Ideal ICOS HE12 DESPERATE FOR HELP

[Datsun770]

Hi All

I tried posting this already and lost post so here goes again. I'll start from the beginning so please bare with me.

Few Months ago I was getting intermittent heating with occasional flame error code on my ICOS HE12. British gas engineer came out when the system was working and checked everything over finding nothing wrong, I explained the error code and he said it was a power issue according to the code (forget the code now) possibly underpower issue. There was also a small leak which was repaired and confirmed causing no issue with electrics.

So he said to keep an eye on it and recommended i replace the boiler as it was going to start causing me more stress (11 years old)

I woke up on new years eve to no heating or hot water. No power to the boiler at all, it just would not switch on. I got an emergency engineer out who diagnosed a faulty PCB, trouble being this would have to wait till the merchants opened again before it could be ordered.

Between then and now the boiler has been randomly sparking into life and sounding as though it was working for an hour or so every so often. When this would happen I would get some luke warm hot water form taps and up stairs rads would be slightly warm to the touch but nothin on the down stairs rads. Eventually the bouler would cut out again and not power on.

So a long week has passed wit my 3 year old developing chicken pox and having to love in an ice cold house, and today the engineer returned to replace the PCB. He did this then reported no power getting from switch to boiler. He said this was now a job for a spark and left.

10 minutes later the boiler sparked up (as it had been) no error codes but no heating just temporary luke warm hot water.

I got a spark out within an hour who said that it wasn't a spark issue as power was clearly getting to the boiler. I explained it wont last but as it was "fine" when he was here there was no fault to diagnose other than no heating which is an issue for a heating engineer. I phoned the eating engineer who cannot come back till monday and he as suggested he is stumped but "MIGHT BE THE ZONE VALVE".

He has been gone an hour and the boiler is now dead again. Neither engineer seems to want to properly help me here.

I am not in a position to replace the boiler as I don't have a few grand sitting around having just wasted £190 on a PCB and 3 engineer visits with no joy.

Any advise that I can take to an engineer greatly appreciated. My wife and son are freezing and I need to sort this out today.

Thanks

Scott

 

[SimonG]

You'll get no advice on repairs to gas appliances, forum rules.

Do you pay BG for a repair plan or just plumped on BG to fix it? And why pay £190 when its not fixed?

What you need is a local reputable gas safe engineer who is more interested in fixing the boiler than replacing it. Ask neighbours, friends, family, colleagues for a recommendation.

Hope you get sorted

 

[Deleted member 120897]

So is the boiler completely losing power? I would check the plug in connector as this doesn’t involve opening the boiler up. trace it from the fused spur connection.

 

[Datsun770]

I phoned a local engineer and he has had to jam open the zone valve but got heating working thankfully. The engineer who diagnosed the fault as PCB red this back to my Insurer and said it was faulty. My local engineer disagrees but the insurance company maintain it must be faulty if engineer says it was.

I paid the 190 as my plan only covers up to a certain amount for parts and 3 hours labour so I had to pay the balance to get them to book the part and repair.

It would certainly appear the valve was faulty and not the PCB. IF ONLY THE ENGINEER CHECKED THIS A WEEK AGO.

Thanks for your help folks. I was desperate. I might just order a new boiler and rest easy I'm covered with a warranty.

Thanks

Scott

 

[John.g]

Not much use to you now but if faulty zone valve (quite common fault) then the other zone valve(s) would/should have fired the boiler, a bit surprising this wasn't checked out first.

 

[Datsun770]

Not much use to you now but if faulty zone valve (quite common fault) then the other zone valve(s) would/should have fired the boiler, a bit surprising this wasn't checked out first.

Heating is off again but at keast the house is warm for a while this evening.

Left with no heating again. Hopefully replacing said valve as opposed to forcing it open resolves the issue.

Gutted had hoped the bodge would have seen me through the weekend till my son was fully recovered.

 

[Deleted member 120897]

Does the boiler have power?

 

[Datsun770]

Yes electrician confirmed power OK but boiler not powering up agajn

 

[Deleted member 120897]

Yes electrician confirmed power OK but boiler not powering up agajn

What I mean, is the boiler light on? If it is, then I’d say it’s the zone valve, and there might be a workaround if your confident.

 

[John.g]

How many zone valves have you got? and if you can, have a look at the make because (if) Honeywell will not close the microswitch to fire the boiler if opened manually. Can you programme one of the other zone valves open to see if boiler fires up.

 

[Datsun770]

When the fault is evident there is no light on the boiler at all just at the fuse and the hive power box. Definite 240v going to and from the hive box back to boiler.

The hot water zone vve is honeywell and the heating is Siemens. The Siemens does not have a manual override where as the Siemens has. I have the Siemens a slight tap and the heating came back on But is ticking slightly. I'm quite confident this is the issue.

Thanks folks

 

[Datsun770]

Sorry my bad. - Edit *honeywell has

 

[John.g]

It would help whoever is repairing it if you can establish which one is causing the problem, if in fact it is.
Get the HW zone (honeywell) valve energized by programming the HW to ON, you may have to turn the cylinder stat up to send power to the valve, confirm that valve has opened and that the boiler has fired, then return the stat to its original setting and deprogramme the HW request.
Do the same with the CH (siemens) valve with CH requested from programmer, turn the room stat up and check as above.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

does the honeywell zone valve have a dimple in the lid / front ?

 

[Datsun770]

Heating repaired. Was the central heating zone valve. Problem appears to be resolved. Lets hope it remains this way for while at least.

Interesting that my neighbour 2 doors down also suffered the exact same issue a day after me and had to replace same part. Same boiler. Same house basically. (10 year old house)

Whats even stranger is we both had shower pressure issues at the same time last year and was a build up of grit in the pipes. Only for his boiler to fail 24 hours after mine.

Thanks all