I have a Potterton HE Plus boiler which is just coming upto 6 years old, was installed in my new-build house. Recently I started getting error E133, a reset would fix the problem and after around a week or 2 it would return. This happened a few times. Eventually the other day it happened again and resetting it was fixing it. Tried it resetting many times and eventually it fired up again. Called in a Gas Safe registered heating engineer company. They came, but couldnt replicate the problem. They removed the unit that holds the burner and the 2 electrodes. Engineer cleaned carbon from the plate with some wire brush. He then cleaned inside where the burner sits (i dont know what this section is called, but think it might be the heat exchanger) He brushed inside the unit for a bit and then poured water down it to rinse it down. He said due to lack of service, the inside of it is quite corroded and claimed that it might start leaking in few years. He said once it starts leaking you cannot fix it and you have to change the boiler. Seems quite dramatic. He didn't really explain properly what options were and what would happen if that unit started leaking. When he says leaking does he mean leaks gases? Can anyone advise?
I'm monitoring it to see if the E133 comes back, as it's intermittent, not sure if the cleaning would have sorted out the problem. Also, the main gasket that sits between the combustion chamber and the plate he removed, he re-used it. Is this ok to do? My concern is that he also used the wire brush on the gasket gently so worried that would that not damage the gasket?
