Vaillant VUW 242E - not working - screeching noise!

[marcos.scriven]

Hi

Bought my place two years ago and I'm not sure how old the Vaillant

242E/284E is. At any rate, one year ago had a problem with the valve that let's out excess pressure. That cost over =A3100 in London in workman charges alone - and he didn't even replace the valve, it just worked again after fiddling with it.

Now, this weekend, the boiler has just stopped working - it turns on for a few seconds, fires up, then makes an awful screeching noise, turns off while it's making the screeching noise, and then a few minutes lates, stops screeching, fires up for a few seconds, and the cycle repeats. I've tried it a few times now, same thing

I'm thinking now of getting a Worcester-Bosch 30CDi which is apparently a little more than I need, but for =A350 extra, I'd rather have it. My reasoning for a new boiler are:

1) I'm not a handy man, so can't fix these things myself. With a new installation I can get it insured.

2) The newer boilers have this 'instant hot' thing which I like the sound of.

3) When the man came round to fix the current boiler last time, I got the feeling the parts weren't that easy to come by.

4) A plumber from my current builders has offered to install it for free.

Any suggestions/recommendations? Obviously looking to move very quickly on this, as it's rather cold!

Marcos

[tarquinlinbin]

Sounds a bit like the pump is jamming. First of all if its a sealed system,check your water pressure guage and top it up if necessary to about 1 Bar cold temperature. If the water pressure is ok then see if you can access the pump and if it has a large chrome slotted cap on the front of it (usually Grundfos make,plum coloured or similar) take the cap off,use a small screwdriver to manually operate the pupm impeller to free it/check rotation. Spares for Vaillant shouldnt be a problem.

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[Graham]

I would think the pump ..no circulation ..over heats .. cuts out .. cools re-lights .. and so on .. pump change is quite easey .. just make sure to bleed all the air out after or it wont run ... or you could try bleeding it first .. may be just air locked ? i think you should get water out of the pump when you remove the screw bung on the read of the pump . may be just silted up

G .

[Ed Sirett]

This boiler ought to be fixable - whilst (IMHO) it is not Vaillant's best offering it's still above many of the cheaper models.

This is uk.d-i-y however knowning when to get help (which varies from job to job and person to person is p-art of the suject.

With a new

This boiler is not old enough for BG and others to stop supporting yet.

That feature helps a little but the layout and size of the house is more significant.

Completely untrue. Furthermore the pressure relief valve is a generic part.

What exactly is going to be installed at no extra charge?

Check system pressure and pump. Probably all it needs. See SealedCH FAQ.