Thursday, May 19, 2011

Jim Moore - Vaillant ecoMax Seal & Valve Faults - Dangerous Fire Hazard

Dear Jim,

Our ecoMax set fire to the side of the house, the evening before Good Friday.

We controlled the fire before it reached the gas main..

The fire brigade, the emergency gas man, the fitter, the Vaillant emergency call out man and independent Vaillant experts have all said
"this was a Dangerous fault and have not seen this sort of boiler failure before". Had it happened when we were in bed, we'd be toast"



Vaillant knew it was faulty! yet they relied on the customer to find the fault, at the customers cost, instead of a national recall.
http://www.vaillant.co.uk/installers/Service/service-reminder/

"..Vaillant ecoMAX and ecoTEC boilers produced before April 2006 are at Risk" 

"...the silicon seal could degrade over time to the point where heat can escape into the boiler inner casing. 
If left for an extended period without attention, this can result in distortion of the burner door and / or plastic components internally within the boiler being damaged through overheating"

Vaillant NEED to dissect this boiler and find out why the Safety Measures Did Not Work.

I contact Vaillant though the normal channels and I am getting nowhere, being fobbed off with the usual script "Did you have it serviced? No, then its your own fault" 


Why didn't Vaillant replace our Seals?. 
We had enough letters and calls trying to sell us Services plans, not one said "You Must have it serviced because it's faulty and dangerous"

Who knows how many of these are in circulation that have never been serviced and have the potential to do serious damage to both property and indeed life.


We are still without a boiler, we have yet to hear from anyone from Vaillant who is concerned and willing to help us replace it.

I am asking you to help us and help the current owners of the ecoMax who's lives could be in jeopardy.


What Needs to be Done...

# Release a public statement to all owners of this boiler that they Must have the seals replaced ASAP free of charge.
Vaillant replace our dangerous boiler and arrange immediate fitting.


I look forward to hearing from you soon.
























2 comments:

  1. Very interesting have had the same issue with our Vaillant Ecomax combi boiler, last night.

    The seal failed, melted the inside of the boiler and discoloured the outer casing. The boiler is in a utility cupboard right next to our son's room. If this was left unnoticed as we slept god only knows what would have happened.

    I called Vaillnt and was told the same line about suppliers being advised to replace a silicone seal with a graphite one. It is unclear whether our plumber did this at the last service (end of 2011)

    to put it into context we have a fridge by Beko and they identified a fault. They proactively contacted us to tell us that they wanted to fix it. They then sent and engineer who did the work at no cost.

    Vaillant should have done the same thing, clearly they are putting profit before safety. They knew this was unsafe and have left the customer to identify the issue as it happens

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  2. Just found out that ours has been quietly melting itself too. Feel jolly lucky to have discovered it as it was all still running normally. Very sorry to hear you weren't so lucky. Did you ever get anywhere with Vaillant? If it had been a car there would have been a recall regardless of services etc. Ours had been serviced in 2007 - which is after Vaillant started putting different seals in - but the engineer didn't replace the seals. Can't believe the risk they're taking in not properly informing customers.

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