Bolier won't light

[BlueRiband]

My boiler under the fire won't light,Well it does when you push them two buttons in but once you release them it goes off again.

This happened last year too and the bloke just went up into the loft and pressed a by the tank,I've made sure the waters full but can't see any button.

Anyone got any ideas?

[abeacock]

Do you need to keep them pressed in for a certain amount of time to get sufficient gas flow?

I take it you don't have the manual for the boiler...

[Lee H]

Once it is lit you should keep it pressed in for about 20-30 seconds and then release.

If it's still going out after this then it's time to get a gas engineer out I'm afraid.

[Whalefish]

If you are following the correct lighting procedure and the pilot light (if this is what you mean) still goes out then it sounds like the thermocouple is dead. They are not very expensive and usually pretty easy to fit.
Dig out the manual and make sure you are trying to light it the right way. Some boilers make you wait a set period of time before attempting to relight a pilot.

[BigFatCat]

Yup, our boiler has suffered a couple of dead thermocouples stopping it lighting, called British Gas under our service cover and got them replaced.

[BlueRiband]

Cheers i've tryed doing the 30 second bit but the flame just went out again,Looks like i've gotta get a gas engineer out

[bledd]

if you dress up in dodgy old clothes + fake facial hair he might think he's being secretly filmed for one of those anti-scamming programs

[mart_haj86]

Dont suppose the boiler is a baxi potterton by any chance? Ive had no end of problems with mine and neither have a lot of other people from what I gather from watching watchdog last night...

[5cupa]

have u bled the radiators. mine turns itself off if there is any air in the system

[fat jez]

I've had this twice. The first time was a dodgy thermocouple, the second was the gas flow regulator.

I suspect yours is the former problem though, since the boiler can't detect any heat from the pilot light and therefore assumes it failed to ignite and shuts off the flow of gas.

Cheers,
Stephen

[jamin]

Nice time of year to go without heating and hot water mate!

I would agree with ^^ sounds like a thermocouple, but could be a sticking solenoid or fan gone, not too hard to replace but remember get a corgi engineer in to fix it. Gas is the only thing I won't touch, don't fancy suffocating my wife with CO or blowing my house up.

My baxi has never let me down, the last owner of the house had the fan changed 3 years ago, thought it used a bit too much gas when we moved in but fitted an external timer and a thermostat on the heating circuit and now its fine. Whats your beef with them?