Worcester Greenstar boiler: EA error code

[Andehh]

An intermittent fault? Time to buy a service & repair plan.

[Rickyy]

Pheo said:

Sherratthead said:

Oh thanks... I've not seen an override button, well nothing obvious anyway.

Re the 'on signal at the boiler', I have no idea.

Why oh why do they have to make them so bloomin' confusing! If everything was all designed by Apple, it's be much easier, lol! Their products are so much easier to understand.

Thanks for your advice...

He means use a multimeter to check the cable going into the boiler from the thermostat that tells it to fire. Its switched live - so when the thermostat calls for heat/water, you'd see it as 240v on a multimeter, as the thermostat completes the connection.

If it's Worcester's own DT10 or DT20 RF. There is no override button and no way of checking voltage, as the timer plugs into the back side of the PCB.

OP, try pairing the stat to the timer from scratch. If you have the booklet for the stat, the sequence should be in there.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

OP here!

My boiler once again went into an "EA" hissy fit the other day, and needed resetting several times before it started working. So my problem is still not solved.

It always happens in autumn, and lasts for a few days (perhaps a week or two at worst), before the boiler sorts itself out and works perfectly for the rest of the winter. It's very odd that it has happened now, because the heating has been active for at least 6 weeks already this year. So it isn't related to the heating firing for the first time after the summer; my suspicion is that it's caused by a particular combination of outside temperature and humidity (cold and damp, for example). It also can't be the cold on its own, because the boiler is working fine this morning and it's -2C outside (but judging by the blue sky the humidity is not very high).

[Rickyy]

Where is your condensate pipe routed? If it's outside and it was -2 degrees, it may well have frozen. This will trigger the EA fault code as condensate backs up into the heat exchanger, block the flue way and the burner suffocates itself causing flame failure.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

No, I'm certain it's not that. Every time it has thrown the "EA" code it has been well above freezing. This morning it was -2 and it is working perfectly. Also, the condensate pipe is inside the house with only half an inch peeping out of the wall outside.

It's a mystery. I've had new electrodes, gas valve, some kind of rubber air flap thing. But still, when autumn or early winter comes, it goes through this routine for a few days and then seems to snap out of it and runs faultlessly for the rest of the winter. It has now been running fine for 2 or 3 days, so I'm hoping it has sorted itself out now.

I'm considering just living with it to be honest. It's only a minor irritation coming home or waking up to a cold house and having to reset it - although it slightly undermines my confidence about going away.

[Rickyy]

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

No, I'm certain it's not that. Every time it has thrown the "EA" code it has been well above freezing. This morning it was -2 and it is working perfectly. Also, the condensate pipe is inside the house with only half an inch peeping out of the wall outside.

It's a mystery. I've had new electrodes, gas valve, some kind of rubber air flap thing. But still, when autumn or early winter comes, it goes through this routine for a few days and then seems to snap out of it and runs faultlessly for the rest of the winter. It has now been running fine for 2 or 3 days, so I'm hoping it has sorted itself out now.

I'm considering just living with it to be honest. It's only a minor irritation coming home or waking up to a cold house and having to reset it - although it slightly undermines my confidence about going away.

It's a strange one! I've installed a lot of CDI Classics and they have all been faultless, but I've had two play up recently with this very fault. No rhyme or rhythm to it, they just go through a phase of playing up.

I did manage to catch one in the act, it was firing up, but wasn't recognising it and made several attempts to relight before locking out.

I called Worcester out to both of them, but never did find out what the problem was.

[ooo000ooo]

We've had this problem for the last few weeks, had our own boiler people out and the Worcester people. Of course when they were out the boiler worked perfectly. Worcester guy changed some bit to do with the flame as he reckoned it was most likely to be the problem. So far so good.
He also reckoned the gas regulator on the meter should be changed (c6?) as they had a few faulty ones recently.
Gas supplier refused to change it as it was working ok when he tested it

[don'tbesilly]

This fault occurred regularly on mine.
It's 18 months old and just been serviced by the installer.

No problems found and it worked fine for a few days post service until it started throwing up the fault code and needed resetting frequently,once twice within the space of 30 minutes.

I set the hot water to Eco-mode (so it doesn't pre-heat) and I've now not had the fault since doing it (at least 3 wks).

[chil84]

I would go with the meter governor sticking on first demand after a long rest time, as above.

I have lost count of how many times this happens if your governor looks old or rusty etc it's probably had it. The smaller square type governors are prone I believe that's the c6 as mentioned.

