A ticking Intergas boiler in Zaandam, fixed during its service

I went to Zaandam to service an Intergas Kombi Kompakt HRE 28/24. The customer had one complaint: a ticking noise every time the boiler heated up, and again as it cooled down.

Why an Intergas ticks

On these boilers the ticking is normal, and it isn’t a sign that something is about to break. The aluminium front plate (the burner cover you see in the first photo) is bolted onto the heat exchanger. As the boiler heats up and cools down, the metal expands and shrinks, and where the two surfaces meet it ticks.

Intergas supplies a ceramic grease for exactly this, and I carry it. On older models it goes on the fixing points. On newer models like this one it goes on the front plate itself.

What I did

I took the front plate off as part of the service. It hangs on four bolts; I greased the other bolt holes on the plate, as you can see in the second photo, and put it back. The last two photos show the heat exchanger with the plate off and the boiler opened up.

The rest was the standard service: the heat exchanger brushed and vacuumed clean (the deposits between the fins are visible in the third photo), the condensate tray and siphon rinsed, and new gaskets fitted before the front plate went back on. Then I ran the boiler through a full heat-up and cool-down. The ticking had gone.

The full list of what a service includes, and why I always replace the gaskets, is on the boiler servicing page.

Time on site: 45 minutes, service included.

Does your boiler tick too?

If it’s an Intergas and it only ticks while heating up or cooling down, it’s almost certainly this. It’s harmless, and the easiest moment to fix it is at the next boiler service. My guide to boiler noises explains which sounds are normal and which aren’t.

Send me a message on WhatsApp with your postcode and, if you can, a short video with the sound.