Buderus GB142 emergency - blower, ionization, condensate issues. House is nearly freezing!

VWLogan

I'm not a heating / cooling professional. My home is being heated by a poorly maintained Buderus GB142 boiler running 4 zones of baseboard heating. I believe the boiler was installed in 2005 and I don’t know the maintenance history. However, I KNOW that it has not been cleaned / maintained in 4 years. Also, I don’t know of any Buderus service people in my area (Hastings, Minnesota)

Last night, I discovered the boiler locked out due to code 3L, 214 (Blower switched off during safety test). I reset the unit and witnessed the UBA3 click as it sent the start signal to the blower but no blower motion. After a few start attempts on the blower, the unit locked out with the same code. I removed the plastic cover on the blower motor and cleaned the integrated circuit board of built-up dust. Attempted the reset a second time with no change. On my third attempt at a reset, I manually gave the blower motor a ‘helping nudge’ while the UBA3 was sending the start signal. This succeeded in starting the blower motor and everything fired up normally.

Next, the unit had a momentary trip on code 6L, 229 (Ionization fails during the operating phase). The unit restarted automatically. The unit then went through a repeating cycle of operating for a few minutes and tripping on the 6L, 229 code, and restarting until eventually the blower fails to restart after a trip, causing code 3L, 214 again and locking out the boiler.

I repeated the reset with a ‘helping nudge’ to the blower motor and everything fired up normally again. At this point, the boiler is starting to make some progress and get the water warmed up. This also was when I noticed that the condensate trap is overflowing and pouring milky-grey condensate all down the wall and floor. No condensate is flowing properly through the trap. All of the condensate is pouring out the top of the trap on down the sides.

Finally, the boiler tripped on 6L 229 again, the blower failed to start causing a lockout on 3L 214, and I went to bed.

Additionally, during this sequence, the boiler once tripped on code 3P, 216 (Blower running too slowly) and once showed a E1, 247 code (UBA 3 Defective). However, these did not repeat at any point after reset. The boiler was running fine so far this winter until last night.

Please HELP! Its -3 DegF outside and the inside temperature is dropping rapidly. What should I do next?!?!

Logan

Ironman

Clean the condensate trap. You'll probably need a new blower too.

Zman

I don't see an easy answer here. It sounds likely that the lack of regular cleanings has caused a host of issues.
The heat exchanged has likely plugged up which has caused the trap to clog and the fan to fail. You can try unplugging the trap and giving the exchanger a quick clean, but in the end you will likely need to tear the whole thing down, clean the exchanger and replace a handful of components including the fan.