British Gas - 4 visits no solution!!!

[VELLACOTT]

British Gas have now been four times to my house. I have a Potterton Puma 100 combi boiler. It was new in 2000.

On the display panel (within the boiler once the case has been removed) there is a red LED that is always on. Now my 'fault diagnosis' manual that came with the boiler says that means I 'need to replace the hot water flow switch.' British Gas have changed the pump and looked at the heater exchange and don't know what the problem is.

British Gas say I should just get a new boiler. I know it is impossible to trouble shoot on line but:

I am at home now and the heating is on - all radiators hot etc. so the boiler is doing its job. If I turn on the hot water it runs hot, after about 10mins and the system starts banging and shuts itself down. To me it seems like a valve problem.

Does anyone know what that red LED on the Potterton board means....?

 

[HarrogateGas]

A very common fault is this on the puma range...the light means there is a demand for hot water....the flow switch sticks on this boiler so it fire up with no demand, overheats and bangs about. The flow switch is a doddle to change on this.............get BG back out and put them straight.

 

[ChrisR]

Pretty astonishing - we get some posts giving well deserved praise to BG, then ones like this!
Just to clarify - the red light on the PCB mans it THINKS there's a demand for HW. But it heats the radiators instead, until everything overheats.

This seems odd - any other symptoms? why would they change the pump....?

 

[ollski]

I would think you have a bit of a green engineer by the sound of it, maybe a little gentle guidance as provided here may point him in the right direction

 

[DP]

Ollski there is plenty debate elsewhere about BG advert that suggests non BG engineers are all thumbs.

I thought all BG guys were sh**e hot when it came to fixing boilers with aid of their laptops.

 

[ollski]

Ollski there is plenty debate elsewhere about BG advert that suggests non BG engineers are all thumbs.

I thought all BG guys were sh**e hot when it came to fixing boilers with aid of their laptops.

The laptops only really carry copies of manufacturer's instructions in most cases plus a few handy wiring diagrams. I haven't really seen the adverts people are getting the hump about to be honest, the last ones that stick in my mind were the silly training academy ones which were upsetting a lot of experienced guys. To be honest everyone plays the cowboy card its fair enough, I'm sure you tell customers that your work is of a higher standard than most.
There are a couple of thousand apprentices just out of their time on BG and most are in London to fill demand, so yes maybe in the short term the skill level has dropped, but give 'em 50 breakdowns a week and it will soon be on the up

 

[chrishutt]

50 breakdowns a week

But that's 10 breakdowns a day, or about 30 minutes each by the time you allow for breaks and travelling time. How can you possibly expect to do a proper job of fault finding and repair in 30 minutes?

I couldn't possibly come close to that without giving up on all the difficult ones. Mind you, it does suggest an explanation for a lot of inappropriate part changing such as in this example. The guys are in too much of a rush to think the thing through properly.

 

[ollski]

There's an element of that chris, but the vast majority of jobs can be done in 40 - 50 mins and don't require much fault finding pumps, valves, sticking rad valves etc and most boiler problems you have come across before so you check the likely stuff first. It's pretty uncommon to come across new problems that require full problem solving diagnostics....maybe 2 a week. That's when I ask on here

 

[DP]

Sorry Ollski, I let the customer make up his mind.

Unfortunately, the moment I start thinking I am good, the man upstairs sets me up for a fall.

 

[Agile]

Back to Potty Pumas!

I went to one this evening with TWO faults!

But the interesting thing is that when the boiler was first fitted five years ago, even the Potty engineers could not fix it and they fitted a NEW boiler after only two weeks service.

They left the old boiler on site for him to dispose of, he was sensible and stole the best parts off it and I used two today!

Tony

 

[VELLACOTT]

Thank you guys!!!!

I am pretty amazed that 4 engineers may have missed this. Not only that but the pump that they fitted is now leaking. A bit of a disaster all round!!!

 

[Agile]

I thought that the BG Laptop held a coveted list of common faults on each boiler model together with the fix?

Tony