Potterton Prima 50 keeps cutting out

[mrscold]

For a whole week now I have had no hot water or heating, I have had the plumber round my house 3 times now.
The boiler keeps cutting out so I had to keep pressing the re-set button, the plumber said I needed a new PCB and that everyone was out of stock - I went on the Internet and found a company in Yorkshire that sent me one before 10 this morning, the plumber came at 9.15 and fitted it saying that there is now a problem with the ignition wire which is flashing a blue flash, he will fit one on Monday as he dosent work weekends!!! He then said if that wasn't the problen we '' must have crystalised crud'' his words not mine in the pipes he reckons near the boiler so he will have to cut and replace some of the pipes to try to clear it. (I'm losing confidence in his know how and I right to??

 

[BDL]

I presume your plumber has carried out basic tests on the boiler?

Inlet gas pressure/burner pressure
Polarity checks on mains in
Tested power to the gas valve,fan, pcb etc

I suspect not. Might be an idea to get a boiler/heating engineer to have a look instead of a plumber?

 

[IanDB]

Not impressed.

If you want to have a look yourself - on second thoughts don't because its probably in the sealed area - you could try and see where the flashing is occurring.

It is possible for the insulation on the lead to the ignition to have broken down. As this is high voltage (but not lethal in this case) you will may well be able to both hear and see where the spark is arcing to the chassis. It is possible to effect a temporary repair by using several layers of insulating tape or just moving the wire away from the chassis.

Now, going back to the original point, if your boiler has had a failure in the ignition system but everything was working fine before why should your plumber have to cut out the pipework? There's no connection (no pun intended). A funny smell pervades this - something to do with bulls.