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Thread: Brivis ducted heating issues.

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    Default Brivis ducted heating issues.

    Worst bloody time of year and our heater looks to have died, being an older model lots of parts are obsolete (1996). Igniter ,fan etc works but keep getting the rest light flashing and pressing the button doesnt fix it.
    I have tried the rest button on the circuit board and then i get the ALM diagnostic LED flashing and even google doesnt tell me what that means, i have cleaned out the jets as it appears to be a gas issue as i can hear the solenoid click but no gas is released. Cant find anyone that looks like a thermocouple or thermistor, i'm thinking the gas control valve is dead and they are no longer available.



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    Got a model number?
    If u want to go on an expedition get a Land Rover, if u want to come home from an expedition get a Landcruiser!

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    that it ?

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    Quote Originally Posted by hoe View Post


    that it ?
    No VR8605, they only come up on Russian sites for some reason.

    Sent from my K10000 using Tapatalk

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    I feel your pain after stuffing around with mine for two years
    Model type, internal or external, thermo switched?. Number one check your solenoid switch
    Guarantee it is your board, on my second one, changed thermo switch, thermo coupler etc
    Depending on your model they had a defective board on them 1996+/_ same age as mine
    A guy does reco boards in Frankston, another mob in Moorabbin
    Mine would work but had to keep manually switching it on till it fired
    Take a picture of the front, all the best
    There is a fine line between "Hobby" and "Madness"

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    loanrangiel (22-08-19)

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    Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

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    Quote Originally Posted by hoe View Post


    Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk
    Thats similar but missing a solenoid, these brivis heaters are very common yet can hardly find any info or troubleshooting of them online.

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    Quote Originally Posted by allover View Post
    I feel your pain after stuffing around with mine for two years
    Model type, internal or external, thermo switched?. Number one check your solenoid switch
    Guarantee it is your board, on my second one, changed thermo switch, thermo coupler etc
    Depending on your model they had a defective board on them 1996+/_ same age as mine
    A guy does reco boards in Frankston, another mob in Moorabbin
    Mine would work but had to keep manually switching it on till it fired
    Take a picture of the front, all the best
    I have read that the boards give issues but its hard to test without getting someone to look at it, i'll take a pic and post it.
    Last edited by loanrangiel; 22-08-19 at 05:50 PM.

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    Bloody typical, i took the CB covers off to take the pic and came inside and turned it on then went out to check and it lit after i hit the reset button. Could this be a faulty thermo switch or thermocouple ? i cant find where to even look for them on this model - Brivis Buffalo HE5.

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    Set the timer thursday night and it started and ran for the 3hr set time friday morning but every other time we turn it on it runs for about 15mins before the reset light flashes ?

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    Don't stuff around like i did, just change the board then concentrate on the other problems if they persist
    There is a fine line between "Hobby" and "Madness"

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    And another link, tell me when to stop
    There is a fine line between "Hobby" and "Madness"

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    Came across this thread in my googlings....it's not that old so I thought I'd dig it up.

    I have a mid 90's Brivis HE5 Wombat ducted LPG Heater.
    It currently has an intermittent problem that is proving quite difficult to accurately troubleshoot.
    The OP's symptoms are very similar to mine - so I'm wondering where this ended up?

    So the issue is an intermittent failure to ignite at the beginning of the cycle. Both the room thermostat (Honeywell Chronotherm III a.k.a "Vulcan") and the control board on the heater go into a rest/alarm mode.
    The alarm can be reset at the room thermostat (RT) or it can be reset on the control board (CB). The will trigger another attempt (logic goes back to step 1).....sometimes it will fire-up for a few more cycles, sometimes the reset does not help.

    What I do know:
    - There's gas in the bottle.

    - The suction filter is new & clean.

    - The RT is sending the correct call signal when the room temp drops. The control board confirms this with a solid green STAT light.

    - The batteries in the RT are charged.

    - The combustion fan is working properly (I rebuilt this fan motor a couple of years back). The control board is seeing the vacuum signal from the comb. fan & the green PRES light confirms this during the start logic steps. The air flow from the PVC exhaust flue is strong.

    - The main supply fan is working OK. The control board confirms this with a solid green FAN light. The air flow at the registers is strong. (admittedly the supply (main) fan hasn't had any maintenance for years...)

    - The gas control valve solenoid tested at about approx. 70 ohms. The valve appears to function correctly with a clean action & immediate shut-off when no flame appears or power is cut.

    - I have cleaned the flame sensor with some solvent & a scourer. (It's not a delicate sensor).

