My Vokera boiler is dodgy again.

ScouseMouse

My Vokera 14se boiler is back on the blink again. The last time it was the heat exchanger but now it seems it does not want to light. When I switch it on you can hear the fans start to run, but after a few seconds the red reset button illuminates. The pressure on the gauge is showing over one bar. When I look in the little inspection window there is no flame.


Anyone know if I can do anything with it myself. I am having trouble finding the number of the Vokera guy who did it the last time.

Thanks in advance.

Jeff

Chiron

I have a 16e and am currently having what sounds like the same problem at the moment. I had a guy out to look at it yesterday and he said it needed a new "thermister" (sp). Obviously he didnt have one with him so is coming back tomorrow week to fit one. I dont normally visit this forum so feel free to pm me if you want any more info or want to know if it was in fact a thermister problem.

10-10-20

superscouse, is there an error code appearing? Like a 08 or such?

ScouseMouse

I does not have a digital display so unless I am missing something, it couldnt display it anyway.

I found the number for the vokera engineer who is looking at it this afternoon. Hopefully it wont be to pricey.

etcetc

same boiler same problem

its the ignition card(made in china), its a common fault on this boiler as i have found to my cost

ring vokera direct and explain problem they should send you one free or at minimal cost

i have 3 of these now and i just swap them out if and when it acts up again

first guy that came just left it on draining board for a few minutes and put it back in and hey presto it worked said something about static charge

try that

turn boiler off and remove fuse its easy to locate and if you can swap a graphics card in a pc this is no different

amylou

Jeff- just wondering if you ever sorted the problem with your boiler. I have the exact same problem- I seem to spend all my time resetting the red ignition button? Ive rang the gas man three times and still no reply.
Any ideas.

luisgc

Hello,
I had the same problem with a Vokera 12e.

Problem: Vokera's Thermister came faulty from factory. I know for sure that this is happening for 12e models. Since the symptoms are the same for other models I assume the same might be happening to them.

Solution: Replace thermister, about 25 euros (£19) or even less.

No issues since.

I spent much more money with replacing the heat exchanger, the PCB, flushing the system out, calls out from plumbers, ... No success. In the end, the thermister replacement did the trick. Original (faulty) thermister is red (or blue, I can't remember now) and new one is blue (or viceversa). Call Vokera and explain the situation, they should know straight away and confirm the above. This part is responsible for switching off the ignition system should the system reaches a too high temperature. The faulty one does it whenever it "pleases it".

Hope that helps,
Luis

garyh3

yep moved into our new house in 05 and the Vokera 28e went on the blink. They changed the ICB and then the MCB and then the Thermistor and has been fine .

amylou

Thanks for the advice guys - I suppose Ive to get the gasman out to do the replacing! rang him four times( over two weeks - im not stalking him!) already and he keeps saying hell call me back- still nothing. at this stage id happily do it myself.

beolight

anybody else with this problem just ring vokera direct

waste of money getting anybody out of the telephone book

they will look at it scratch their head fiddle about a bit and walk away with 200 notes an hour later and a promise to call back with new part

you would think at this stage that vokera would just replace the ignition board in every house in the estate when they get a call like this

Micky Dolenz

Please be adviced:

The new Gas Works Regulations were enacted on Friday 26 June in conformance with the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) Criteria Document of July 2008. Click here to see S.I.No.225 of 2009 Electricity Regulation Act 1999 (Gas Works) Regulations 2009 and CER related documents.
It is now an offence for a person to carry out domestic gas works such as installation, commissioning and/or service works unless he/she is registered with RGII.


Taken form www.rgii.ie

beolight

anybody know how to top up the pressure on the 14e? mine is at 0.5 should be be 1 to 1.5

http://vokera.excaliburstudio.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/mynute_10e_14e_20e_users_instructions.pdf


the user manual says

"The needle on the gauge should be reading between
1 and 1.5 BAR when the boiler is in an off
position and has cooled to room temperature. If
the pressure requires ‘topping-up’ use the following
instructions as a guide.
l Locate the filling valve connections (external to
the boiler).
l Attach the filling loop to both connections.
l Open the filling valve slowly until you hear water
entering the system.
l Close the filling valve when the pressure gauge
(on the boiler) reads between 1 and 1.5 BAR.
l Remove the filling loop from the connections."

i cant find this filling valve any ideas?

joconnell

I'm getting the same thing now and it seems like the builder that installed my boiler didn't actually fit any filling loop valves to either of the two relevant pipes so I actually can't do the procedure shown on page 6 / figure 2 of the linked manual.

My boiler pressure is down just above 0 now and won't fire - anyone any thoughts?

