Boiler woes and it's cold!

Bromhead

Bromhead

Bromhead

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Joined
11 Nov 2012
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1,408
Location
Staffordshire
To start with, I have a Vokera 'Unica HE' boiler and it's not igniting.

I'm no expert, there was normally a clunking/banging noise (usually 2-3 times) when it would first turn on. That doesn't happen anymore and the boiler itself locks itself out after failing to ignite the gas.

The same symptoms appear when I switch it to hot water only and then turn a hot water tap on, attempts to start, fails, locks out.

I have checked and there is a spark, but that's not igniting the gas for whatever reason. Which leads me to think is any gas getting in there. Already tested house gas supply, left hobs on for a good 10 minutes and supply is fine.

My description probably isn't great, but since the only difference is that there's no longer a 'clunking/banging' noise when it first starts up, would this just be the pump isn't pushing the water around since it didn't ignite and completely unrelated? (I'm assuming the noise was a pump). I'm going to make some calls tomorrow to see if I can get someone to come look, but any ideas? Or any quick tests for this particular model?
 
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I had to get someone out to fix my Vokera a couple of years ago (its 26yrs old!). My boiler wouldn't start (in winter as well so feel your pain about the cold!) called a British Gas guy out and he said it was a circuit board which had conked out. He got the part ordered up, came back and fixed it within 2hrs so i was charged £200 but he said the part itself cost £150 so not that bad really. But without seeing the actual boiler it could be any number of things really!
 
Hey just an update, the fault is (was) 10.

I tried to start it up again today, left 2 hot water taps running and turned on the heating/hot water. It nearly started up....(1 clunk).......failed. Tried again and it's started up now and working ok.

I'm wary about actually turning it off now, but at least I have warmth. Any ideas what this could indicate? It only started up by having water running beforehand from 2 taps.
 
I've known a couple of friends who's boilers have failed to kick in recently so I advised them to try this as the in-laws had the same problem and the engineer advised this as 1st check.

Check the pipe that lets the excess water/condensation escape as sometimes due to it going outside and there usually is only a little dribble at a time it can easily freeze in this weather and get blocked, best thing to use is a hair dryer on the pipe (not in the rain though!!) and within a couple of minutes the pipe has warmed sufficiently to melt the blockage and then the boiler should fire up.

Not saying it will definitely fix it but it's worth a guess in this cold snap.
 
I have a Vokera HE35 which was playing up a while ago. Had a few people out and the problem persisted, lock outs after firing at first and then it decided it didn't want to fire at all. In the end I called Vokera who told me the age etc of my boiler and arranged for a fella to come out and have a look. The fella turned up and replaced half of the boiler. I now pay something like £25 a month and the boiler has a manufacturer waranty.

Ring Vokera, they are very good and will probably tell you what it is over the phone. If its similar to mine which is an older style condenser, they normally don't fire because of blockages in one of the venturi's or tubes that measure the pressure difference between intake and exhaust on the fan.

I wouldn't recommend doing it without the proper gas safe credentials but the fella that came to fix mine tested this by removing the two clips holding the cover onto the combustion chamber and leaving a slight gap while the boiler was firing. Sure enough it fired up straight away which showed him exactly where to look, he cleaned the flu, put in redesigned venturi's and replaced all the pipe work, he also pumped up a pressure chamber in the boiler with a foot pump which i thought was quite weird. It's been 100% reliable ever since.
 
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