Vaillant Turbomax VUW 242E / 282E - Not auto igniting and switch broken

[Chris Maybray]

Hi everyone,

My parents have one of the above and recently it has stop auto triggering when heat is requested. What actually started happening was you ran a hot tap, the water would start to warm , then go cold within a minute and never heat again.

An engineer came out, advised to turn hot water tap on and if same as above, go to the manual igniter switch on the front of the boiler (picture attached) and turn this to off and then back on to re-trigger the boiler. This seemed to work as an interim solution.

Unfortunately, the switch itself on the front of the boiler is broken and now just rotates 360 degrees and nothing can be selected. The boiler is completely off so no heat available in any circumstance and no way to turn it back on it seems.

My parents are old and I have no experience so neither of us really want to take the front off a boiler and "have a go" but when they do call someone out, if would be great to have some good advice from you experts on why this could be happening! Just to note when a BG engineer was called out, he went into a sales pitch to have the boiler replaced before even properly investigating - whilst the boiler is fairly old now, they dont want to be conned into replacing it, if there is a fairly cheap fix out there!

Any advice on why it is seemingly tripping out and also whether the front switch is replaceable would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks
Chris

 

[AGAS]

i would advise to get another heating engineer to have a look, still see plenty of these still going great , sounds like couple of problems because it being unfixed ,
need to be in front of boiler to diagnose , why didn't he fix the first problem ? yes the switch can be replaced . shouldn't take to long to diagnose the ignition problem . call an heating engineer not plumber

 

[Phill Peck]

Do your parents have a contract with Bg?

Your boiler can be repaired.
It is a good boiler and will have many years left.

Unfortunately some Bg engineers focus on getting the customer to replace. Not all do. If you/they have a contract then ring again and get someone out.
When he arrives explain (don't moan at him) that the last guy didn't seem to be interested in repairing the boiler but you are not interested in replacing unless it is absolutely necessary
What area are you in?

 

[Agile]

The problem from you is that BG engineers get a small commission if you agree to receive a boiler replacement quotation visit.

Nothing wrong with that of course. But it may explain why he was apparently reluctant to repair it.

I still repair that model but they are getting on a bit now and at the age that replacement is not a bad idea.

The diverter valves can sometimes be a bit of a pain to replace and cost over £100. Otherwise not a lot goes wrong with them in most cases.

Tony