Intermittent Heating

I have a BoilerMate OV working in conjunction with an Ideal Classic HE14. They are both roughly two years old. Right from the start there have always been problems with the heating. The hot water seems to work fine. What happens is even though the hot water and heating switches are set to constant, the timer is set to constant, and the thermostat is calling for heat, the boiler will not fire. If you power cycle the Ideal it turns on for around two minutes and then switches off. If I power cycle again I get roughly the same result but usually on the third power cycle it doesn't switch on. The heating will work intermittently, usually two days in the week, possibly when the weather is warmer although the Ideal is situated in the kitchen which doesn't really experience extremes in temperature. It also seems you have a better chance of the heating coming on if the hot water is refilling, after using the shower, for example. I have had both an Ideal and a Gledhill engineer visit (both systems are still under warranty although not for long) but unfortunately the system appeared to be working at the time.

One time, when the heating wasn't working, I decided to have a look at the diagnostics lights on the front of the BoilerMate. Having run through the ‘Commissioning’ sections on page 31 and 32 of the ‘Design, installation and servicing instructions’ for the BoilerMate I found that the expected behaviour on page 32 regarding the central heating did not occur. Having moved the central heating control rocker to the constant position, set the heating programmer to continuous and ensured that the room thermostat was calling for heat, display segments V1.3 and V1.4 lit up as expected. The manual then states that ‘The BoilerMate controller will now turn on the central heating pump and this will be indicated by display segment H2.2 being lit’. However, this segment didn't light up. Does this indicate that the central heating pump is faulty or will this only turn on when the boiler fires? I have reported the above to a Gledhill engineer and he says that this is the case and the Ideal is faulty. Can someone give me a second opinion? Also, I assume that the Ideal Classic HE14 is a 'supported' boiler for the BoilerMate OV?

Thanks in advance.

Sorry, the Ideal is an HE15.

Hi there
We are having exactly the same issues as you. Same system with an Ideal Classic boiler in the garage.

Problems are as you describe and system is only 3 years old in new house. We took a contract with Scottish Gas to look after the system in 2008 and to date, we have a folder of call out sheets as long as your arm.

Scottish Gas are stumped as to why it's happening, they have replaced the pump on the Boilermate, the thermostatic store sensor, two other sensors, circuit board on the Boilermate has been replaced twice now and the thermostat in our hall has been replaced for good measure.

The Ideal Boiler has been checked and double checked with some sensors replaced in there too.

Two years on, every winter - and this one is an exceptionally cold one - we have no regular heating. System will not work with the timer mode and usually doesn't come on in the mornings. You usually find on a warmer day, system will work - Scottish Gas Engineers had a good laugh at our expense on that one. We find that the only time the heating will come on is to run the hot water and that kicks it on. Although, when it starts playing up, symptoms get progressively worse and the system breaks down altogether. We had that last year and had no heat or hot water for a week. We had the circuit board replaced on the Boilermate and it started up again and kept us going over the summer when you don't really need it.

According to Scottish Gas, they have tried to get a representative from Gledhill to come to our house but apparently Gledhill won't visit the North of Scotland!!!

We are now facing a wrangle with the NHBC, George Wimpey Builders and Scottish Gas of which I am not looking forward to at all.

If I had the money, I would get the useless piece of crap ripped out altogether and get a sensible heating system in but I don't so hey ho.

Update on my last post.

Scottish Gas Engineer out today again as I type this and can't find what's wrong with the system.

We have blizzard conditions here today in the North of Scotland and our heating system has moved from intermittent issues to not working at all.

We can only get the boiler to fire up when the hot water is run or someone has a shower.

Brilliant!!!!!

It would seem that no-one in the North of Scotland has any clue as to how this system operates.

Hi,

Thanks for the responses. Sorry for not replying earlier - I didn't want to speak too soon! Following my initial post I did some more research on the Boilermate and came to the conclusion that it was the Ideal boiler at fault. The Boilermate was telling me that the stores required heat and that the Ideal boiler was on. However, the Ideal boiler wouldn't fire unless you power cycled it and only then it would stay on for up to two minutes and then switch off. After an initial visit from Ideal we determined that the temperature control (the 1-6 adjustable dial on the front) was faulty. I had this replaced on a follow up visit on Thursday and so far everything is behaving as it should. Sorry to hear that you've had so many problems - have you had this part replaced on your boiler so far?

Hi there
Coincidentally, we had another Scottish Gas Engineer come out because we basically plagued them to sort out the problem.

Immediately he felt that the problem was the Ideal boiler also, rather than the Boilermate system because the Ideal boiler had no power getting to it at the main circuit board.

He replaced the board and, like you, the system has been behaving itself for the past 6 weeks or so.

It took us a long time to get here and hence the despair in my last messages but fingers crossed this will keep us running.

Good luck for you too!!!!

Hi again,

Glad to hear you've made some progress. Hopefully this will be the end of the ordeal. Happy to report our system is still behaving. Got there in the end!!