After coming back from holiday, I've found that my boiler won't fire up. There's electricity supply (the pilot sparks fine), and gas supply (my hob works) - so any ideas?

Cold shower this morning

what make of boiler is it - recently a mates had packed up - it turns out there had been an overtemperature shutdown at some point ( we had had the boiler drained ,there must have been an airlock when we fired it up )- the thing locks itself out. To reset it you had to go into the casing and hit the actual switch that trips the boiler, in this case it was mounted on the heat exchanger.

I could only assume that the electronics of the boiler were looking for for a signal from this same switch to reset the lockout, as there was not as such a "reset" switch. Also dont assume the boiler will fire with the casing off - in fact do not attemt to fire the boiler with the casing off, bad news I think :eek:

Have a look in the manual, and if in doubt get an engineer in.

Most likley to be a knackerd thermo couple which is fortunatley cheap to fix but MUST be done by a qualified gas fitter if you fiddle with your boiler and there is any kind of accident your home insurance will most likley be void.

possibly a thermo or could be a blocked pilot injector.
sometimes tiny particles of dust form and block the pilot injector.

get a corgi installer to change the thermocouple(if it has one) and change the pilot injector.also make sure that the gas supply to the pilot is not blocked (this can be done while he's changing injector)

If that fails then its probably your gas valve,or the circuit board if your boiler has one.

edited to add,that if he changes the thermo and the injector and all is well expect to pay around £40:)


SN

[Edited by scooby nutter - 8/27/2003 1:11:35 PM]

If its a Boiler that ONLY lights a pilot when it needs to fire up the main burners, then;

I would put my money on the Air Pressure Switch!!

I will say what I do to get over this problem, Cover the outlet pipe to build up the pressure against the fan pumped air - THEN, after about 5 seconds release the cover quickly ..... the pressure change usually switches a sticky switch ............... when working it will be ok until its turned off for a break again .... then repeat the above.

Good Luck!!

Pete

Cheers all, ScoobyNet rocks :D

[Edited by jlanng - 8/28/2003 8:04:49 AM]

OK, I've got a guy coming out on Saturday morning to look at it. Here's hoping I don't get too badly stung

deffo your thermo couple.
sinch to replace
about a fiver
:D

How do you replace it then? Might give it a shot myself

The thermocouple is part of the gas valve and acts as a fail safe, and as such should not be tampered with by none CORGI reg. persons.

Regards
Mog

CORGI man it is then

It's not the thermocouple. Either the diaphragm or the main controller apparently???

I stand corrected, it's the pressure switch AND the gas valve

Someone is taking the pee out of you, the chances of 2 components failing at the same time and not being physically connected within the boiler are pretty slim.

Mog

Well he said that the pressure valve was faulty because it stopped working for a while then started again. I'm not sure he's an expert on these things to be honest, seems to be a bit of a sideline for him. Still, I got his number from the CORGI website - what more can I do?

How odd. I just got a call from him saying he wasn't experienced enough with that particular boiler to diagnose the problem and short of replacing parts one-by-one, he recommended getting someone else in!!!