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I currently have a Vaillant ecoTEC Plus 438 system boiler which is 13 years old. I have been having problems with the boiler which potentially boils down to the heat exchanger so I am now looking to bite the bullet and have a new boiler installed.
My set up at home is that I have a 4-bed detached with 21 radiators (includes 4 towel rails), a 6m x 4m orangery/conservatory that was built last year with under-floor heating (UFH), and a Megaflo for storing hot water. Last year, I had all my radiators changed (unfortunately I did not have my system thoroughly flushed) and the main pump upgraded to a Grundfos UPS2 25-80 pump. I control the hot water, central heating, and UFH through the Heatmiser app. The boiler is located in the garage whilst the pump, 3 individual zone valves and megaflo are all located in an airing cupboard on the landing.
Quite a few years ago, I was getting an S.53 code on my boiler "the flow-return temperature difference is too great OR Boiler is in waiting period of modulation of block function (or operation block function) due to water shortage". I turned down d.0 of the boiler to 24kW which eliminated the S.53 status.
Last winter, I had 2 issues:
Since my boiler is 13 years old, I am happy to replace by boiler but I obviously want to avoid spending lots of money but still find I am in the same position where I cannot run my UFH independently. I have had a few heating engineers come over to quote for a new boiler. The majority have recommended the Vaillant EcoTEC Plus 430 (30kW) heat-only boiler, and believe the installation of a heat-loss header is an overkill. They pretty much believe the heat exchanger on my existing boiler is partially blocked. A power flush is highly recommended.
Can anyone recommend if the Vaillant EcoTEC Plus 430 will be suitable? I do have a heating engineer in mind who will be returning again next week to carry out a thorough examination of my system. Is there anything I should make sure he looks into?
My set up at home is that I have a 4-bed detached with 21 radiators (includes 4 towel rails), a 6m x 4m orangery/conservatory that was built last year with under-floor heating (UFH), and a Megaflo for storing hot water. Last year, I had all my radiators changed (unfortunately I did not have my system thoroughly flushed) and the main pump upgraded to a Grundfos UPS2 25-80 pump. I control the hot water, central heating, and UFH through the Heatmiser app. The boiler is located in the garage whilst the pump, 3 individual zone valves and megaflo are all located in an airing cupboard on the landing.
Quite a few years ago, I was getting an S.53 code on my boiler "the flow-return temperature difference is too great OR Boiler is in waiting period of modulation of block function (or operation block function) due to water shortage". I turned down d.0 of the boiler to 24kW which eliminated the S.53 status.
Last winter, I had 2 issues:
- I found the radiators furthest away from the boiler were hardly heating up. I had an engineer come round who eventaully found the issue - debris in the main pump. After removing this, these radiators heated up perfectly well.
- when I only had the UFH turned ON, I found the boiler would fire for a minute and then stop. This would be continuous (short firing). The only way I would get round this would be to turn on the central heating so that the UFH would remain on. The same engineer looked into this and believed there was a problem but as he had not installed the UFH, he was not 100% sure where the issue lay. He said there could be a blockage somewhere and/or the heat exchanger could be partially blocked. He suggested a low loss header to resolve the issue since it would elimate the problem of return & flow tempaerates being too great, and therefore the boiler turning off.
Since my boiler is 13 years old, I am happy to replace by boiler but I obviously want to avoid spending lots of money but still find I am in the same position where I cannot run my UFH independently. I have had a few heating engineers come over to quote for a new boiler. The majority have recommended the Vaillant EcoTEC Plus 430 (30kW) heat-only boiler, and believe the installation of a heat-loss header is an overkill. They pretty much believe the heat exchanger on my existing boiler is partially blocked. A power flush is highly recommended.
Can anyone recommend if the Vaillant EcoTEC Plus 430 will be suitable? I do have a heating engineer in mind who will be returning again next week to carry out a thorough examination of my system. Is there anything I should make sure he looks into?
