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Any Premature Failures noted with Vitodens HX?

Paul Pollets
Paul Pollets Member Posts: 3,663
in THE MAIN WALL
Has anyone noticed a premature failure of older Viessmann Vitodens heat exchangers? A highly skilled and competent tech mentioned to me he'd seen a high rate of failure and pinholes at the top of the HX, not within the sections. I haven't, and only had 1 failure due to no cleaning for 13 years. If you have had the experience of installing more than 10 units, please comment...

Comments

  • GGross
    GGross Member Posts: 1,284
    No, just the failures you would typically see, mostly rotted out bottom/front/rear sections from condensate not draining (no cleaning or service done). there were some failed rear sections of the heat exchanger housing (some were deemed factory defect, others were improper pitch) I would be the guy who handles warranty for these for the vast majority of northern michigan (until this year there weren't any other distributors for a few hundred miles here) I have personally seen one pinhole as your friend described, and I tell you that system was as full of problems as they get so who knows what the cause was.
  • GW
    GW Member Posts: 4,831
    We have over 100 installed- no hx issues at all. Oddly, we’re seeing glitches with refractories, starting to break down on us on the newer models.
    Gary Wilson
    Wilson Services, Inc
    Northampton, MA
    gary@wilsonph.com
  • GGross
    GGross Member Posts: 1,284
    GW said:

    We have over 100 installed- no hx issues at all. Oddly, we’re seeing glitches with refractories, starting to break down on us on the newer models.

    Gary I have been selling quite a few refractory and chamber door insulations for the B1HA series boilers. Some of them I know flooded, but quite a few I have seen the refractory cracked where the unit seems to be properly maintained. I never had a chance to check combustion on these ones just saw pictures inside the unit. I have noticed one issue with that series that I neglected to mention before. There is a plate that the refractory connects to, that plate has a metal ring that keeps it in place, it was designed to be removed but is not a terribly easy thing to do. The refractory would have a crack in it, and the boiler would intermittently go off on high flue temp, what we found was that the ring was warped, almost bent up essentially drawing the flame through the rear flue baffle, I think I have seen 3 of these over the last 2 years. If you see more damaged refractory pieces it may be worth checking this out, or asking the owner if they have reset any error codes. The last one I dealt with we contacted tech support and they sent a new heat exchanger out at no charge, I think it may be something Viessmann is noticing as well.
    GW

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