How is it the genuine ones fail so often?
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We had an engineer who took over some tasks a retiring guy used to do. Never had any problems when Les did them, usually only needed checking each week and adjusting every 3 months or so.
New guy takes over, (after being shown by Les what to look for and how to rectify if needed), and within 12 months he had used the entire stock of spares because he wasn't checking properly and when they failed he was putting the spares in wrong. Various faults were the incorrect part was used, fitted with 'persuasion' rather than patience, not lubricated with the correct grease/oil etc.
So maybe some genuine parts fail because they have been fitted incorrectly but correctly enough to work for a period of time before failing?
New guy takes over, (after being shown by Les what to look for and how to rectify if needed), and within 12 months he had used the entire stock of spares because he wasn't checking properly and when they failed he was putting the spares in wrong. Various faults were the incorrect part was used, fitted with 'persuasion' rather than patience, not lubricated with the correct grease/oil etc.
So maybe some genuine parts fail because they have been fitted incorrectly but correctly enough to work for a period of time before failing?
N
nauseous
I will insist the fitter uses copious amounts of lube when he bungs it in.. 
The testing of the PCB for a gas boiler is far more involved and hence expensive than the testing of a computor or televison and the components used in boiler PCBs should be industrial grade due to the temperatures inside the boiler casing. An industrial grade computor can be three or more times the cost of a domestic / commercial computor with the same computing power.
Typical temperature ranges for digital ICs are
Commercial grade: −0 to +70 °C
Industrial grade: −25 to +85 °C
Military grade: −55 to +125 °C
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Does this present significant health and safety risk though? Surely the fail safe measures already implemented on circuitry offer enough protection whether the part is genuine OEM or not ?
Yes because a PCB fitted with 0--70°C components may malfunction if the ambient is greater than 70°C It would probably be OK up to 90°C if the components were good quality ones. .
Some low cost semi-conductor devices ( often cloned from genuine items ) do not work reliably above 30°C due to very poor quality control during manufacture of the devices. When these low cost poor quality devices are used in counterfeit electronic equipment they often have forged labelling to make them look like genuine devices from reputable semi-conductor manufacturers. And some are so badly produced they do not work reliable at any temperature.
A lot of the fail safe functions rely on the micro-processor on the PCB functioning correctly at all times and in all circumstances.
Thanks for explaining, although that doesn't explain why they have not taken adequate measures to stop the sale of these products if the health and safety risks were that severe.
B
blightymam
In a word - money. Ebay doesn't care, it just wants the dosh!
some boiler electronics / pcb's are a total nightmare
case being the infamous Potty suprima boards , that they must have made a fortune out of repacements imho
Some Symsi pcbs used in some vaillants & gloworms that will go t*ts up if u turn the fuse spur off imho
J&S reno fan pcbs can be an issue . imho
so on & so forth
And the situation is likely to get worse
case being the infamous Potty suprima boards , that they must have made a fortune out of repacements imho
Some Symsi pcbs used in some vaillants & gloworms that will go t*ts up if u turn the fuse spur off imho
J&S reno fan pcbs can be an issue . imho
so on & so forth
And the situation is likely to get worse
N
nauseous
I'm guessing by the time you've taken in consideration the often large out lay, disruption, expensive maintenance and servicing cost. Sometimes expensive multiple parts replacement and overall general unreliability of gch. It may be more feasible practical and reliable to rely on electric heating. No danger of costly leaks and water flood damage either. I wonder?
To be fair to Potterton they outsourced the PCB manufacture and (it seems) trusted the PCB manufacturer to produce a reliable PCB that performed the functions specified by Potterton. The PCB manufacturer seems to have been the "bad guy"
The PCB manufacturer designed ( ? ) the board in way that made assembly faster by having over sized holes for the pins of the connectors soldered into the board. The pins should have been a tight fit in the holes to make a mechanical rigid fixing before being soldered. Without that mechanical fixing the solder joint was the only thing fixing the pin in place and with the vibration from the cables plugged onto the connector the solder joints failed. When Potterton became aware of this they did change PCB manufacture and the replacement board had the cable loom soldered directly to the PCB and mechanical clamped to remove vibration from the soldered joints
Leaking electricity can be fatal, overloaded cables and terminals that have loosened can overheat and many such incidents have caused fires that have burnt houses to the ground.
N
nauseous
There are already many electrical gadgets/features in a home currently being used quite safely if treated with respect ofc. Gas as a fuel has equally obvious dangers and risk too. then there's carbon monoxide . So that point is pretty mute imo.
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I may not have seen many boiler pcb's but what I have seen many are poor quality, poorly designed, badly laid out and cheaply manufactured.
They are single sided and use cheap CEM laminate (the linked one in question is).
The advanced testing of a boiler PCB (if it gets more than a go\no go test) would be no more than a burn in to weed out infant mortality in components, components that are fitted like any other board.
The higher temperature rating of the components is inconsequential as long as they are of that rating, it matters not to how they are built and tested.
The boiler should be designed such that if the board fails then no gas is allowed to escape.
I doubt there is a market for fake 2nd hand boiler PCB's, just because someone has seen a room full of fakes (collected because they are fakes) does not mean that everything from ebay is fake.
They are single sided and use cheap CEM laminate (the linked one in question is).
The advanced testing of a boiler PCB (if it gets more than a go\no go test) would be no more than a burn in to weed out infant mortality in components, components that are fitted like any other board.
The higher temperature rating of the components is inconsequential as long as they are of that rating, it matters not to how they are built and tested.
The boiler should be designed such that if the board fails then no gas is allowed to escape.
I doubt there is a market for fake 2nd hand boiler PCB's, just because someone has seen a room full of fakes (collected because they are fakes) does not mean that everything from ebay is fake.
running costs ? may be a factor 18 , 20, 30 kw electric boilers ??? there was talk a while back that gas may no longer be installed in new build props due to efficiency above 91 % ish cannot be obtained on gas were as leccy is 100%
this was until they found out that we are sitting on vast reserves of shale gas ? which may influence any decision
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