Vaillant VR 350f hell!

[Deleted member 124900]

Hello all!

We recently had a Vaillant ecoTEC plus 832 installed, along with a Vaillant VRT 350f controller! I use Auto mode, and set the programme to come on every day at 6am and switch off at 11pm, and I turned the set back temp down to 5°C (can't we just have an OFF?). The controller sits in the hallway about 15m from the boiler, with a couple of corners and a wall between.

The problem is, it seems to come on at random, last night it came on at 12.15AM, and i went out and checked the controller, it was at 20°C but it was still on day time mode, it seems to not always switch to night mode. if you touch the dial it then suddenly switches, like it fell asleep and you had to remind it that it should have transmitted a message to the boiler to turn off. It does this frequently, sometimes it won't switch on in the morning, sometimes it won't switch off in the evening, sometimes it will randomly turn on, or off, when i don't want it to. But every time I look at the controller when it's misbehaving, it seems to still be in the previous mode, ie it will be 10am yet still showing night mode, or 11.15pm and still showing day mode. There doesn't seem to be any consistency or accuracy with it.

My bedroom / home office is by far the coldest room in the flat and the place where the thermostat is needed, but if I put it in there, the damned thing doesn't even work at all. I don't really care too much about having thermostatic control I just want the heating to come on at 6am and turn off at 11pm with the option to over-ride that until the next event.

Why is this so hard? I don't recall having these issues with the old Honeywell controller. But the kind installer guy removed that!

Can anyone give me some advice here? It's driving me crazy.

Thanks
Mike

 

[Lou]

Have you tried changing the batteries in the controller? When we have had issues we have done that and it worked!

 

[Deleted member 124900]

Well I hadn't actually tried this yet, no.. I thought the batteries the installer put in there would be new, but maybe that was a silly assumption. I've just replaced them with 4x new Duracell Plus. I shall report back!

 

[steadyon]

I have lived (existed?) with a VRT for nearly 10 years now. Its a largely unintelligible system both difficult to program and difficult to operate. One of the most irritating features is that the clock for the controller is actually in the boiler. Any power cut (and despite being in suburban London we tend to get 3 or 4 each year), and the time is lost and has to be re-entered through the controller. Presumably Germany has no power cuts.

When you pick up the controller, like yours, it nearly always shows the state of things before the last change. However, I've realised over the years that although it may initially show the last state, it is actually operating as it should. It doesn't need a "push" to do what it should already be doing. Worth checking what is actually happening at the boiler at a change of state.

And the controller goes through a set of batteries about once a year.

 

[Deleted member 124900]

"When you pick up the controller, like yours, it nearly always shows the state of things before the last change. However, I've realised over the years that although it may initially show the last state, it is actually operating as it should. It doesn't need a "push" to do what it should already be doing. Worth checking what is actually happening at the boiler at a change of state."

Yes, you are correct, and I have realised this now, after picking it up this morning and the heating was on yet the screen was still showing the moon icon. It will always momentarily show the last state, but it's possible that it just hasn't had the message back from the boiler to say 'I've changed mode, now show that on the display!'.

"Its a largely unintelligible system both difficult to program and difficult to operate."

Yep. There's so many annoyances with the damned thing. Even the room temperature seems way out; I've got the controller next to a thermometer I know to be very accurate, which shows 19.2°C - the controller says 22.5°C!

Seems to be doing okay at the moment with the new batteries. Here's hoping it continues that way!

 

[EvilDrPorkChop]

Is the receiver plugged in the front of the boiler?

If so that's your issue. Either have the receiver wired externally or leave the flap down on the front of the boiler.

 

[Deleted member 124900]

Hiya, yes it is. Why is that a problem? Is it the metal door interfering with the signal?

 

[EvilDrPorkChop]

Hiya, yes it is. Why is that a problem? Is it the metal door interfering with the signal?

Yes it does. Very well known problem. The boiler is coming on because it's lost signal with the controller.

 

[moonlight]

We have been taking them off the front of the boiler and mounting on the wall. They quite often have a signal issue under the metal cover. Have it fitted external and I am sure your problem will go away as long as battery's are ok. They come with the unit so we don't know how old they are.

 

[Deleted member 124900]

Hi all, thanks for your help on this. Leaving the door open seems to have solved a lot of the issues we were having!

However, the remote control unit is now showing the message 'Service heat generator'.

Does this indicate a fault or is it just a reminder?

 

[steadyon]

1. One of the parameters in the BOILER is "Number of hours until the next maintenance". I would guess that if this is at or below zero, it thinks it needs a service. I have an EcoTec Plus 428 and this is parameter d.84.
2. This parameter can be set to "-" (hyphen) which disables the maintenance indicator.
3. Have a look at your installation manual and see if you have the same. You should be able to reset it to "-" (no quotes) and turn the indication off on the VRT. D.84 is in the password protected part of the parameters. On mine you have to go to d.97, enter the password (which is the two digit number 17), then go to d.84. The password should be in the instructions.

 

[Deleted member 124900]

cheers mate! i'll go and have a look right now. it was only installed about six months so hopefully doesn't need one..!

 

[Deleted member 124900]

okay so that setting is already set to "---" i notice there is another maintenance reminder in the service information settings on the remote unit, and when i checked that it was on 00/00/0000 - i switched the date to another date in the future and the message disappeared, then set it to today and the message displays again, so it must be that. i'm guessing this is isn't really significant?

 

[Deleted member 124900]

still getting the 'service heat generator' alert on the remote, and have checked all the above. is it telling me that something is wrong?

 

[ShaunCorbs]

It’s over 12 months since it was serviced / if less the service period wasn’t reset

 

[Deleted member 124900]

it's a brand new boiler, installed six months ago!

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Contact the installer needs to be reset

 

[EvilDrPorkChop]

No it means there’s a fault. Check the fault history.

 

[Deleted member 124900]

No it means there’s a fault. Check the fault history.

nothing in the fault list! the screen on the boiler is flashing the pressure though, it's at 0.7 bar. maybe this is the problem?!

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Try increasing it to 1.5 bar

 

[Deleted member 124900]

yep, it was the pressure. feel a bit silly. i should have thought of that first. i assumed the display on the remote was just mirroring the boiler's own display. and there's no reason why it can't beam a message to the remote to say "pressure too low" rather than "service heat generator". my experience of vaillant boilers isn't great. not intuitive at all. germans can do better than this.

 

[EvilDrPorkChop]

To be fair the VR350F you have is knocking on a 10 year old model now. Vaillant actually replaced this with the new SensoHome & SensoComfort Controllers about a year ago, so whoever has fitted your boiler has fitted the older controller (Best part is the Sensohome was the same price as the VR350 at my supplier!)

The new one's are much much better, don't suffer with the signal loss, and the controls are much more intuitive as you say. Unfortunate you've ended up with the old controller.

See the on Vaillant's website - sensoHOME / sensoHOME RF room thermostat - Vaillant - https://www.vaillant.co.uk/for-installers/products/sensohome-sensohome-rf-room-thermostat-72128.html