Worcester Greenstar boiler: EA error code
Discussion
I too have a WB Greenstar 30 CDI, its out of warranty by a year (had a 5 year cover plan)
Have changed electrodes to the newer design (without the small glass window)
Fault is totally intermittent, we have heating on timer pretty much all year round.
Condensate pipe is routed indoors and goes into spigot within 40 mm washing m/c and Dishwasher waste pipes (so no possibility of the freezing scenario).
PCB board may be an issue?
This morning and yesterday morning, no matter how many times I press the reset button it will not fire up
Missus pressed the reset button later in the day a couple of times and it did fire up. Back to this morning Nothing
Have changed electrodes to the newer design (without the small glass window)
Fault is totally intermittent, we have heating on timer pretty much all year round.
Condensate pipe is routed indoors and goes into spigot within 40 mm washing m/c and Dishwasher waste pipes (so no possibility of the freezing scenario).
PCB board may be an issue?
This morning and yesterday morning, no matter how many times I press the reset button it will not fire up
Missus pressed the reset button later in the day a couple of times and it did fire up. Back to this morning Nothing
Hi I've just come home from this very similar repedative lockout flame failure problem on a CDi. After completely striping the boiler down I eventually found water in the loop of the gas pipe that comes from the top of the gas valve and enters the bottom of the fan assembly. I can only assume it got there from a blocked condensate pipe some where in the past. Partially restricting gas flow until I assume it evaporated a small amount on restarts and condensed again when not being used. Just a theory. Fired up first time and ran hotter than it had for years. Pretty sure by reaction from customers I won't be going back. Non of the many previous engineers took anything apart. Just did usual replace PCB, electrodes, leads, clean trap, scratch head and recommend WB engineer. Hope this helps someone out. Amazing how many things can cause similar problems. But i notice a few gas valve changes have solved this could be when replacing valve the water has been dislodged when disconnected. I've never had to replace a gas valve in my 30odd years of boiler repairs. Often changed relays on PCBs to fix them. I'm quite resistant to replacement of parts unnecessarily. Penny's instead of magga bucks.
I’ve been reading through this thread for the past 2 months in the hope that someone has got to the bottom of this problem I’ve had Worcester Bosch boilers in my last 3 properties with no issue but now the boiler in my most recent place has the dreaded ea fault code bug. I’ve looked at most fixes mentioned and I’m now looking towards the bearing plate fix. One difference between my other boilers and this one is the flue position, all the others had a vertical flue out through the roof and this one has a horizontal through the wall, my theory is that possibly the flue has residual water sitting in it that gets blown back towards the boiler which when the boiler isn’t running could result in fluid sitting on top of the bearing plate and either making it stick or maybe the weight of the water is too much to allow the rubber in the bearing plate to open. How many people experiencing the problem have a horizontal flue rather than vertical? If there’s a pattern it may help narrow down the source of the problem
Right, I in the end signed up for a contract with Worcester via Domestic and General.
Engineer came round and changed a Diaphragm washer and since then the boiler has worked fine!
Its called the Air Gas Manifold above the fan in my book its listed asPart "J" in pic 14.4 on page 45
Its also listed on page 40 pic 4 Diaphragm in Burner cover
So Nothing to actually do with the PCB Board.
The Worcester Engineer was a cocky t
t full of himself.
So it seems this EA Code is caused by a multitude of things relating to the boiler not firing up.
My mate who is a Boiler engineer / Plumber wanted to fit a new boiler and be done with it, (the reason is, they work on commision from the supplier, the more boilers they fit the cheaper they get them Trade).
So basically he couldn't be bothered to fix mine.
I've not used him since
Engineer came round and changed a Diaphragm washer and since then the boiler has worked fine!
Its called the Air Gas Manifold above the fan in my book its listed asPart "J" in pic 14.4 on page 45
Its also listed on page 40 pic 4 Diaphragm in Burner cover
So Nothing to actually do with the PCB Board.
The Worcester Engineer was a cocky t
t full of himself.So it seems this EA Code is caused by a multitude of things relating to the boiler not firing up.
