Boilermate 2000 heating problem/hot water works fine.

Hi,

Sorry if this seems long winded but want to give as much detail as possible.
I have a problem with the CH side of my Boilermate 2000 system, the DHW is working fine.

I have the system working constant not timed.
LED 1HT and 2ST are on and green LED 1,2 and 3 are also on.
The Store_T1 reading sits at 75 degrees and T1_ON 74, T1_OFF 77.
The PHE_T2 reading is 54 degrees.
Boiler pump and Heating pump feel like they are running.
At this point there is no heat in the radiators.

If I switch the system off at the isolator for 5-10mins then switch back on.
LED 1HT and 2ST are on and green LED 3 is on, green LED 1 and 2 are off.
At this point radiators heat up.

After 5-10mins green LED 1 and 2 come on.
Store_T1 starts to drop from 75 to 57 degrees over 2-3mins.
At 60 degrees green LED 3 goes out and the heating pump stops as it should.
Store-T1 then starts to rise back up to 75 dgrees.
At 60 degrees LED 3 comes back on and heating pump comes back on.
Radiators still hot at this point.

When Store_T1 gets to 60-70 degrees PHE_T2 drops from 54 to 39 degrees over 5-10mins.
LED 1HT and 2ST are on and green LED 1,2 and 3 are on.
PHE_T2 starts to rise again to 54 degrees.
During the cooling down and heating back up of PHE_T2 the radiators cool down and if left long enough will go stone cold, even when back at 54 degrees.

Radiators remain cold until the process of switching off/on at isolator is repeated.

Thanks in advance.

Sounds like Main board (ACB) has failed.
Mike

Thanks for the feedback Mike.

Between my initial post and now i had been scouring through all the similar sounding posts for ideas.
I came across a post that the person had similar problems and also CH pipework was knocking.
I think it was you that advised him that it could be sludge in the system.
On reflection my CH pipes had been knocking for a good few months now so i checked my F&E tank and sure enough it was thick with sludge.
Water coming from bleed valves on radiators was also black.

I drained the system completely and got some X400 to clean it out and I filled the system back up from the F&E tank.
After the system filled i switched the boilermate back on.
Now the Green LED 1&2 are on but the boiler only fires up for 30sec or so and storage temp will not go up at all. It sat at a steady 13 degrees overnight.

I asume this reinforces that the ACB is capute so i will be ordering one tomorrow.

Thanks again for your help.

Check boiler pump is running.
Also if you have sludge that bad the flow & return from the boiler to the BM 2000 then the boiler will go out on overheat.
You could try draining the boiler.
And the unit.
Is the unit full?
Mike

Boiler pump is running - vibrating and hear water running through it.

Have drained the system twice now, from drain cock on bottom of one of the radiators. The sludge was really thick in the F&E tank but when i drain the system its not a thick sludge its more a dirty black water. I also have been draining the unit from the drain point above the DHW pump, again its black water coming from here.

Not sure where to drain the boiler from. Cant see any the pipe work as its behind a wooden enclosure, i take it there should be a drain point near the bottom of the pipes leading down from the boiler.

I believe the unit is full. After draining the system it took 2.5hrs to fill via the F&E tank. All radiators have been bled and when any of the pumps run i can hear water running through them. Is there any other way to tell if the system is full or not?

Cheers
David.

Boiler pump running?
Took the big screw out and checked?
Even then the impeller may not be turning.
Boiler will / should have a drain off on the pipe work.
Perhaps remove boxing above and see?
If it took 2.5 hours to fill then you have a problem.
BM 2000 inside is;
There are 2 cylinders with in the casing.
There are various pipes and connection linking the 2 cylinders.
Then imagine the pipe & connections for the three pumps etc.
Next at the rear of the unit you have a triangle shaped section with pipe configuration. This is ref the cold fill.
There is also the vent pipe / connection.
My money would be on;
Your unit has a sludge problem and could be blocked somewhere.
And the boiler pipes (flow & return) may be the same. Even the boiler heat exchanger.
Another question for you how much cleaner did you put in?
Mike

Took out screw on boiler pump and spindle is turning, water pulses out rather than a steady stream but imagine this at least means the impeller is turning.

Will check this eavning for drain point on the boiler.

Not added the X400 cleaner yet.
When I drained the whole CH and storage system the first time the water was jet black so I thought I would flush it two or three times to get the water running somewhere near clear before adding the cleaner and leaving it running for a week. But after draining and filling the second time I now have the current problem of the storage not heating up.
But to answer ur question I have 1Ltr of X400.

Not sure if this makes a difference but the first time I refilled the whole system it took 45mins-1hr but I was adding water to the F&E tank with a bucket. The second time it took 2.5Hrs but that was just the small tap in the F&E tank on its own.

What size unit is it?
How many rads?
Mike

125ltr
9 rads

David

You need a bottle for every 100 litres.
So the unit = 125 litres 1 25 bottles
Your boiler & rads need a bottle.
So it is 2.25 bottles.
Or 2 if you wish
3 would be good.
Mike

Will get some more cleaner asap.

The boiler is an Ideal classic SE12FF. Stripped out the boxing above the boiler and removed the boiler cover. Two pipes going in. One on left runs behind and down to the bottom of the boiler, the one on the right goes behind and into the top of the boiler. Unfortunately there is no drain points on either.

Just wondering if you have any ideas to unblock the line between the storage unit and the boiler in this situation?

David

There are connections that could be removed on the two pipes at the top of the boiler. Would it be possible to flush the boiler via either of these?

Right, what I would do is this.
Put the cleaner in and run it for the time period recommended.
Later, drain the BM 2000 and the rads.
Whilst drained.
Remove the flow connection from the BM
Remove the Return connection from the boiler return / pump.
You will then need to configure;
From each connection to go from 22 mm to 15 mm.
Attach a hose on the boiler flow.
Attach a hose or flexi to the return.
Flush the boiler out that way.
It does work, I have done it.
One guy his boiler would run for a few minutes then stop.
After doing the above and starting from cold it went for 33 minutes.
You have to scheme as in sorting out the fittings.
But look upon it as a puzzle!
Mike

I will stick the cleaner in now and I'll post back here in the next week to let you know how I get on.

Thanks again for your time and knowledge.
David.

Hi Mike.

On your original advice that the ACB was faulty I had ordered a replacement before the problems with the sludge became apparent. The ABC arrived on Wednesday and as soon as i fitted it the system ran perfectly. I will go ahead with the clean out of the system as there is definitely sludge in it.

So thanks again for sharing your expertise as it saved me a whole lot of time and money.