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Hi everyone. I've just joined this forum as I'm desperately in need of some help. My elderly parents (81 and 77) have a Baxi Solo 3 pf60 and it has been giving trouble. I'm not a plumber but a process operator for a chemical manufacturer and an experienced DIYer, so I'm obviously limited with how far I can go with any repairs.
I'll try to describe the system. It is a non-pressurised system with a cold water headtank which is only around 1 metre higher than the top of the boiler. They have a two section water cylinder, cold at the top, hot at the bottom that has a coil from the boiler in it, fed through a 3 way valve.
The circulation pump is a grundfos ups2.
There is a caleffi 502640 auto-vent installed at the boiler. The system seems to be plagued with air ingress and have had to change this auto-vent very regularly over a period of years. The system has always had corrosion inhibitor in it.
The boiler stopped working on Friday evening. Obviously the timing couldn't be worse (with the CV-19) and I asked both parents to stay well away from me while I tried to fix it and took safety and sanitizing precautions.
The pump was running and the "boiler on" light lit. After isolating, I removed the cover and unclamped the 4 hasps. The fan was very difficult to turn. I applied a tiny amount of WD40 on the bearings and the immediately freed off. The boiler still wouldn't run even after a power down and rest. I checked the fuse on the PCB but this was ok. Upon inspecting the PCB I noticed a soldered joint on a component looked bad (see attached photo). The "pad" was gone, so I soldered a wire to the next connection. Could it be that the tight fan bearings caused the PCB to melt the solder pad?
I refitted the necessary covers and tried it again and it worked ok for about 5 minutes, before it shutdown, appearing to be up to temperature. I powered everything down again (including the circ pump), then pipe-hammer, and air venting from the auto-vent started and took a while to clear. After this, I powered it up again and all seemed well. Later than evening my dad phoned to say it wasn't working again. He said the "boiler on" light wasn't lit, the pump was running, the programmer was asking the boiler to run, the fan wasn't running and the boiler not firing, radiators going cold. (I'm really not sure if he was correct that the "boiler on" light wasn't lit. There is a good chance he can't get himself in a good enough position to see it properly). He unplugged it for the night.
Next morning he plugged it back in and it fired perfectly for an hour or so but then went back to the same status as the previous evening (pump running but nothing else).
He then tried bleeding his radiators and "thinks" he may have got air from some of them but he couldn't be sure because he can't hear properly. He still couldn't get the boiler to fire , so he unplugged it again.
This morning he plugged it back in and it fired ok and the radiators have got hot. I'm pretty sure this situation won't last.
Could anyone offer me any sort of advice. I know the ideal would be to get a professional in but I really want them isolated as much as possible, they both have health problems, especially my dad, with heart issues.
Are there any other checks I could try? I know the fan will need to be refurbished/replaced but I'd like to persevere with this one until warmer weather and/or reduced CV-19 threat. Another relative has commented it could be a circ-pump issue causing the air/overheating problems.
The auto-vent is only 3 months old and seems to be working ok.
I'm beginning to think they need to consider a whole new boiler. Is the Baxi worth persevering with?
Could the lack of head pressure from the cold water tank be causing trouble? The angled 22mm pipe above it doesn't correctly comply with the lengths specified in the installation book. How critical are the dimensions given?
Any help at all would be massively appreciated. This cold snap we are now experiencing on top of the CV-19 has me really worried for them.
Thank you for reading
Craig
I'll try to describe the system. It is a non-pressurised system with a cold water headtank which is only around 1 metre higher than the top of the boiler. They have a two section water cylinder, cold at the top, hot at the bottom that has a coil from the boiler in it, fed through a 3 way valve.
The circulation pump is a grundfos ups2.
There is a caleffi 502640 auto-vent installed at the boiler. The system seems to be plagued with air ingress and have had to change this auto-vent very regularly over a period of years. The system has always had corrosion inhibitor in it.
The boiler stopped working on Friday evening. Obviously the timing couldn't be worse (with the CV-19) and I asked both parents to stay well away from me while I tried to fix it and took safety and sanitizing precautions.
The pump was running and the "boiler on" light lit. After isolating, I removed the cover and unclamped the 4 hasps. The fan was very difficult to turn. I applied a tiny amount of WD40 on the bearings and the immediately freed off. The boiler still wouldn't run even after a power down and rest. I checked the fuse on the PCB but this was ok. Upon inspecting the PCB I noticed a soldered joint on a component looked bad (see attached photo). The "pad" was gone, so I soldered a wire to the next connection. Could it be that the tight fan bearings caused the PCB to melt the solder pad?
I refitted the necessary covers and tried it again and it worked ok for about 5 minutes, before it shutdown, appearing to be up to temperature. I powered everything down again (including the circ pump), then pipe-hammer, and air venting from the auto-vent started and took a while to clear. After this, I powered it up again and all seemed well. Later than evening my dad phoned to say it wasn't working again. He said the "boiler on" light wasn't lit, the pump was running, the programmer was asking the boiler to run, the fan wasn't running and the boiler not firing, radiators going cold. (I'm really not sure if he was correct that the "boiler on" light wasn't lit. There is a good chance he can't get himself in a good enough position to see it properly). He unplugged it for the night.
Next morning he plugged it back in and it fired perfectly for an hour or so but then went back to the same status as the previous evening (pump running but nothing else).
He then tried bleeding his radiators and "thinks" he may have got air from some of them but he couldn't be sure because he can't hear properly. He still couldn't get the boiler to fire , so he unplugged it again.
This morning he plugged it back in and it fired ok and the radiators have got hot. I'm pretty sure this situation won't last.
Could anyone offer me any sort of advice. I know the ideal would be to get a professional in but I really want them isolated as much as possible, they both have health problems, especially my dad, with heart issues.
Are there any other checks I could try? I know the fan will need to be refurbished/replaced but I'd like to persevere with this one until warmer weather and/or reduced CV-19 threat. Another relative has commented it could be a circ-pump issue causing the air/overheating problems.
The auto-vent is only 3 months old and seems to be working ok.
I'm beginning to think they need to consider a whole new boiler. Is the Baxi worth persevering with?
Could the lack of head pressure from the cold water tank be causing trouble? The angled 22mm pipe above it doesn't correctly comply with the lengths specified in the installation book. How critical are the dimensions given?
Any help at all would be massively appreciated. This cold snap we are now experiencing on top of the CV-19 has me really worried for them.
Thank you for reading
Craig
