I'm a service engineer who works only on oil fired boilers. I got a call to a new customer last week who has a potterton flowsure combi which was stinking of oil. I went out to it and replaced a leaking flexible fuel pipe, gave the burner (RDB) a service and put some air into the Exp vessel whilst there and left it at that.
A couple of days later the customer rang to say the hot water wasn't working so I went back to investigate. At this point I will say I've been doing this job for about 20 years, have around 800 regular customers... but none of them have a Flowsure so I've never worked on one before and have no technical books or manual to refer to ....Also I hadn't tested the water while I was there originally as I had been called out to an oil leak.
When I arrived I found that the boiler wouldn't turn on when a tap was used so I removed the flow switch to check it. Once out of the boiler I could operate the switch and the boiler fired up straight away and after putting it back found the boiler would now also fire when a tap was used. SoI assumed the switch was stuck for some reason but was now OK and left it at that, telling the customer that if it did it again I would get a new switch and replace it.
A few days later it did do it again so I returned with a new switch to fit however this time the flow switch wouldn't turn the boiler on either and when I checked it for continuity it was definitely working so didn't fit the new one.
The boiler was hot and I could hear a circulating pump running which would only turn off if I switched off at the mains, the on/off switch and timer switch on the boiler had no effect. Also at one point the burner also fired up for a few minutes and would not turn off using the control stat??
So I'm now assuming there's possibly a relay stuck somewhere, however as I have no spares for this boiler, no technical info and no experience of them coupled with the fact I'm due to fly off on holiday in a few days time I decided to tell the customer to call out Heat team to sort it out for him. Unfortunately he tells me they no longer work on oil boilers as they don't have the parts .. (which is odd as I can still buy them from my supplier)
So my question is this... do any of the oil experts on here have experience of these boilers ( I think the general opinion is they're crap) and have any ideas of what the problem could be so I can point the guy in the right direction ? Or even better is there anyone here with knowledge/experience of the Flowsure in Norfolk, specifically close to Diss who would be prepared to go and help this customer if I passed your number on to him?
The boiler is in need of a bit of TLC, the burner etc is all fine and running nicely but as well as the hot water problem there has been quite a lot of leaks in the top end that whilst not stopping anything from working could probably do with cleaning up and sorting out.
I'm off on holiday very soon but would like to help the guy out before I go if I can by either giving him some advice about what he needs done ( so he doesn't get ripped off) or the name of someone knowledgeable that could help him.
A couple of days later the customer rang to say the hot water wasn't working so I went back to investigate. At this point I will say I've been doing this job for about 20 years, have around 800 regular customers... but none of them have a Flowsure so I've never worked on one before and have no technical books or manual to refer to ....Also I hadn't tested the water while I was there originally as I had been called out to an oil leak.
When I arrived I found that the boiler wouldn't turn on when a tap was used so I removed the flow switch to check it. Once out of the boiler I could operate the switch and the boiler fired up straight away and after putting it back found the boiler would now also fire when a tap was used. SoI assumed the switch was stuck for some reason but was now OK and left it at that, telling the customer that if it did it again I would get a new switch and replace it.
A few days later it did do it again so I returned with a new switch to fit however this time the flow switch wouldn't turn the boiler on either and when I checked it for continuity it was definitely working so didn't fit the new one.
The boiler was hot and I could hear a circulating pump running which would only turn off if I switched off at the mains, the on/off switch and timer switch on the boiler had no effect. Also at one point the burner also fired up for a few minutes and would not turn off using the control stat??
So I'm now assuming there's possibly a relay stuck somewhere, however as I have no spares for this boiler, no technical info and no experience of them coupled with the fact I'm due to fly off on holiday in a few days time I decided to tell the customer to call out Heat team to sort it out for him. Unfortunately he tells me they no longer work on oil boilers as they don't have the parts .. (which is odd as I can still buy them from my supplier)
So my question is this... do any of the oil experts on here have experience of these boilers ( I think the general opinion is they're crap) and have any ideas of what the problem could be so I can point the guy in the right direction ? Or even better is there anyone here with knowledge/experience of the Flowsure in Norfolk, specifically close to Diss who would be prepared to go and help this customer if I passed your number on to him?
The boiler is in need of a bit of TLC, the burner etc is all fine and running nicely but as well as the hot water problem there has been quite a lot of leaks in the top end that whilst not stopping anything from working could probably do with cleaning up and sorting out.
I'm off on holiday very soon but would like to help the guy out before I go if I can by either giving him some advice about what he needs done ( so he doesn't get ripped off) or the name of someone knowledgeable that could help him.