    - When the system successfully re-fires after a regular pause, everything goes perfectly. The Hot Surface Ignitor (HSI) glows bright.

    - When the system fails to re-ignite the logic steps are all normal up until the point where the ignitor should glow....at which point it doesn't and the board goes into alarm instantly.

    - I have put my meter across the output terminals on the ignition module. I got 0VAC when system shut-down, before fire-up I get approx. 17VAC....and when it switches ignitor on I get between 27VAC and 33VAC. (brivis tech support guy mentioned something about 28VAC used somewhere in the system...)

    - My control board (TEK304 I believe) has the following red alarm lights: ALM (alarm?), ROLL (flame roll out), OHS (o'heat main fan), OHF (o'heat comb. fan) The only light I get is the ALM. It doesn't appear to flash with any interval or sequence. Just on/off continuous.

    - Both the main control CB & the ignition CB look fine/healthy. They are clean and shiny. No swollen or burnt capacitors. No burnt/damaged resistors. No funny smells. I've checked the cable connections that I can see/access. Everything seems OK.


    What I don't know:

    - Is the fault being triggered by a faulty connection/board in the old RT?....or at the heater?

    - Why is it so intermittent?

    - Is it the ignition module intermittently failing to heat the ignitor?....or is the system simply stopping at that logic step because there is an ALM condition elsewhwere.

    - There is next to nothing about that ALM light on the www (at least that I could see from 2 days of searching...)

    - The internal condition of the heat exchanger (HX) ??

    I have had one of the local "techs" look at it last week. The business is a registered service agent for Brivis. The guy was very disappointing unfortunately. He didn't spend a lot of time digging into the issue. He just looked at the age of the system & wrote it off as not serviceable. Five minutes into our post-inspection conversation and he was pitching a new $3k system like his life depended on it.
    He started rattling off all kinds of un-proven problems that might be wrong.....and therefore it's not worth "wasting" any time/money on it.
    He did mention that maybe it's the ignition module, but he wasn't sure.
    That might work on worried house wives and some millennials....but not with me. An HVAC technician should be able to diagnose accurately when he's charging $100 p/h.

    I am not against replacing it with a new heater if we find a fatal issue. But I'll be damned if it's only a $100-$200 part to fix & I can get another couple of winters out of it.

    I know it's a long post but I hate it when people don't give much info and expect the forum to read their mind.

    I'm hoping someone with more experience & knowledge has a new clue....?




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    Suggest its not getting its light acknowledgement

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    The post above yours gives you the link, change out the control board as they are a known problem, then start diagnosing. I wasted a year stuffing around before i changed mine, result instant karma
    There is a fine line between "Hobby" and "Madness"

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    Quote Originally Posted by allover View Post
    The post above yours gives you the link, change out the control board as they are a known problem, then start diagnosing. I wasted a year stuffing around before i changed mine, result instant karma
    OK...thanks for the reply.

    Could you tell me a bit more about what your CB was doing?
    What were the faults / symptoms?

    Mine seems fine, but I'm not presuming I don't have a fault with it yet...
    In my experience when a CB goes tits-up they usually fail completely. A burst capacitor or burnt resistor is sometimes visible. Or a burnt smell or some other noticeable carnage...
    ....and the system being controlled either goes completely bonkers (which mine is not doing) or you get no response what-so-ever?
    But my heater is working normally about 50% of the time, the other 50% it does a normal start-up sequence & then stops at the ignition step.
    I might call the guys you linked above this week & see if they have info.

    I'm not dismissing your advice (much appreciated)- I've got the debit card ready to start buying parts - just wanna get as much info as possible to try and troubleshoot accurately.

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    Yep, you described it, that's why i delayed it for 12 months, what a waste of time, again get a change over board and then start diagnosing the problems!
    ps, also had a "technician" look at the unit with no result. Last time i tell you, last time i post until you get a new board!!
    There is a fine line between "Hobby" and "Madness"

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    From the early photo, the CPU is in a socket.
    Remove carefully and squirt the socket with contact cleaner (do not use WD40) and re seat.
    A common problem.

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    It ended up dead as a dodo, tried a replacement pcb and was then told something in the burner has failed and not economical to repair.
    Currently have no heating and no funds to replace it so back to cutting wood for the fireplace until i can find a good used unit that will drop onto the old base.

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    Bloody dejavu, replaced the heater last year and and was well until the big power outage yesterday.Now it will light up and then shuts down with a rollout error, Brivis star pro sp421.

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