I have listed a few of the most typical boiler breakdown problems below to help you get the boiler backup and working.
You awaken one morning expecting to jump in the shower and then find you have no warm water, you go and check the boiler and notice a fault code is showing on the display, so what do you do?
You need to discover what the fault code is and why it has made the boiler breakdown.
All boilers are given a users manual, inside this manual will be listed all the fault codes and the explanation for the code to show.
The fault code reason is a guide on what to check for, sometimes it can be quite a combination of problems, but it's a starting place to try and trace the problem.
Sometimes it's a magic pill simply by pushing the reset button, other times it's rather a bit more involved.
Most boiler breakdown fault codes could possibly be avoided just by maintaining your boiler frequently.
All boiler manufactures recommend having a boiler service carried out each year to help keep the boiler working since it was designed for.
A boiler can be like a car engine, if left un-serviced it will eventually breakdown and may possibly be costly to correct.
Just about the most common boiler problems is low water pressure, this is caused by the water within the entire system dropping to a spot where the boiler sensor senses low water and throws up a fault code and locks the boiler out.
Low water pressure often means many things, it could be a leak somewhere on the machine, a radiator valve leaking or perhaps a leak on a pipe somewhere.
The most common answer to this problem is the expansion vessel. If your boiler has been dealing with no problems going back after some duration, then all of a sudden you see the water pressure has to be topped up every now and then, the chances are the expansion vessel needs checking.
The expansion vessel is like a balloon, as time passes it will loose its pressure and water will enter the vessel, once this happens you could have a boiler breakdown with a fault code displaying on the boiler screen.
The expansion vessel is really a very important part of the boiler and needs to be maintained every year.
Another common boiler breakdown is due to dirty water, this is caused when no inhibitor is added to the system water.
https://www.scsplumbingandheating.co.uk/ may have noticed if you have ever vented a radiator that the water is quite dirty as it pertains out of the vent, this normally indicates no inhibitor within the machine, even though inhibitor was added, overtime it'll dilute down and will need to be topped up, this should be checked each year.
The dirty water will eventually block up the boiler heat exchanger, this cause the boiler to overheat and head to lockout.
Maybe you have encounter a boiler breakdown when it's snowing outside even freezing?
Most boilers these days are condensing boilers, and when the boiler is working it produces condense.
The condense needs to exit right into a drain, internally is preferable, but sometimes the condense pipe goes to an outside drain, if this is the case the pipe must be protected from the cold with pipe lagging.
If the condense pipe freeze over, the condense will begin to back up in to the boiler and finally the boiler will breakdown, with a fault code displaying on the boiler display.
These are just a couple of the most frequent boiler breakdown faults that could be avoided if only you had the boiler serviced.
Boilers do breakdown even though serviced each year, but not up to a boiler not serviced.
Always have your boiler serviced each year by a Gas Safe Registered company, don't use Joe Bloggs from down the road just because he could be cheaper.
All Gas Safe Engineers need to re-sit their gas exams every five years to carry on working within the gas industry.
I hope this advice can help you keeping in mind your boiler working and producing all the heat and warm water you need.