service by Vailant last year but as the boiler had already been purchased for a year (but not commissioned) it appears any warranty on it had expired ( My fault I guess )

In any case, this is now it's 2nd year of being in, recently had a radiator in the property moved, system was drained down, magnaclean emptied/cleaned out...not much debris in it at all etc etc. System filled back up, Fernox put back in, system primed and away it went.

However, the faults (or at least I think they are) are several and have probably been present for some time

A/ The hot water when called for via the taps (bath/sink) is intermittent, sometimes the water is hot and delivered quite quickly, other times it doesn't seem to get hot hardly at all and takes a while for the lukewarm water to arrive.

B/ We have two showers, one works from the boiler and is a Mira Platinum, it usually works ok but again the last few months it's been a bit hit and miss re giving hot water, we usually have it set to 42 on the digital display and the pressure medium way round.

C/ The heating/radiators have all got thermostats on, downstairs and up, I guess it's upstairs they should only be on, but we tend to keep most rooms that are unused with the valves set at 1 maybe 2 and the ones we use are usually on Max but we cannot seem to find a happy medium.

D/ The latest problem is water pressure, I think I'm right in saying that the boiler cuts back if the water pressure in the boiler rises above 3bar? Since the magnaclean was cleaned and the radiator moved the pressure reaches 3 almost daily and I'm having to raid water from one of the rads to get the pressure down under 3 to around 2...the next day and the heating is switched on and without an hour the pressure is back up etc. I have no idea what to do or why it is doing this.

I'm in Ashby De La Zouch and we're a bit think on the ground for Vailant Engineers here and I'm not sure what to do but it is without fail that every year for the last 7 I have had a problem with a boiler, despite my keeping them regularly serviced

Any ideas as what I may be doing wrong or what the faults I may have and if they're linked and how to get them sorted so I can simply use the boiler/heating/water without keep constantly having to worry that my family may go cold.

Thankyou

 

[SimonG]

Get a decent gas safe engineer to haveca good look at it.

 

[Chalked]

The problems you have are probably not down to the boiler.
pressure keeps going to 3 bar.possible filling loop passing
thermostatic valves. Keep turning them down until you reach the desired room temperature. ( do not feel the radiator temp) this can be hit and miss,
your digital mixer shower is NOT thermostatic and will fluctuate with a combi..

you say that your heating is regularly serviced, but this boiler was not commissioned , nor has it been serviced yet!
Both commissioning and servicing will make sure the boiler is working safely and to its full capacity.

 

[Jogon]

The problems you have are probably not down to the boiler.
pressure keeps going to 3 bar.possible filling loop passing
thermostatic valves. Keep turning them down until you reach the desired room temperature. ( do not feel the radiator temp) this can be hit and miss,
your digital mixer shower is NOT thermostatic and will fluctuate with a combi..

you say that your heating is regularly serviced, but this boiler was not commissioned , nor has it been serviced yet!
Both commissioning and servicing will make sure the boiler is working safely and to its full capacity.

Just for reference, it was commissioned one year after it's original purchase and it was serviced on it's first (but turns out to be it's second year according to Vaillant) by a Gas Safe Enginneer, no faults were noted/found at the time.

 

[Whyme]

Does sound like the filling loop is passing, this is inherant with vaillant boilers also when your hot water is fine is it when the heating is on???? Where was the boiler fitted ie in the old cylinder cupboard ( great ) anywhere else ? ( not so ).

 

[Whyme]

A gas service is liken to a cars MOT, it just says it aint going to kill you..

 

[Jogon]

Does sound like the filling loop is passing, this is inherant with vaillant boilers also when your hot water is fine is it when the heating is on???? Where was the boiler fitted ie in the old cylinder cupboard ( great ) anywhere else ? ( not so ).

The water is usually (but not altogether specific) when the heating is off (it's been off for most of the past few months and the problem re water temp has been in force during that time)

Boiler is fitted in the Utility room, the gas meter and incoming water supply (stopcock) are all in the same room, was the same for the previous boilers including the oil filled one.

 

[kris]

There is defo need to call in a pro, as if the filling points not passing then youve a pressure problem that needs attention , also the hot water, could be a couple of possibilities but both would require a gassafe engineer and we cant give advice on gas related appliances,
Once you top up your boiler its good practise to remove the flexi hose incase of passing,
You could put an add in this forum looking for an engineer, good luck

 

[Dotty]

Good advice above.