Micky Dolenz

joconnell wrote: »

I'm getting the same thing now and it seems like the builder that installed my boiler didn't actually fit any filling loop valves to either of the two relevant pipes so I actually can't do the procedure shown on page 6 / figure 2 of the linked manual.

My boiler pressure is down just above 0 now and won't fire - anyone any thoughts?

There has to be a filling point somewhere. Check in the presses under boiler and in the hot press.

joconnell

There's about three / four wheels on the pipes in the hotpress so it's got to be one of them. There's nothing on the underneath of the boiler along the lines of what's being talked about here. I tried turning some of the wheels to see if I heard any water moving but no dice - might be the wrong ones or I mightn't have left them open long enough - how long would the process typically take? As in would I be risking anything by running up and downstairs myself? Would there be a risk of overfilling it over the course of a few seconds?

Much appreciated!

joconnell

I just rang Vokera based on everyone else having good feedback of their service and they quoted that it was a 251 euro + vat call out flat fee, and if the problem ended up being plumbing or installation they wouldn't fix it (which is a bit odd) so it seems a bit risky / pointless to call them. The girl on the phone seemed to think that you'd see some fluid leaking from the boiler if it was an internal problem causing the pressure loss and so it must be an external problem which of course they won't fix now.

Again I'll take some photos this evening but that bit of info might be relevant to folks having this issue in future if they were thinking of ringing the boiler guys directly.

If you had a water leak on the boiler it would be very evident, the only place it could leak and you not see it, is if the discharge valve is passing water and the valve is piped to outside where you may not see it, you can check on the wall below where the flue terminates to see if you have a discharge pipe, then put a bit of tissue in it or place a bottle under it(carefull if you tape it, you want water to pass if ever the valve opens for safety reasons).
Vokera are only good to you if you found you had problems after you improved the pressure.

You may have a tank fed system, so you could be looking for a filling loop thats not there, pics are the best way forward.

joconnell

I'll definitely take some when I get home this evening. Someone on a thread about a vokera 15e said this:

Hi ya,
If the system is being fed from a tank rather than the rising main does the bar pressure matter on the front of the boiler? Mine is reading only about .2 (book says minimum .5) Ta

An architect friend of mine was looking at the heating and said my pressure was quite low (it's around 0.1 at the minute) and to ask the boiler service guy when he was out. I think he mentioned something about it being okay for the type of system it was so tank fed definitely makes sense.

joconnell

joconnell wrote: »

I'll definitely take some when I get home this evening. Someone on a thread about a vokera 15e said this:



An architect friend of mine was looking at the heating and said my pressure was quite low (it's around 0.1 at the minute) and to ask the boiler service guy when he was out. I think he mentioned something about it being okay for the type of system it was so tank fed definitely makes sense.

Semi sealed system water level is maintained by the tank, the reading on the boiler when cold can show up as 0, when the boiler fires up and generates heat the Check/non return valve closes the system allowing for the pressure to increase which will show up on your gauge, problem with this design is that the low water pressure switch safety device tends to be cut out also boiler manufactures don't recognize it, if you have this system it's less likely to be pressure issue as the switch is cut out, get someone to repair and explain how everything works and where to find things.

joconnell

Right so!

Here's the piping in my upstairs hot press:





Which flow down as so:



I'm assuming they come down into the boiler as so:



And get piped in as so:







There's no air in the rads as far as I can tell (do they need to be heating before you can bleed them?) as I've bled them fairly regularly over christmas so would it be a simple case of turning one of the wheels in the hot press above? Otherwise I got the boiler serviced in december and I'd probably get the same guy out to take a look at it again. €250 + vat seems a bit high from vokera, especially if it's a plumbing problem which they won't actually fix then!

kopkidda

Them red wheels as you call them wont affect your boiler at all, they just stop the flow of hot water around the system. You need to have something with a pressure gauge on it.

joconnell

Right so. Plumber it is then!

Brookfield18

I've got a Vokera Mynute 24m gas boiler installed in my house heating a total of 8 rads in a normal size 3 bed house... there are 5 rads upstairs heating the bathroom, en-suite and three bedrooms upstairs. The remaining 3 rads are downstairs heating the kitchen sitting room and hallway. while the heating system heats the rads upstairs, downstairs seems to be a problem. I've tried bleeding the system and there is pressure in the system @ 1.5 bar...i've removed a downstairs rad and rinsed it out and refitted. still the rads downstairs barely heat up. On the boiler, the pump has 3 settings of which I've set it at number 3. the pump appears to be working.... Can some one advise me on any settings that can be adjusted..
Is there a need to adjust the water pressure switch on the pump??
The thermostat seems to be ok..
This boiler is less than 3 years old and i was told it is rated for 80,000 Btu..
Regards,
Brookfield18.