My mate who is a Boiler engineer / Plumber wanted to fit a new boiler and be done with it, (the reason is, they work on commision from the supplier, the more boilers they fit the cheaper they get them Trade).
So basically he couldn't be bothered to fix mine.
I've not used him since
Edited by fatboy18 on Friday 27th December 12:31
EA code again this morning and boiler wouldn’t ignite after 3 reset attempts So finally had enough and checked out the bearing plate, sure enough it was stuck. Followed this tutorial and found it pretty straightforward https://youtu.be/GiRo01XDd5M
chrismasday said:
EA code again this morning and boiler wouldn’t ignite after 3 reset attempts So finally had enough and checked out the bearing plate, sure enough it was stuck. Followed this tutorial and found it pretty straightforward https://youtu.be/GiRo01XDd5M
Brilliant Video, that is what the engineer changed on my boiler.They don't list it as "Bearing Plate" in my Worcester manual, it says "Diaphragm in Burner cover"
Apologies for resurrecting a dead thread, but I thought I’d provide an update due to the fact that it has now been several years since my boiler has thrown an EA hissy fit.
In fact, I don’t think I’ve had this fault since I made changes to the programming of my thermostat. I inserted a daily early morning blast at the highest central heating demand temperature for 15 minutes, simply in order to force the towel rails in the bathrooms to dry our towels, otherwise they remain damp during the summer when the heating doesn’t otherwise come on.
And, as I say, I’m pretty sure I’ve not had the EA problem since.
So whatever this problem actually is, it seems to be a good workaround to force your central heating to come on briefly once a day throughout the summer.
In fact, I don’t think I’ve had this fault since I made changes to the programming of my thermostat. I inserted a daily early morning blast at the highest central heating demand temperature for 15 minutes, simply in order to force the towel rails in the bathrooms to dry our towels, otherwise they remain damp during the summer when the heating doesn’t otherwise come on.
And, as I say, I’m pretty sure I’ve not had the EA problem since.
So whatever this problem actually is, it seems to be a good workaround to force your central heating to come on briefly once a day throughout the summer.
I've been having this problem on a less than one year old boiler.
Had it a few months ago when it was very windy, one reset and it was fine.
Had it yesterday when I went to get into a tepid bath at 4am. Reset then was fine all day.
This morning the heating worked initially then around 4:30 it shut down with EA 227 fault and tried resetting several times and nothing.
Worcester-Bosch can't see us until Monday, going to be a brilliant 4th birthday weekend for my son with freezing temperatures forecast!
Had it a few months ago when it was very windy, one reset and it was fine.
Had it yesterday when I went to get into a tepid bath at 4am. Reset then was fine all day.
This morning the heating worked initially then around 4:30 it shut down with EA 227 fault and tried resetting several times and nothing.
Worcester-Bosch can't see us until Monday, going to be a brilliant 4th birthday weekend for my son with freezing temperatures forecast!
WonkeyDonkey said:
I've been having this problem on a less than one year old boiler.
Had it a few months ago when it was very windy, one reset and it was fine.
Had it yesterday when I went to get into a tepid bath at 4am. Reset then was fine all day.
This morning the heating worked initially then around 4:30 it shut down with EA 227 fault and tried resetting several times and nothing.
Worcester-Bosch can't see us until Monday, going to be a brilliant 4th birthday weekend for my son with freezing temperatures forecast!
Not sure if it'll help but with an Ariston it'd lock out, after 4 attempts to restart.Had it a few months ago when it was very windy, one reset and it was fine.
Had it yesterday when I went to get into a tepid bath at 4am. Reset then was fine all day.
This morning the heating worked initially then around 4:30 it shut down with EA 227 fault and tried resetting several times and nothing.
Worcester-Bosch can't see us until Monday, going to be a brilliant 4th birthday weekend for my son with freezing temperatures forecast!
Powering down reset the counter.
I thought I'd replied in this post previously as we've had more than our fare share of errors on our 440CDi we had a fixed price repair from WB 2 years ago where they replaced around 6 components and it was supposed to be warrantied for 12 months however when we had another issue last year within the 12 months they said they weren't operating in our area du to corvid, convenient! A local engineer repaired it then and hopefully we'll skip a year for repairs.
