Any Glow-worm boiler experts out there? Geoff, maybe?
Roger Mills
on the blink!
It's a 10-year-old Glow-worm Ultimate 30FF, and has worked perfectly
until now. The symptoms are as follows:
* The first neon indicator is on, but none of the others are
* The fan runs for about a second, then there's a click from a relay in
the control box, and it goes off for a couple of seconds. Then the whole
thing repeats with an (approx) 3 second cycle time
I have an installation manual with a diagnostic chart, but the boiler is
high up in a cupboard with poor accessibility (no, I didn't install it!)
so it's difficult to do all the voltage checks it suggests. There is one
point in the chart where it asks whether the fan is 'hunting' and, if
yes, suggests changing the PCB. So that may be the solution - but is
there anything else obvious to look for?
TIA.
--
Cheers,
Roger
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Cicero
> I'm at my holiday property at the moment, and the boiler has just gone
> on the blink!
>
> It's a 10-year-old Glow-worm Ultimate 30FF, and has worked perfectly
> until now. The symptoms are as follows:
>
> * The first neon indicator is on, but none of the others are
> * The fan runs for about a second, then there's a click from a relay in
> the control box, and it goes off for a couple of seconds. Then the whole
> thing repeats with an (approx) 3 second cycle time
>
> I have an installation manual with a diagnostic chart, but the boiler is
> high up in a cupboard with poor accessibility (no, I didn't install it!)
> so it's difficult to do all the voltage checks it suggests. There is one
> point in the chart where it asks whether the fan is 'hunting' and, if
> yes, suggests changing the PCB. So that may be the solution - but is
> there anything else obvious to look for?
>
> TIA.
=====================================================================
You could start by cleaning out the tubes between fan and
pressure switch. Also check that the metal tubes /holes (to
which the tubes are attached) on the fan housing are clear
of dust and debris.
Cic.
--
======================================================================
Using Ubuntu Linux
Windows shown the door
======================================================================
Andrew Gabriel
Cicero <shel...@hellfire.co.uk> writes:
> Roger Mills wrote:
>> I'm at my holiday property at the moment, and the boiler has just gone
>> on the blink!
>>
>> It's a 10-year-old Glow-worm Ultimate 30FF, and has worked perfectly
>> until now. The symptoms are as follows:
>>
>> * The first neon indicator is on, but none of the others are
>> * The fan runs for about a second, then there's a click from a relay in
>> the control box, and it goes off for a couple of seconds. Then the whole
>> thing repeats with an (approx) 3 second cycle time
>>
>> I have an installation manual with a diagnostic chart, but the boiler is
>> high up in a cupboard with poor accessibility (no, I didn't install it!)
>> so it's difficult to do all the voltage checks it suggests. There is one
>> point in the chart where it asks whether the fan is 'hunting' and, if
>> yes, suggests changing the PCB. So that may be the solution - but is
>> there anything else obvious to look for?
>
> pressure switch. Also check that the metal tubes /holes (to
> which the tubes are attached) on the fan housing are clear
> of dust and debris.
My thoughts too. After starting the fan, it's going to be checking
for air pressure difference (assuming it has such a check),
although seeing a pressure difference after only 1 second sounds a
little optimistic. Is the fan fully run up by then?
--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]
geoff
<watt....@gmail.com> writes
>I'm at my holiday property at the moment, and the boiler has just gone
>on the blink!
>
>It's a 10-year-old Glow-worm Ultimate 30FF, and has worked perfectly
>until now. The symptoms are as follows:
>
>* The first neon indicator is on, but none of the others are
>* The fan runs for about a second, then there's a click from a relay in
>the control box, and it goes off for a couple of seconds. Then the
>whole thing repeats with an (approx) 3 second cycle time
>
>I have an installation manual with a diagnostic chart, but the boiler
>is high up in a cupboard with poor accessibility (no, I didn't install
>it!) so it's difficult to do all the voltage checks it suggests. There
>is one point in the chart where it asks whether the fan is 'hunting'
>and, if yes, suggests changing the PCB. So that may be the solution -
>but is there anything else obvious to look for?
>
not, the timescales are borderline between pcb and APS
Forget about cleaning out the tubes, the pcb (202142 or 202200) will
continue to supply the fan ad nauseum until the APS transfers. If the
APS microswitch transfers but the contact resistance is high, the fan
will not have power.
The easiest way to test the APS if you only have a bucket and spade but
no multimeter, which I wouldn't recommend you to do of course, would be
to remove one of the tubes to the APS at the other end and suck or blow
to see if that brings on the spark. Like I said you shouldn't do this
and really shouldn't do it for longer than necessary to check the APS
out
If the APS is OK, then the next thing to suspect has to be the pcb
(assuming that you've checked for broken wires in the loom etc)
--
geoff
Roger Mills
> I'm at my holiday property at the moment, and the boiler has just gone
> on the blink!
>
> It's a 10-year-old Glow-worm Ultimate 30FF, and has worked perfectly
> until now. The symptoms are as follows:
>
> * The first neon indicator is on, but none of the others are
> * The fan runs for about a second, then there's a click from a relay in
> the control box, and it goes off for a couple of seconds. Then the whole
> thing repeats with an (approx) 3 second cycle time
>
> I have an installation manual with a diagnostic chart, but the boiler is
> high up in a cupboard with poor accessibility (no, I didn't install it!)
> so it's difficult to do all the voltage checks it suggests. There is one
> point in the chart where it asks whether the fan is 'hunting' and, if
> yes, suggests changing the PCB. So that may be the solution - but is
> there anything else obvious to look for?
>
> TIA.
Thanks to all who replied. The diagnostics seemed to be indicating the
PCB, although I wasn't totally convinced. Anyway, since I was leaving
the next day, I couldn't frig about for too long so I got the bloke who
used to service it for the previous owner of the property to have a
look. He was convinced it was the PCB, and came back the next morning
with a new one which he fitted and it seems[1] to be working. The cost
was quite a lot more than Geoff's recon units - plus labour - but I've
kept the old one in case I need a recon one in future.
[1] The boiler is certainly firing and heating the HW and radiators but
I wasn't there long enough to check that things like pump over-run are
working correctly. I notice from Geoff's site that there appear to be
two different PCBs for this boiler depending on whether or not pump
over-run is required. The layout of the new board was not quite the same
as the old one in terms of things like fuses being side by side rather
that at right angles, and the same thing with connectors - so I *hope*
it's the right board!
geoff
<watt....@gmail.com> writes
IF it has two fuses (and 7 flying leads) it is the version with pump
overrun
There was, for a time, a blue board with two fuses side by side and
LEDs, but I haven't seen that version for a long time
--
geoff