Cdi's are generally very reliable and you have changed most parts that could through up EA, time to think outside the box get your gas safe guy to call gas network and tell them he suspects a sticking governor. I have never had any of them refuse to change it, you can't test it.

[tony13579]

I too have a 1 year old green star boiler with the EA code in wet/damp weather at 10 & 2 degrees out side.
I have already had the installation team back after a EA fault which turns out to be gas starvation due to a meter/regulator blockage. I had transco change both.

I can easily reset it but my wife can't reach due to MS. It's very annoying

Edited by tony13579 on Friday 9th January 18:22

[tony13579]

The #### thing has triped to EA twice tonight. The temp outside is 3.5 degrees cold but not freezing.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

chil84 said:

I would go with the meter governor sticking on first demand after a long rest time, as above.

But it doesn't happen after a long rest period. We use our shower every day throughout the year, so the boiler fires frequently. Also, the problem tends to happen in autumn after the central heating has already been firing successfully for several weeks - it's definitely not a "first demand" problem. And our cooker hob is gas and gets used all year round as well. It can't be something sticking at the meter.

For me, I think it has now been several weeks since the EA code has popped up, so I'm hoping the problem has gone away for another year - as it typically does.

Edited by Dr Mike Oxgreen on Monday 5th January 06:19

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

I'm going to try an experiment next autumn.

It seems to me that there are two things we don't know:

• what causes the problem to arise,
• what causes the problem to go away.

So far on this thread we've been thinking mainly about the first point, but haven't really considered the second.

I'm wondering whether it's the action of resetting the boiler and letting it go through its "-||-" routine multiple times that gradually reduces the probability of the problem happening again. So I'm going to try resetting the boiler (and letting it go through the "-||-" cycle) over and over again one day in October, to see if that might prevent the issue.

My boiler seems to have stopped doing the "EA" thing for this year so I won't produce any meaningful results if I do it now. Maybe somebody else who is currently experiencing it could do the multiple reset test - I'd suggest doing it at least 5 times, and better still 10 times if you can stand the tedium.

[Pheo]

Have you called WB and asked them for advice? I hear they're quite good.

[KTF]

Pheo said:

Have you called WB and asked them for advice? I hear they're quite good.

This is worth doing if you have not already as they are happy to help over the phone. They also offer a fixed price option to send someone to come and fix it for you.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

I have had a WB engineer call-out twice, with a new gas valve, electrode, some kind of rubber flappy thing, etc. I agree they're good and helpful, but alas so far have not solved the problem. To a certain extent I've reached the "can't be arsed" stage - for me it's a relatively minor inconvenience that seems to go away after a while each year.

[Sheepshanks]

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

I have had a WB engineer call-out twice, with a new gas valve, electrode, some kind of rubber flappy thing, etc. I agree they're good and helpful, but alas so far have not solved the problem.

I'm amazed they're coming out under warranty when you haven't ever had it serviced.

[Rickyy]

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

I'm going to try an experiment next autumn.

It seems to me that there are two things we don't know:

• what causes the problem to arise,
• what causes the problem to go away.

So far on this thread we've been thinking mainly about the first point, but haven't really considered the second.

I'm wondering whether it's the action of resetting the boiler and letting it go through its "-||-" routine multiple times that gradually reduces the probability of the problem happening again. So I'm going to try resetting the boiler (and letting it go through the "-||-" cycle) over and over again one day in October, to see if that might prevent the issue.

My boiler seems to have stopped doing the "EA" thing for this year so I won't produce any meaningful results if I do it now. Maybe somebody else who is currently experiencing it could do the multiple reset test - I'd suggest doing it at least 5 times, and better still 10 times if you can stand the tedium.

All the "-||-" cycle is doing, is running the boiler at minimum output, in order to fill the condense trap.

It's an odd fault, with no rhyme or rhythm to its cause or fix. I think it is to do with flame rectification though, as I did catch one of my customers boilers go through the ignition sequence and hear it fire up, but it restarted the ignition phase as if a flame wasn't detected. It didn't lock out that time, but definitely made more than one attempt to relight.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Sheepshanks said:

I'm amazed they're coming out under warranty when you haven't ever had it serviced.

I effectively have had a service now, because the first engineer did all the CO2 calibration etc.

[tony13579]

Our boiler is in heating use all year. I am wondering if it's a gas network issue with them reducing the supply pressure in the summer and not restoring it quick enough