Hoping someone can provide some advice on a boiler issue I’m having. We had a new Vaillant ecoFIT pure 418 condensing boiler installed last November. There were concerns from the beginning as the installer was extremely young and seemed inexperienced as he was on the phone for half of the day asking colleagues for advice. When we booked the installation we were told that a fully qualified engineer and an apprentice would be fitting it and it seemed from appearances and competence that the apprentice was sent to do it. We were originally told the job would take around 4-6 hours but in total he was here from 8am until gone 7pm. The concern regarding the installer’s competence was confirmed the following day when the boiler was found to be leaking water from the bottom, another engineer came round to repair it and described the issue as a “schoolboy error”. Obviously having spent the best part of £3k, this was all less than ideal.
Almost straightaway the radiators started to experience problems, making lots of noise, heating up from the bottom and remaining cold at the top and leaking (see photos of the leaking). I called the company that installed the boiler and instantly they were on the defensive and saying they didn’t install the radiators and it was nothing to do with the new boiler. This is despite there being no issue whatsoever with the radiators before the new boiler was installed (the old boiler - 7 years old - was leaking and the same company advised the repair cost would outweigh the value of it which is why we got a new one. Other than the leak, the old boiler was performing without issue).
Anyway, another engineer came round, bled all the radiators and replaced a number of the bleed valves. Notwithstanding this, the same issue occurred throughout the rest of the winter with radiators heating from the bottom, being cold at the top and making lots of noise. Bleeding them seemed to make no difference. As the company had been so difficult and with other life issues going on, I didn’t call them again (now realising this was a big mistake but we are where we are!).
Also, this may be irrelevant but just in case it isn’t, the boiler itself makes very loud clicking noises when it is on, something the old boiler didn’t do. In addition, the outside boiler flue and the cage around the lower flue appear to have green and pink deposits on them - again, not something I ever saw with the old boiler.
Anyway, fast forward to today when we switched on the radiators for the first time and the boiler has stopped working altogether. It has error code F.23 and neither the radiators or the hot water are now working. Tried bleeding the radiators and then resetting the boiler which resulted in a new error code F.83.
I will call the boiler company tomorrow but I am cautious given their defensive response last time so would like to be armed with as much information as possible to avoid a huge bill. We have a 1 year warranty on workmanship and an 8 year boiler warranty.
Sorry for long post, wanted to put as much information down as I wasn’t sure what was wand wasn’t relevant. Thanks in advance for any help!