Caling all plumbers

consilio

consilio

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I have an Ideal Icos condensing boiler. I also have a header tank and a F&E tank for the heating system in the loft.

Discovered a problem today where the F&E tank is constantly being drained and filled very slowly. Boiler also cuts out after short periods of operation, and it sounds like there is a lot of air in the system. Discovered that the water being fed into the F&E tank is escaping via the overflow/drain on the boiler which is obviously not normal.

At a guess i would say that perhaps a valve is faulty in the boiler, or there is something wrong with balancing in the system?

Any ideas what the problem could be? :think:

Thanks :beerchug:
 
This does sound very strange, as you say, your F&E tank is running constantly, abeit slowly, and the water seems to be going down your condense waste, out of the boiler.

So logically speaking, there must be something wrong inside the boiler.

I don't know of any valves in an Icos relating to water, so would probably be a hole in the heat exchanger, which won't be good.

How old is the boiler?

Was the system power flushed when installed, or is it a new build house?

Is the header tank dirty, is the water brown or red?
 
You're bang on mate :applaus:

Called a plumber out and there is a crack in the cast iron heat exchanger, which i'm told is extremely unusual. I guess being cast iron it should be!

Anyway, new exchanger and fitting should come close to around a £900 repair bill I reckon. Lucky we are covered then!

Boiler and house is 4 years old can you believe. do Icos have any decent warranty out of interest?

What could cause a crack in the exchanger?
 
The most likely cause of the hole in the heat exchanger would be that when the boiler/system was fitted it wasnt flushed proppely and/or no chemicals where added to the system (poor workmanship) :s3addict:
 
You said lucky you are covered, do you have warranty with someone? Just being nosey btw.
 
The missis has one of those add ons to her bank account (Barclays Additions) where she pays a monthly fee and gets a load of stuff..... Travel insurance, mobile phone insurance, discounts off finance etc etc. This also includes home emergency cover up to £1000 for parts and labour, phew!
 
I think that boiler is about £850 before any markup is added, plus labour - not sure how much that would be
 
to swap a boiler especially like for like is fairly easy as most use a manifold to terminate the pipes and could actually take less time to do than the repair but im no expert just a avid diyer.
 
If you have a choice , change the boiler they are ***** , really ***** .

The gas B stopped fitting them as they just playde up all the time , they are only fitting them again due to the price they pay . If you wrapped one and gave me it for my birhday i say thanks and then throw it away .

If not keep paying Barclays insurance.

chris
 
As Ebbs said, Ideal really aren't in the same league as say Worcestor-Bosch are.

After the repair, which i don't think will be very straight forward, it may be worth getting insurance with maybe Ideal or BG.
 
I'm ultra surprised that a condensing boiler has a cast iron heat exchanger.

Has the boiler ever frozen at all?

Get a Valliant, I have one and its a fantastic bit of kit.
 
A4Quattro said:
What caused it to break? not the dreaded PCB?
Click to expand...

Not sure as I'm not an expert, but the engineer told me that one of the seals for the hot water had perished and started to leak, so everytime I switched the water on, it would spray out. And some of the water got onto the fan and killed it, it's like a metal cylinder type thing with a circuit board and a black fan thing in the middle.
It had been leaking for sometime though, but since the combi is inside an airing cupboard, no one ever inspects it.... maybe we should now though lol
 
jojo said:
Not sure as I'm not an expert, but the engineer told me that one of the seals for the hot water had perished and started to leak, so everytime I switched the water on, it would spray out. And some of the water got onto the fan and killed it, it's like a metal cylinder type thing with a circuit board and a black fan thing in the middle.
It had been leaking for sometime though, but since the combi is inside an airing cupboard, no one ever inspects it.... maybe we should now though lol
Click to expand...

Sounds expensive Joe. :yes::detective2:
 
consilio said:
You're bang on mate :applaus:

Called a plumber out and there is a crack in the cast iron heat exchanger, which i'm told is extremely unusual. I guess being cast iron it should be!
Click to expand...

TDI-line said:
A4Q, the heat exchanger is made from Cast Aluminium, which is quite robust with older system.:whistle2:
Click to expand...


It says cast Iron on the original post....
 
A4Quattro said:
It says cast Iron on the original post....
Click to expand...
It does, but i'm far from an expert in this area, but that's what the first plumber told me.

The second plumber said it was aluminium

The supplier said it was Iron

It looks like Iron to me :wacko:
 
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