Sunvic Select 207, 12 years use. My CH/ hot water sometimes does not come on when it should. The other day controls for the CH& HW were switched to permanently off but they came on, and had seemingly been on for hours. On other occasions all timed periods mysteriously change, as does the time on the clock itself.
Does the panel think that 12 years is a decent life span, and should I get the same model again for £50, or are there any other recommendations please? Simples operations is good in my life!
Thanks for any feedback
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If a like/like replace does what you need then I think that's way to go. Obviously modern tech has facility do far more than just turn boiler on/off and operate electro valves to select CH, HW or both.
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Many programmers made during the last 20+ years use a common backplate for the electrical connections-ie.just change the programmer part without touching the electrical connections.Your local supplier should be able to help.
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We don't have a smart timer/thermostat ourselves (not the Internet connected type) but it's quite good in that you can set desired temperatures for different periods throughout the day. I think there's maybe 5 or 6?
Then there's only two wires I think to the boiler - it's a combi.
If this was mine I'd put the same make/model back so it doesn't need redecorating. Maybe a better one can be had that is the same shape/fit?
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>> Many programmers made during the last 20+ years use a common backplate for the electrical connections
>>-ie.just change the programmer part without touching the electrical connections.
>>
Made by Landis & Gyr but sold with many different labels.
See Google for photos
Electronic versions now rather than the clockwork ones are now produced..
With old non" pumped primary" systems the C/H and hotwater settings/ sliders were interlocked.
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If you can replace like for like, do that - saves haste.
Does it have a back up battery? has it died?
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My wireless programmable thermostat runs on two x AA batteries but has a CR2032 backup. As Zero said check for a dead backup battery. As your thermostat is mains powered it may be a rechargeable battery.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 16 Dec 14 at 17:52
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Missed the edit.
Just checked the installation instructions for your thermostat, it does have a backup battery, the instructions say it never needs replacing.
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>> Missed the edit.
>>
>> Just checked the installation instructions for your thermostat, it does have a backup battery, the
>> instructions say it never needs replacing.
Right, well we know what that means don't we
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More importantly, how much do you want for the Bob Marley?? 0:)
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I'm sure it's me, but what is a Bob Marley? All I can think of is a Harley, as in motorbike.
Living in the sticks I am not up to speed with street talk, although I have been known to visit the big city akaLeeds, to take light refreshment on a Sunday afternoon.
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>>I'm sure it's me, but what is a Bob Marley
I can guess it is Cockney rhyming slang for Charlie. So Cocaine. No idea why Martin mentioned this if I am right.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Tue 16 Dec 14 at 23:44
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>> I'm sure it's me, but what is a Bob Marley?
Something to do with BMW?
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Thanks for the enlightenment. I posted recently about my Bob Marley aka Herman the German.
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Back to programmers-I have a Myson Microtimer which when new had a three week memory,now,after twenty five years it's about two minutes!I have a Horstmann C27 to replace it(this has a replaceable battery)but I have not got round to changing it as it works perfectly as long as it has a mains supply.They both use the same backplate.
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Thanks for all your replies.
Electrician acquaintance this am to look at the programmer.....he reckons it is the PCB ( printed circuit board) in the boiler which is jiggered and causing the programmer to change times on its own, come on when it shouldn't etc. He left with the boiler PCB buzzing away constantly. Plumber arrived shortly afterwards, confirmed it is the PCB on my 12yo Baxi Solo 2 and a new one might be hard to obtain. He reckons I should get a new Worcester Bosch boiler! I'm thinking along the lines of getting a recon PCB from cetltd and see how it goes.
Good job I have an electric immersion heater for my HW cylinder
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>>Plumber arrived shortly afterwards, confirmed it is the PCB on my
>> 12yo Baxi Solo 2 and a new one might be hard to obtain. He reckons
>> I should get a new Worcester Bosch boiler!
Sub text.... I can sell him £100 worth of PCB and 1 hours labour, or I can sell him £1000 worth of boiler and 2 days labour. Hmmm. Hard choice.
ebay suggests a new PCB is only a couple of clicks away (and probably only about 10 minutes to fit). eg tinyurl.com/pdot452 (need to check it is actually the right one of course....!).
I know what I'd be doing, and it wouldn't involve a new boiler (assuming boiler is otherwise OK), or said plumber!!!
Last edited by: RichardW on Tue 23 Dec 14 at 14:25
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Try Baxi's own service team.
We also have a Solo 2, installed as original kit when house was built in 1998. During summer we got noisy PCB like you describe but in our case symptom was intermittent operation of the pump with consequent tripping of overheat protection. An indirect system running in hw only mode boils impressively quickly!!.
We have a repair contract so I don't know cost but the guy had part in his van so fixed in one call. Took him about an hour but quite a bit of that was on phone to his tech team as the new part looked different to old and he had to check compatibility - new one was 'improved' design.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Tue 23 Dec 14 at 14:39
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Any boiler design that screws up its PCB in under twenty years is badly designed imo or badly situated.. or both.
