Hot Water issue - Potterton Puma 80e

[Gasguru]

No this engs. another clueless wonder

You've got nearly a 50% drop in flowrate through the boiler...so there's a problem. Of course there's will be a drop in water flowrate after going through the boiler but not to that extent.

Burner modulation and the temperature control on these is never that great, but if you set the temp control to a low setting the burner should modulate up and down and finally settle at a low rate.


"He said it should increase the water temp by about 35 degrees" Load of carp

Manufacturers specify the performance of their combis by qouting a hot water flowrate raised by 35 degrees (sometimes 30 or 40 degrees too). The boiler itself will attempt to heat the water to the target temperature setting on the front of the boiler but if the flow's too great it won't achieve that, and if the flow's to little once it gets around 60 degrees it will modulate down and shut off the burner. The boiler does not understand a 35 degree difference Unfortunately there are many "engineers" that can't understand this either

 

[eddieed]

Hi all I am resurecting this thread at the boiler has failed again...

This time it wont ignite it was intermittent to start with and now it has failed completely...

Now I learnt my lesson with NPower and have moved back to British Gas...I know I know but I couldn't take the risk of it failing on me again and I got a good deal.

So engineer has identified it as 1 of 2 pottential issues - either the air flow control or the Ignition PCB part number is 929689. He has order the air flow control but the PCB is now obsolete from the manufacturer. Can anyone recommend somewhere to get one of these so it can be replaced or indeed may have one which they will sell me, happy to send them the old one afterwards.

Thanks in advance again the help.

 

[Terry lambert]

http://www.cetltd.com

 

[eddieed]

Thanks for that.

I should have said anything in or near Reading would be handy so I can collect today!

I have found a new one on ebay and its in Basigstoke so have contacted the seller.

 

[St0rmer66]

Main PCB is *definitely* not obsolete. Tell him it's part 289-551 if he insists. Have used one recently and just checked on the laptop. Don't pay for it yourself.

Unless it's the "Full sequence control" board... That's showing as obsolete. FYI, if you can get hold of it then so can BG. Engineers are required to confirm with the parts department before telling you it's definitely obsolete. They will source it from wherever they can if they don't have it in stock. If the engineer doesn't play ball then the complaints department can sort it (no need to shout at them etc, just be firm).

 

[eddieed]

I think there are 3 PCBs in this boiler 2 are still available but the one that has failed on mine is the sequence control PCB? GC no. 289-555. To be fair to the guy he showed me the part on his computer with the obsolete sign next to it.

He did say I may be able to get one from somewhere, and in have found one on ebay that I am collecting tomorrow from Baisingstoke. Thanks for the help though.

 

[St0rmer66]

Have to say I am not convinced at the diagnosis. Air pressure switch is VERY easy to diagnose and don't go wrong often (usually only if they get wet or melted by another problem). That puts doubt in my mind about the rest of it. Not saying it's definitely wrong but...

 

[eddieed]

He did say it's more likely to be the PCB but it could also be the air flow switch, as the PCB was obsolete he was willing to try the other to see if it fixed it.

I am relatively confident he had a good understanding, he said there was nothing coming from the board!

 

[eddieed]

So I am collecting the board today only £20 so not too bad. If neither of these things work then up to them to try and find out what does.

 

[eddieed]

Board collected and replaced all working again. Thanks

Let's hope that's it for a bit. Touch wood!

 

[eddieed]

Well it lasted a whole 24 hours.

Now the boiler constantly goes into lockout. British Gas coming back on Wednesday anyway but with 2 young children in the house I think it may be time for a new boiler, I can't be doing with the lack of reliability!

 

[Agile]

In my view your boiler is totally repairable!

It is getting rather long in the tooth though.

Its your choice.

But since you have the service contract then why not make it work for you?

Tony

 

[eddieed]

Hi agile,

I agree that it is repairable and at the end of the day I will get them to repair it as we need something working as we have a 4 and 1 year old, no hot water is an issue.

I will ask them to fix it but as you say it is getting rather long in the tooth, I think it's about 18 years old from what we can tell, maybe more and it's the reliability that becomes an issue, if it breaks down in winter and we have no heating that is a bit of an issue especially with the children, I think I would prefer that we have something reliable. British Gas will repair it until a part is no longer available from the manufacturer and then that's it, either up to me to get it repaired outside of contract or replace. More and more parts are becoming obsolete.

We have decided to stay in the house 2 more years so might be better to swap it now and get 2 years of gas savings back and 2 years of use out of it than later, some decisions to make!

 

[eddieed]

OK So I am back and after more advice on this one, whilst we are likely to replace the boiler I need something that works whilst we wait as it could be a few weeks! Currently getting quotes as the BG quote of £3600 for a straight swap was obviously excessive!!

The situation we are in now is that the boiler works the majority of the time. It then seems to have a fit of locking out, and the lockout light comes on. The reset button resets the boiler and the lockout light goes off. Sometimes the boiler will then work again straight away, sometimes it will lockout again straight away and keep doing this seemingly never to work again, until it is turned off at the mains, normally overnight, and then it works again.

We have gone 3 days between lock outs to it doing it several times a day.

Recent part replacement was the Full Sequance Control board (Bought Brand new by myself and fitted by me), the engineer has been in today and replaced the air flow switch - I was always doubtful as to the replacement of this as didn't think it was right as Stormer said)

Prior to the Control board being replaced the boiler was not locking out, it just wasn't firing.

So thoughts, our engineer is going to phone Potterton to get there help, but any thoughts I can throw at them would be very useful!

Thanks again all!

 

[eddieed]

Gents - just a quick resurection of this as I am after a bit more advice.

British Gas are blaming the Full Sequance Control board again and have therefore stated they wont fix it (Obsolete Part). However this has just been replaced. If it genuinely could be this part then I'll buy another one (£42 for a reconditioned one) in order to have something that works consistenly until we are able to sort out the replacement boiler.

With the symptons we have does anyone think this is the issue or should I be pushing BG to look at it properly.

Symptons are boiler not lighting and going into lock out mode on hot water sometimes. Seems Random as to when it happens. Reset and it sometimes fires straight away, sometimes it doesn't. Not sure about Central Heating side!

Pressure is OK.

Thanks in advance I do appreciate all the help and advice I have been given on here.