Boiler not heating water properly

[kelslapt]

Hello

I'm new today as I need some help and I'm conscious of possibly being ripped off as I know nothing about heating so thought I'd ask your advice so I'm at least informed if I need to get someone out.

Please bear with me as I'm a) new to this and b) female so not overly technically minded and c) this is pretty long

I have a Potterton Suprima boiler in my kitchen which works the heating and water. I am currently using the timer thing for heating the water only.

There is a panel on the front of the boiler with a red light with 'temperature' next to it and underneath a 'green' light and then a reset button. There is also a dial which counts up to max (this can be turned 'off')

What is happening is that when the water is on to heat up, the pilot light comes on and all seems to be fine, I can hear the boiler doing it's thing then after a few minutes the red light goes out and the green light starts flashing

To get the water back on I usually end up just pressing reset and twisting the dial until the pilot light goes back on.

I do eventually by this method get hot water (usually extremely hot). Then what is occassionally happening is that the timer for the water is off and I go upstairs and I can hear the hot water tank humming/ticking over which is rather annoying (there's a temp dial? on this which is at around 70, should this be turned down?). I then have to go downstairs and press the reset button on the boiler to stop this noise.

The system is just over 4 years old (new build house) and I've had nothing but problems since the day I moved in (system had to be powerflsuhed last year cos the heating was failing to work)

I hope I've included everything but if you need to know more please let me know (in simple term please )


Many thanks in advance


Kels

 

[bster]

The cylinder stat (the dial on the hotwater cylinder) should ideally be set to 55-60.

sorry i cant offer any more help at the moment but one of the other guys will surely help you out soon

 

[kelslapt]

Thanks bster I shall go and turn it down

Kelsey

 

[chrishutt]

Suprimas are notorious for faulty PCBs (printed circuit boards = £££). I don't know the boiler well enough to comment, but at least this post will bump it back to the top where it's more likely to be picked up by someone who knows better. You can also find hundreds of Suprima threads using the search facility. Bad luck having a Suprima.

 

[kelslapt]

Thanks Chris

I now feel sick after looking at the search facility

Should this really have failed after only 4 years? I think I'll go back to the housebuilders to pay for this under Trade descriptions as they've fitted something not of reasonable quality (already had them to pay for the powerflushing)

I guess this is going to be very very expensive. It is better too get a new boiler instead? I have no idea of prices so will have a web search

Kelsey

 

[chrishutt]

Allow around £2000 for new boiler installation (condensing boiler, system flushing, controls upgrade, etc.), depending on which boiler you choose. A condensing boiler will be more efficient by about 15% so there is a return on the investment.

But if the Suprima's only 4 years old it seems a pity to scrap it. See what others say about the reliability of new PCBs. If you only need to change it once (say £200?) it wouldn't be too bad, but I hear that even the new PCBs are prone to fail. Apart from the PCB the Suprima's probably a pretty reliable boiler.