Does this thread have a record for the most new 1 post wonders being attracted to the forum?
Does this thread have a record for the most new 1 post wonders being attracted to the forum?
Continuing this necro-thread, which is fairly prominent in Google results and I have found useful for things to try, learning what boiler engineers might try to replace, and a bit of useful "you are not alone" shared misery.
The TL;DR is that I've found a solution that seems to work for my own boiler EA issue that nobody has mentioned. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. However, after several repeats of "I did that thing again and the problem went away" I'm fairly sure it works for my boiler, and so I'll share it in case it is helpful to others.
Skip to ">>>> The fix for my boiler <<<<" if you don't like walls of text or need details.
>>>> The background <<<<
My own Worcester Bosch Greenstar, think it's a 30 CDI, maybe now renamed a "classic", was installed in around 2010. It has had various periods of [EA --> Reset --> Run for a cycle or two -> EA .... and repeat for a couple of weeks]. Then I've "fixed it" for periods of around 6 months, before it recurs. Occasionally it would happen immediately _after_ a service, and certainly there seems to be a weather or seasonal aspect to it. We recently went from our very mild winter to a cold snap and literally on the day the weather went to single digits and I needed it the most (after 6 months of happy functioning) we woke up to a cold house.
When the boiler first started misbehaving a few years after it was fitted, I'd just had it serviced by a respected local boiler repair firm and could honestly tell them "it was fine before you serviced it". However, because the problem is intermittent (works for a few hours / cycles, before locking out with EA again), they weren't much help. Their list of "maybe we can replace this" was getting longer, I stopped bothering to get them back in after they'd replaced the "obvious stuff" and the predicted bills were going to go up as they desperately suggested things like new circuit boards, or whole new boilers. That's when I took matters into my own hands because the experts frankly didn't look that expert to me.
So far, over the last 8 years or so I've managed to get the boiler working after first (1) resetting it a few times, enough to conclude it's not just a "one off", (2) poking at / wiggling the wires, (3) checking the condensate pipe, (4) emptying the trap, and all the other things usually suggested on posts like these.
Initially, I wasn't very scientific so I wasn't able to identify what I was doing before it would magically start working again. Sometimes, it would work for weeks and I'd put the case back on with a sigh of relief and the boiler would stop working the very next cycle. So, I just took to leaving the case off. It lives in the loft (with a vertical flue), so it's no big deal.
I've now repeated my "fix" multiple times and while it isn't permanent (and seasonal changes do seem to trigger a relapse, unpredicatably), it takes a boiler that is working when I go to bed and reliably flashing EA in the morning, to one that fully works.
>>>> The fix for my boiler <<<<
I have narrowed my boiler's issue down to the component I've highlighted in red below, more precisely the wires that lead to it.
The wires leading to that component are terminated by spade connectors encased in plastic, connecting to the copper spade contacts on the component.
With the boiler turned off, all I do is take those connectors off and put them on again, usually trying to ensure I do it a few times to "clean the contacts". More effectively seems to be to push the red wires into the back of the plastic encasing the spade connectors as much as I can.
This would basically be a wiring loom issue.
Maybe try this yourself if you're having similar issues.
>>>> My hypothesis <<<<
That's all the factual stuff out the way. It works for my boiler. Everything below is pure, uneducated guesswork, and you can skip all the rest if you're not interested.
My hypothesis is that the wires going into the spade connectors aren't making very good contact - either because of higher resistance brought about by a layer of copper oxide building up, OR there's a dodgy joint which is improved when I pull off the connectors and/or manipulate the wires going into them. When the boiler starts failing, perhaps it has a higher-than-normal resistance on those wires, leading to something being just out of tolerance / not quite working as it should. Given the placement of the part, it's also very close to the case when it is put back on, which may explain why it would stop working for us when the case was put back on again.
Googling suggests the part the wires lead to is a "temperature limiter", but I don't have a clue why "fixing the contacts" to this part would have this effect. That said, I'm assuming that most parts in a boiler are "fail safe", so poor connections are generally going to tend towards a safe shutdown rather than an overheat / explode outcome.
