Pressure fault diagnosis and consequences for repair

[Dan Robinson]

Would help if he's googling the right boiler.


OP. The last person in your house to care about the boiler is the baby. Wrap it up. It will be fine. Stop pretending that it is you who is cold.

 

[bernardgreen]

. I think he has a past career of working on electronic systems - so circuit board problems should be meat and drink to him

Yes I did, including the design of various monitoring and control systems. One contract was the repair of control boards for commercial gas heaters.

That said I did google to get a copy of the service manual to confirm that the pressure sensor feeding the control PCB is an ON or OFF signal from a mechanical sensor.

 

[bernardgreen]

Would help if he's googling the right boiler.

Suggest a better option to the manual here

http://www.potterton.co.uk/downloads/Potterton_Performa_28_Install.pdf

The first post refered to

- My boiler (performa 28 - potterton) has flagged up a pressure fault

Read more: //www.diynot.com/diy/threads/p...consequences-for-repair.453656/#ixzz40dSSxDDH

OP. The last person in your house to care about the boiler is the baby. Wrap it up. It will be fine. Stop pretending that it is you who is cold.

Wrapping is good but not always adequate to prevent cold air affecting respiratory function in a baby's lungs.

 

[picasso]

This boiler does not have a low pressure switch analogue or other wise, bernard your looking at the hydraulic differential water switch which is a pump proving switch, nothing to do with the pressure in the rads/boiler.

 

[ianmcd]

Sorry that I cant add too much usefull information to to your situation but as the engineer has said it needs a pressure guage a thing that can happened when you work on boilers is the thin capillary tube that connects the guage to the hydraulic system of the boiler can snap when you drop the control panel down and if this has happened then it could have flooded the electronics, sadly as engineers it is out of our control if this happens but if it does I for one would be honest about it have had it twice but thankfully it never caused too much damage to the appliance

 

[Agile]

Engineers know that is always a risk and watch it when bending the control panel.

If it does start to leak its not difficult to direct it downwards for a few seconds until you have released the pressure.

 

[sooey]

Wrapping is good but not always adequate to prevent cold air affecting respiratory function in a baby's lungs.

How did we ever survive before c/heating.

 

[bernardgreen]

This boiler does not have a low pressure switch analogue or other wise, bernard your looking at the hydraulic differential water switch which is a pump proving switch, nothing to do with the pressure in the rads/boiler.

That suggests that the boiler can fire up even if the pressure in the radiator circuit is zero, as along as there is flow. Which is the same as a non pressurised system and would work in that radiators would get warm.

 

[bernardgreen]

How did we ever survive before c/heating.

We did but quite a few others didn't.

 

[Bobismyuncle]

Here’s the update.

Yesterday I received a phone call from well known energy company to confirm after 5 days of waiting that the engineer at their offices has (unsurprisingly) confirmed the diagnosis and report of the boiler as beyond economic repair (BER) and have closed the case. The customer service representative notified my that this decision was made with support of the information I posted the in bullet point in my original post. Essentially the same info you have read and based your opinions on. I have been told that I will not receive any further support from my insurance in any shape or form. I did request a senior engineer from the outsourced plumbing company to take a look at the boiler for a second opinion but they refused.

I was handed a complaint reference number and refered to a webpage on their website to pursue a complaint if I was not happy.

Immediately after this phone call I contacted an independent engineer I had sourced earlier in the week ready for this outcome. I explained over the phone very briefly that the boiler had extensive parts list quoted for it’s repair and I could detect he was up for the challenge. Engineer arrived within 3 hours of my call with 2 other engineers to take a look. It was end of their day and were coincidentally in the van together.

They attempted to add a bit of pressure to the system and could see a leak coming for a nut that fixed the pressure gauge to the 3 way valve. They deduced that the previous engineer had undone this nut and caused a leak. But, in an attempt to fix it the previous engineer over tightened and damaged the nut and so it had left the system with a permanent leak and the rest of the boiler drenched in water. The pressure gauge wire had also been partial snapped which they thought would have effected the accuracy of the gauge itself. Maybe this was why I was seeing pressure in the system holding at 0.5 for 11months but allowed the system to keep firing up?

The engineers sourced a new pressure gauge for £19 and return back after 20mins to fit it. Pressure was added to the system but the pressure fault light was still flashing. They adjusted a switch/valve on the 3 way valve which (they said) sends a message to the boiler to fire up and so it did indeed fire up. In their opinion this was causing the intermittent fault. Their diagnosis was a dodgy switch/valve which they thought could be repaired with a diaphragm kit (?) (around £20) So now the boiler works but I need to get that looked at.

The engineer was happy to speak to the customer service manager dealing with my case (which was considered a closed case 4 hours earlier) and submit his registered gas number, diagnosis, solution and opinion of the previous engineers diagnosis and list of parts to repair the boiler.

The customer service manager gave me a call today to request an invoice of which i sent him and now await their next move.

Forgive me if this description lacks the technical articulation. I’m still getting my head around boilers.

Thanks for all your advice! It gave me the energy and determination to pursue this issue / F*** up.

The cherry on the cake was the energy company phoned me up this morning to sell me a new Boiler!

 

[endecotp]

I think most people on here are not too surprised to hear about "major energy company".

Your friends and relatives, however, might well be taken in by their huge advertising budget. So do share your story with them!

 

[Dan Robinson]

Great news, and I like the cut of your independent's jib. I'm tottaly fecked off with big companies at the moment. National Grid being one of the worst. The dishonesty and downright kluntishness is getting depressing.

Luckily for you there was no more permanent damage.

There is a genuine market for these policies, but not for the majority of people that fork out for them. Most people would be better off putting the premiums into their own dedicated "house maintenance ISA".

 

[Steelmasons]

The "independant engineer" and his colleagues appear to finish their day considerably early bearing in mind they diagnosed the parts required for your boiler AND collected/fitted required parts while "on their way home"....

 

[Bobismyuncle]

The "independant engineer" and his colleagues appear to finish their day considerably early bearing in mind they diagnosed the parts required for your boiler AND collected/fitted required parts while "on their way home"....

Maybe I should have left the most unimportant and irrelevant bit out of the narrative

 

[Dan Robinson]

GW - If my afternoon was anything to go by I can heartily believe it

Spent half the morning farting about looking for pipes in a prefab. Then half an hour holding back water with my finger as some twart decided to turn a stop cock on "to see what happened" (where's @gas112 when you need him?). Then another half an hour hammering the crap out of a tiled floor to get at the pipes to cut them off @newbuildinstaller stylee.

All finished by 15:30 in time to go to see uncle Kevin for coffee and new toys. Kept his new cleaners on their toes as I walked around the gaff covered in slowly drying plasterboard.