Potterton Promax FSB 30HE Urgent Help Please

[firebladerrw]

Hi, I've had a boiler repair company out to look at my boiler, however the fault has re-occurred, and wonder if anyone on here has an idea what it may be:

Potterton Promax FSB 30HE - Around 6 years old.

Symptoms: The boiler went to lock out last week, and displayed (immediately) the following light sequence: Mains light flashing (Green), Burner light flashing (Green) and Lock out light solid (Red), which indicates a "Dry fire" issue in the fault tree.

The engineer has been out 3 times and replaced in sequence the PCB, and the flow switch, and after replacing the flow switch the boiler working ok for a few hours. The pump is circulating fine, and the filter had minimum debris in it. The flow switch (magnetic) did have some crap on it and was sticky, hence, the engineer thought that was it fixed.

I'm going to call them again, but limit may have been reached on the house insurance, so any help or guidance would be greatly received, in order to look at other causes.

The system gets flushed & filled with Sentinel annually, and the engineer was generally impressed with the water condition. The pump is around 3 years old, and its a Grunfoss.

Thank you in advance for any thoughts?

 

[bernardgreen]

I'm going to call them again, but limit may have been reached on the house insurance,

Ask the insurance company if they would support you in a "no fix no fee" challenge to the costs of the "repairs" that did not fix the problem.

 

[kidgreen61]

Why on earth would you flush a system every year?

 

[firebladerrw]

Ask the insurance company if they would support you in a "no fix no fee" challenge to the costs of the "repairs" that did not fix the problem.

Thanks, I may yet try that. The insurance have instructed another visit from the repair company, however I'm not convinced they are on the ball with this boiler.

 

[firebladerrw]

Why on earth would you flush a system every year?

Quite simple really, its a fluid system that picks up debris from radiators etc, and the filter can only do so much, therefore every year I have the system flushed with sludge remover, drained & refilled with inhibitor (Sentinel). Its called preventative maintenance....

Thanks

 

[kidgreen61]

I have the same "fluid system", which when I installed it, was cleaned, flushed, and filled with inhibitor 9 yrs ago.
I added a rad last year, and the water in the system is as clean as the day it went in.

 

[firebladerrw]

I have the same "fluid system", which when I installed it, was cleaned, flushed, and filled with inhibitor 9 yrs ago.
I added a rad last year, and the water in the system is as clean as the day it went in.

Excellent, I just prefer to be sure its perfectly clean - its the engineer in me

 

[flameport]

Its called preventative maintenance....

Destructive maintenance might be a better description.

Corrosion will only occur if there is air in the system.
Fresh water will contain a certain amount of dissolved air/oxygen, but this is removed as the water is heated.
Regularly removing the water and flushing through will introduce more air, and cause the very corrosion you are attempting to prevent.

That is also why if there is any kind of leak, continuing to just top up the system will lead to rapid corrosion as the top up water introduces more air every time.

 

[DaveHerns]

Surely the insurers can't invoke a "limit" if they've been paying for unsuccessful repairs?

 

[firebladerrw]

Surely the insurers can't invoke a "limit" if they've been paying for unsuccessful repairs?

Seemingly the limit for emergency call-outs is limited to £500 via my home insurance. But to be honest, I dont think thats going to be an issue as the boiler hasnt been fixed.

I'm more interested if anyone has experience with these boilers, as it may help to diagnose whats going wrong. No disrespect to those replying about water treatments etc, but thats not the issue. Thank you.

 

[Smithy the plumber]

Seemingly the limit for emergency call-outs is limited to £500 via my home insurance. But to be honest, I dont think thats going to be an issue as the boiler hasnt been fixed.

I'm more interested if anyone has experience with these boilers, as it may help to diagnose whats going wrong. No disrespect to those replying about water treatments etc, but thats not the issue. Thank you.

Get them to double check the pump ! just because it makes a noise doesn't mean it is working correctly

 

[firebladerrw]

Get them to double check the pump ! just because it makes a noise doesn't mean it is working correctly

Good shout, thanks. Its been checked, however it has occurred to me that it may not be throwing out enough flow, and consequently, the flow switch may not be operating properly.

I'm waiting on a call back from the engineers.

 

[Agile]

You should not have to "pay" for parts which have not fixed the fault! So the replacement PCB should not count towards the £500 because it was not needed.

That model has some history of problems with combustion issues but we cannot advise on gas related issues here. Only to the engineer dealing with it in the special engineers section.

Sorry that it is taking so long to get it fixed but that model can be tricky to diagnose, particularly for someone not familiar with them.

I will also agree that annually draining the system is probably doing more harm than good!

Tony

 

[firebladerrw]

You should not have to "pay" for parts which have not fixed the fault! So the replacement PCB should not count towards the £500 because it was not needed.

That model has some history of problems with combustion issues but we cannot advise on gas related issues here. Only to the engineer dealing with it in the special engineers section.

Sorry that it is taking so long to get it fixed but that model can be tricky to diagnose, particularly for someone not familiar with them.

I will also agree that annually draining the system is probably doing more harm than good!

Tony

Thank you. That'll be the topic dead in here then ......

 

[AGAS]

You should not have to "pay" for parts which have not fixed the fault! So the replacement PCB should not count towards the £500 because it was not needed.

why shouldn't it as the fault can be related ,plus you don't know what the insurance procedure is so your comment is unfounded and wrong and your assuming again . fooking hindsight is fooking lovely isn't it

firebladerrw I've replace quite a few flow switches on this boiler for which the paddle is the weak point , you may have a bigger problem but you need a multimeter and know how to use it to know this problem , if you do let me know . other than that i would be looking at the pump but then again you need a multimeter to go any further relating to this fault as it could lie elsewhere .

how long does the lockout light come on when the firing sequence starts ???

by the way its a shyte boiler as its related to the promax SL