If that helps one other person then it might be interesting for me and others to know. Equally, if it sounds like nonsense to a boiler engineer, that might also be useful for others.
The TL;DR is that I've found a solution that seems to work for my own boiler EA issue that nobody has mentioned. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. However, after several repeats of "I did that thing again and the problem went away" I'm fairly sure it works for my boiler, and so I'll share it in case it is helpful to others.
Skip to ">>>> The fix for my boiler <<<<" if you don't like walls of text or need details.
>>>> The background <<<<
My own Worcester Bosch Greenstar, think it's a 30 CDI, maybe now renamed a "classic", was installed in around 2010. It has had various periods of [EA --> Reset --> Run for a cycle or two -> EA .... and repeat for a couple of weeks]. Then I've "fixed it" for periods of around 6 months, before it recurs. Occasionally it would happen immediately _after_ a service, and certainly there seems to be a weather or seasonal aspect to it. We recently went from our very mild winter to a cold snap and literally on the day the weather went to single digits and I needed it the most (after 6 months of happy functioning) we woke up to a cold house.
When the boiler first started misbehaving a few years after it was fitted, I'd just had it serviced by a respected local boiler repair firm and could honestly tell them "it was fine before you serviced it". However, because the problem is intermittent (works for a few hours / cycles, before locking out with EA again), they weren't much help. Their list of "maybe we can replace this" was getting longer, I stopped bothering to get them back in after they'd replaced the "obvious stuff" and the predicted bills were going to go up as they desperately suggested things like new circuit boards, or whole new boilers. That's when I took matters into my own hands because the experts frankly didn't look that expert to me.
So far, over the last 8 years or so I've managed to get the boiler working after first (1) resetting it a few times, enough to conclude it's not just a "one off", (2) poking at / wiggling the wires, (3) checking the condensate pipe, (4) emptying the trap, and all the other things usually suggested on posts like these.
Initially, I wasn't very scientific so I wasn't able to identify what I was doing before it would magically start working again. Sometimes, it would work for weeks and I'd put the case back on with a sigh of relief and the boiler would stop working the very next cycle. So, I just took to leaving the case off. It lives in the loft (with a vertical flue), so it's no big deal.
I've now repeated my "fix" multiple times and while it isn't permanent (and seasonal changes do seem to trigger a relapse, unpredicatably), it takes a boiler that is working when I go to bed and reliably flashing EA in the morning, to one that fully works.
>>>> The fix for my boiler <<<<
I have narrowed my boiler's issue down to the component I've highlighted in red below, more precisely the wires that lead to it.
The wires leading to that component are terminated by spade connectors encased in plastic, connecting to the copper spade contacts on the component.
With the boiler turned off, all I do is take those connectors off and put them on again, usually trying to ensure I do it a few times to "clean the contacts". More effectively seems to be to push the red wires into the back of the plastic encasing the spade connectors as much as I can.
This would basically be a wiring loom issue.
Maybe try this yourself if you're having similar issues.
>>>> My hypothesis <<<<
That's all the factual stuff out the way. It works for my boiler. Everything below is pure, uneducated guesswork, and you can skip all the rest if you're not interested.
My hypothesis is that the wires going into the spade connectors aren't making very good contact - either because of higher resistance brought about by a layer of copper oxide building up, OR there's a dodgy joint which is improved when I pull off the connectors and/or manipulate the wires going into them. When the boiler starts failing, perhaps it has a higher-than-normal resistance on those wires, leading to something being just out of tolerance / not quite working as it should. Given the placement of the part, it's also very close to the case when it is put back on, which may explain why it would stop working for us when the case was put back on again.
Googling suggests the part the wires lead to is a "temperature limiter", but I don't have a clue why "fixing the contacts" to this part would have this effect. That said, I'm assuming that most parts in a boiler are "fail safe", so poor connections are generally going to tend towards a safe shutdown rather than an overheat / explode outcome.
If that helps one other person then it might be interesting for me and others to know. Equally, if it sounds like nonsense to a boiler engineer, that might also be useful for others.
Well, that’s the closest we’ve had to a remedy, so thanks for posting! 