I expect a boiler should last a minimum of 20 years or it's not "green" despite its low gas usage...
Last edited by: madf on Tue 23 Dec 14 at 14:50
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I had a new Worcester Bosch combi boiler fitted about 6/7 years ago. I think that the only original part of it left is the casing - and they are supposed to be one of the "better" makes !
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>> Any boiler design that screws up its PCB in under twenty years is badly designed
>> imo or badly situated.. or both.
>>
Must be a bad design as I cannot see why my boiler is badly situated in its dediicated standard 600mm kitchen base unit.
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>> Electrician acquaintance this am to look at the programmer....
>>.he reckons it is the PCB ( printed circuit board) in the boiler which is jiggered
>> Plumber arrived shortly afterwards, confirmed it is the PCB on my 12yo Baxi Solo 2
>> and a new one might be hard to obtain.
>> I'm thinking along the lines of getting a recon PCB from cetltd and see how it goes.
>>
Thanks for that info
I have problems with my Baxi Solo 2 too.
The overrun does not stop. Prior to retiring ( to bed) I have to go through my own invented procedure to fix it. Switch the mains on and of for a few minutes. No idea of the timings but eventually it stops.
From what I read, a faulty PCB is the cause.
To date ... a new PCB is up to £200 or a repair from £40 upwards .
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I can get a re con PCB fir my Baxi Solo2 from www.cetltd.com for circa £50. Delivery next Tuesday. Must be worth a punt don't you think, and I hope to move within the next few years so it it lasts.....in the meantime I have an electric immersion heater, some oil filled rads, a multi fuel stove, and a nice choice of local pubs for warmth & light refreshment.
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If this was me I'd gamble on the £50 part (or another refurb one at least) before splashing out over £1000 on a new boiler.
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My last boiler's PCB failed. In this case, it was the actual circuit board that had burnt in a couple of places. I repaired it myself with some 30 amp single strand cable soldered across the breaks. It lasted well for about 4 years until we decided to get a newer boiler.
The new one is an Ideal condenser. In November it failed.......well, I made it fail. It didn't come on one morning and the fault code was showing low pressure. I topped it up and it started but stopped straight away...Bums, thought I.
Rang the fitting firm and they gave me the number for Ideal...bums again...it was 3 weeks out of warranty The lass there was extremely friendly.....to the extent of us telling each other jokes. She said she'd send one of Ideal's own engineers, fix it, service it and give me another years warranty for the total sum of £85, which I thought wasn't too bad. Fixed in less time than it took the guy to finish his cuppa...I'd knocked the gas inlet valve to 'off'...silly sod.
A couple of weeks later the pressure was down again. I topped it up and noticed a drip come from behind the pressure gauge. One phone call, a bowl under the drip and the Ideal man was round the following day to fix it...no charge, just a compression joint to be tightened.
A good firm to do business with, IMO.
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>> .....he reckons it is the PCB ( printed circuit board) in the boiler which is jiggered
>> and causing the programmer to change times on its own
That strikes me as highly unlikely. All the programmer does is supply a switched live to the boiler via room / hot water thermostats (if installed)*. A buzzing noise from a boiler PCB is normal (some relays are permanently energised and the buzzing is just their coils vibrating slightly, despite what plumbers might say).
Whip the programmer off the wall and post up a photo of the backplate (if "normal" there will be two screws underneath which you slacken off slightly, then rotate up and away). If it's a standard backplate, I have one of these sitting in the garage which you can have for nothing:
www.directheatingsupplies.co.uk/danfoss-fp715-programmer?
Alternatively, remove the programmer, supply it with mains power from a wall socket and see if it still goes on the blink.
* Newer boilers sometimes use a different low-voltage digital interface but I doubt you have this.
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>>All the programmer does is supply a switched live to the boiler via room / hot water thermostats (if installed)
Yes just five wires, three for mains input and two outputs, one each to the H/W and C/H.
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>> That strikes me as highly unlikely. All the programmer does is supply a switched live
>> to the boiler via room / hot water thermostats (if installed)*.
I agree with the flyboy. Tho why I should trust a guy who puts his pump on the wrong way round is beyond me.
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Thanks for all the feedback. Electric supply to the boiler is now switched off as when on it sounds like a mutant hornet. This noise would appear a few minutes after the CH went off, then quieten slowly until disappearing after 5 minutes.
I was told it was something to do with the electrolyte drying out in the capacitors! Anyway a recon PCB has been ordered for next week, so fingers crossed. Quite why the programmer would change time, and some of the on/off settings is beyond me. Good job I have a multi fuel stove to keep the chill off, and a couple of oil filled rads for emergencies.
Thanks for the kind offer FF. I shall post the result later, but maybe the programmer was fine all along.
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Final update.
The programmer was taken off the wall, checked, and found to be faulty. I received a reconditioned part ex PCB on the day it was promised, @ £57.60. Duly fitted, together with a new Sangamo Choice PR2n programmer supplied by my electrician friend. CH now back on. So far so good.
Thanks all
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Central heating programmer on the fritz - Bromptonaut
