Hello,
I'm having some problems with my Eco-hometec combi boiler (EC31S model I believe) and thought I'd ask for advice here before calling them as previous experiences with their service department have not been that positive.
The boiler has been installed for several years now and for most of that time has worked fine. Recently however it has started registering demand for hot water when no taps are on (quite ironic as normally its response to turning on a hot tap is very slow). The problem is usually seen when a hot tap has been turned briefly on and then off again. The normal behaviour, assuming that enough water has been drawn, is that the boiler fires up at this point, runs up to fairly high power and then powers down again. It still does this, but then, a couple of minutes later runs through the whole process again. It repeats this process a variable number of times before eventually settling down.
I can get it to stop doing this by running the hot tap again until the boiler is running and then slowly turning the water off. If I do this then the boiler goes off and stays off.
I've also noticed that it is tending to come on and heat up the internal reservoir of hot water a lot more frequently than it used to and I suspect that it is up to something at night as when I get up some radiators are hot, even though the room thermostat has not been on (and I believe that the system diverts unused hot water into the heating system?). Finally I notice that the first time a hot tap is turned on in the morning the pressure seems very high for a couple of seconds before returning to normal.
I suspected that there was a leak somewhere in the hot water system, but can't find anything obvious. I did find that the valve on the hot water feed to the washing machine was leaking and have replaced this, but to no avail.
So, sorry for the long post, just thought I'd better give as much detail as possible. Can anyone suggest what the problem might be?
Thanks,
Tim.