As the one who started this thread, I can say that I haven’t now had the EA issue on my boiler for quite a few years - I’d say 4 or 5 years at least. My boiler hasn’t been touched by an engineer in all that time, and has been working perfectly. Edited to add: I’ve jinxed it now, haven’t I? And this is roughly the time of year it’s most likely to happen.
The only thing that I now do differently is I have a 10 minute early morning cycle in my programmable thermostat that demands maximum central heating temperature. This is purely so that the towel rails in the bathroom get warmed up, even in summer - otherwise the towels remain slightly damp. I turn down the TRVs on other rads during the summer to reduce the gas burned during this cycle.
When I first put this measure in place, I think I did still get the issue briefly - but given how regular the problem was it is remarkable that it hasn’t happened for such a long time. I can only presume that the constant exercising of the boiler’s central heating function over the warmer months (when it would otherwise not do central heating at all) somehow prevents the issue.
How that relates to the spade connector and component pictured above, I’m not sure. I wonder if that component is only involved in central heating (not hot water), and that maybe this is the component that benefits from the “exercise” I’ve been giving it? Does inactivity accelerate a tiny buildup of corrosion on the contacts?
As the one who started this thread, I can say that I haven’t now had the EA issue on my boiler for quite a few years - I’d say 4 or 5 years at least. My boiler hasn’t been touched by an engineer in all that time, and has been working perfectly. Edited to add: I’ve jinxed it now, haven’t I? And this is roughly the time of year it’s most likely to happen.
The only thing that I now do differently is I have a 10 minute early morning cycle in my programmable thermostat that demands maximum central heating temperature. This is purely so that the towel rails in the bathroom get warmed up, even in summer - otherwise the towels remain slightly damp. I turn down the TRVs on other rads during the summer to reduce the gas burned during this cycle.
When I first put this measure in place, I think I did still get the issue briefly - but given how regular the problem was it is remarkable that it hasn’t happened for such a long time. I can only presume that the constant exercising of the boiler’s central heating function over the warmer months (when it would otherwise not do central heating at all) somehow prevents the issue.
How that relates to the spade connector and component pictured above, I’m not sure. I wonder if that component is only involved in central heating (not hot water), and that maybe this is the component that benefits from the “exercise” I’ve been giving it? Does inactivity accelerate a tiny buildup of corrosion on the contacts?
This has been an interesting read!
I moved house 6 months ago in August and started getting the EA error at the start of December, when we were away on holiday. My 18 year old was at home and we were monitoring the heating remotely (it has a Hive thing connected to it!). After a reset, it starts straight away and then does the slow heating/syphon fill. I found an old service sheet and found that it has been doing this since 2020, so much for an honest home seller.
Since December, it played up about twice a month, always in the really cold weather. This month, it has been playing up twice a week, even in the mild weather, and ironically more so since my mate looked at it-could be a coincidence.
My mate who's a WB installer and gas engineer had a look at it and he couldn't find anything wrong. He said he could throw parts at it, but couldn't guarantee a fix.
It always seem to do it overnight, a few hours after we've gone to bed and turned the heating down.
Looks like it may be worth a look at the electrical connection and the gas valve pipe.
Odd how it only cuts out about 3 or 4 hours after we go to bed!
I moved house 6 months ago in August and started getting the EA error at the start of December, when we were away on holiday. My 18 year old was at home and we were monitoring the heating remotely (it has a Hive thing connected to it!). After a reset, it starts straight away and then does the slow heating/syphon fill. I found an old service sheet and found that it has been doing this since 2020, so much for an honest home seller.
Since December, it played up about twice a month, always in the really cold weather. This month, it has been playing up twice a week, even in the mild weather, and ironically more so since my mate looked at it-could be a coincidence.
My mate who's a WB installer and gas engineer had a look at it and he couldn't find anything wrong. He said he could throw parts at it, but couldn't guarantee a fix.
It always seem to do it overnight, a few hours after we've gone to bed and turned the heating down.
Looks like it may be worth a look at the electrical connection and the gas valve pipe.
Odd how it only cuts out about 3 or 4 hours after we go to bed!
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