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Discuss Firebird Oil Enviromax C35KW Banging and Gurgling after water drawn off in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

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The boiler was new 2014, we moved into it in 2015 with no paperwork for anything and we started hearing gurgling/ knocking noises after hot water was drawn off for up to 45 minutes afterwards. We have had the following work carried out:-
  • New heat store thermostat
  • New circuit board
  • New hot water pump
  • Power flushed the heat store
  • Modified auto air vent supplied from Firebird as a possible solution
  • Smaller oil nozzle down to 0.75 from 0.85
  • The above has cost us £650
  • Mag filter fitted to inlet as a measure to clean system
Still no improvement whatsoever and Firebird have washed their hands of us as the boiler is out of warranty, although only 4 years old the only solution we can think of is total replacement for a more reputable brand.
Any suggestions or similar stories gratefully received, I've contacted the WHICH.co.uk legal team and we are discussing possible options.
 
I would advise you replace it with a non combi oil boiler (system or standard boiler) and an unvented hot cylinder, if possible. Grant Vortex my preference.
Pity you have already spent £650
 
Need to get hold of somebody who knows what they are doing. Nothing much wrong with a Firebird, but somebody's had your eyes out.
 
The boiler was new 2014, we moved into it in 2015 with no paperwork for anything and we started hearing gurgling/ knocking noises after hot water was drawn off for up to 45 minutes afterwards. We have had the following work carried out:-
  • New heat store thermostat
  • New circuit board
  • New hot water pump
  • Power flushed the heat store
  • Modified auto air vent supplied from Firebird as a possible solution
  • Smaller oil nozzle down to 0.75 from 0.85
  • The above has cost us £650
  • Mag filter fitted to inlet as a measure to clean system
Still no improvement whatsoever and Firebird have washed their hands of us as the boiler is out of warranty, although only 4 years old the only solution we can think of is total replacement for a more reputable brand.
Any suggestions or similar stories gratefully received, I've contacted the WHICH.co.uk legal team and we are discussing possible options.
Hi Dave,

Did you ever get to the bottom of your problem. We have the same boiler which was installed from new in 2014. It has been a nightmare and no one seems to be able to fix it properly (we've used 3 different companies/engineers so far and are running out of people to go to in our area). Our latest issue is trying to repair the same issue you were having which I've been told is the hot water pump running on and not shutting off when it should. Our engineer is about to replace the PCB board, hot water tank thermistor and the flow thermistor which I hope will do the trick. We've been in touch with Firebird but as the boiler is 6 years old they are not interested. I'm trying to avoid replacing the boiler at the moment as both myself and my wife are working reduced hours.

Thanks

Joanthan
 
@SimonG have you come across this? Initially I was thinking air, perhaps even water hammer but for upto 45 minutes and only after HW draw off then perhaps not.
Have you experienced this for any other reason?
 
@SimonG have you come across this? Initially I was thinking air, perhaps even water hammer but for upto 45 minutes and only after HW draw off then perhaps not.
Have you experienced this for any other reason?

I think it's the non return valve, the little plastic one in the pump valve.
[automerge]1603999874[/automerge]
Had a warmflow do the same.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for your comments! The firebird has separate hw and ch pumps and it does seem to be the hw pump not switching off which is creating the churning noise as the water continues to circulate within the boiler. The only way to stop it normally is to briefly turn a hot tap on and off again, The pump then stops after a minute or so. Do you think it could be faulty pcb or flow thermistor or is it more likely to be something else entirely.

The boiler has recently had to have a new pressure release valve, auto air vent, low pressure switch, pressure gauge (as it read 0.5 bar even when empty or disconnected from the boiler) and a new hot water plate heat exchanger as it had a pin hole in it and was pressurising the boiler all the time. Basically it’s been a nightmare.
Thanks for your advice again. I wish we had a decent engineer round here, everyone where we live struggles!
 
The boiler and HW water pump will energise when either the flow sensor or heat store thermistor calls for it, governed by a relay on the pcb. When hot water draw off has finished the pump and boiler will continue to run to restore any heat needed in the store, this is normal operation and can take a couple minutes. Are you sure there's no air trapped in the system, combis can be a right b@#$h to remove air.
 
I think some of these combi oil boilers, on burner off, run the HW circ pump to scavenge the water from the PHE until its temperature is the same as the heat bank SP temp or something like that so maybe some problem with the PHE sensor (if fitted) as the pump stops when the hot tap is opened/shut, still doesn't account for the gurgling though.
 
Need to get hold of somebody who knows what they are doing. Nothing much wrong with a Firebird, but somebody's had your eyes out.
Firebird are overrated crap. Took out a bank loan to have central heating installed, just over 3 years ago. From day one it never worked. Had to have engineers out several times, changing bits to make it work. Now it's packed in with the same symptoms as the OP. I won't be paying that much money to try to repair this load of scrap. It's coming out and I shall be buying something which works.
 
Hi Dave,

Did you ever get to the bottom of your problem. We have the same boiler which was installed from new in 2014. It has been a nightmare and no one seems to be able to fix it properly (we've used 3 different companies/engineers so far and are running out of people to go to in our area). Our latest issue is trying to repair the same issue you were having which I've been told is the hot water pump running on and not shutting off when it should. Our engineer is about to replace the PCB board, hot water tank thermistor and the flow thermistor which I hope will do the trick. We've been in touch with Firebird but as the boiler is 6 years old they are not interested. I'm trying to avoid replacing the boiler at the moment as both myself and my wife are working reduced hours.

Thanks

Joanthan
Welcome to the wild, wacky and expensive world of Firebird. A boiler invented to ensure good profits for heating engineers all over the land.
If you can scrape up the money for a replacement, do it. Otherwise you'll spend nearly the cost of a replacement in call out charges and parts and be without heat or hot water for weeks as they replace this bit, then that bit in an attempt to get the heap of scrap to function.
 
Hi Dave,

Did you ever get to the bottom of your problem. We have the same boiler which was installed from new in 2014. It has been a nightmare and no one seems to be able to fix it properly (we've used 3 different companies/engineers so far and are running out of people to go to in our area). Our latest issue is trying to repair the same issue you were having which I've been told is the hot water pump running on and not shutting off when it should. Our engineer is about to replace the PCB board, hot water tank thermistor and the flow thermistor which I hope will do the trick. We've been in touch with Firebird but as the boiler is 6 years old they are not interested. I'm trying to avoid replacing the boiler at the moment as both myself and my wife are working reduced hours.

Thanks

Joanthan
Apologies for the delay, Ive not been on the forum for a long time. Never got to the bottom of the problem and to make matters worse I get boiler lockout almost every morning these days, but never in the evening after the boiler has been off all day! Ive had a quote for a new Grant boiler with a 7 year guarantee backed by the company that fit it so will be going ahead with that once the weather picks up a little. By the way-Firebird sent me a free PCB to try and this didnt do the trick either, they also sent me an auto vent for the hot water supply tank but still no change
 
Sad in some ways as Firebird built outstanding SE boilers, I have a 15 year old Heatpac 90s with a Riello G5X burner that has never once tripped on flame failure. There are very few Combis around here and the Grant is the preferred choice for heat only but I think the Firebird isn't too far behind now, if my own one ever dies, will be a tough decision as I have brand loyalty.
 
We are now replacing a few firebird combis mostly leaking main heat exchanger.
Thing I dislike most about firebird is total lack of backup when out of warranty.
Sharp contrast to Grant technical who could not be more helpful even if boiler is 10 or more years old.
 
As with any oil boiler the quality of the installation can assist the longevity of the boiler.
 

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