Boiler Keeps Tripping Out

[samcasamassa]

Please, please can someone help. We have a Potterton Netaheat 60e boiler. i have no idea how old it is , as it was already here when we moved in 4 years ago and have had a problem with it ever since. The boiler keeps cutting out several times aday and i have to keep pressing the reset button located underneath. The longest period we have gone without any problems has been no more than perhaps 5 days. Recently we have had a new PCB board and fan but the problem continues . If i increase the boiler temperature gauge to more than 1 on the dial then it refuses to work at all. This means that our radiaters never really get sufficiently hot enough to heat the house especially during this cold spell . Even when it does work the boiler cuts out well before the temperature has reached the room thermostat temperature.
The boiler has been regularly serviced and maintained. One Corgi registered engineer said the problem was with the pump set at too low a speed, this was increased but the problem has not gone away. Its driving us absolutley mad . Even with the reset button pressed in and i raise the room thermostat so that it clicks the boiler wont come on untill its ready to do so itself!. We feel we are just throwing good money after bad and enginerrs are just phobing us off.

Any help would really be appreciated.

Thanks

Sam

 

[bengasman]

why did you get a new pcb and fan?

 

[Agile]

It seems pretty clear to me that you need a competent engineer.

Boilers like yours are relatively simple in technology terms compared with the Iranian space launch rocket!

Amusingly, yours was probably made in the old Potterton Works which was on the site of the new housing development beside the river to the north of L/S.

I also wonder why you have had those bits replaced?

Tony Glazier

 

[samcasamassa]

It seems pretty clear to me that you need a competent engineer.

Boilers like yours are relatively simple in technology terms compared with the Iranian space launch rocket!

Amusingly, yours was probably made in the old Potterton Works which was on the site of the new housing development beside the river to the north of L/S.

I also wonder why you have had those bits replaced?

Tony Glazier

Hi Tony

Thanks for your reply. I couldn't agree with you more, but its not as though i go out of my way to seek out incompetent engineers, these have all been Corgi registered or come highly recommended, there have been 3 in total and the last one was a British Gas engineer!!. The first one couldn't find anything wrong, serviced the boiler and left us with a nice bill. The second one told us the PCB board needed replacing £135 plus the VAT and the British Gas engineer replaced the fan £90 but wavered the call out charge!. I don't consider this to be peanuts.

Thing is Tony, if an engineer tells you this or that needs replacing, who am i to argue with him? I'm not a engineer, you are totally at their mercy!

 

[bengasman]

oh, but it is quite simple.
number two replaced the pcb, but did not solve the problem so you don't have to pay him.
number 3 replaced the fan, same result.
I am presuming now that the jobdescription was: please repair my boiler, rather than: could you change a part and see what happens

 

[Agile]

I am presuming now that the jobdescription was: please repair my boiler, rather than: could you change a part and see what happens

Or rather " I will pay for any part which you care to change on the offchance that its whats causing the problem.

I and most serious boiler engineers only pay for parts which are required to fix the fault!

When someone has been charged for parts which were not needed, I often feel like going round to sort it out properly.

The trouble is that the customer has already paid out a lot and begrudges us our very reasonable charges. So I dont tell them that we are in their local telephone book!

T GLazier

 

[Tipper]

Could it be that the pump is incorrectly wired?

My old Potterton boiler (R.I.P.) needed the pump to be on an overrun timer controlled by the PCB rather that wired direct from the programmer/thermostat. This ensured that the pump ran on to remove residual heat in the bolier rather than the pump stopping at the same time as the burner and the residual heat in the boiler tripping the overheat stat.

If you have the installation instructions you may need to check out how the pump wiring should be/has been connected.

 

[twgas]

Could it be that the pump is incorrectly wired?

My old Potterton boiler (R.I.P.) needed the pump to be on an overrun timer controlled by the PCB rather that wired direct from the programmer/thermostat. This ensured that the pump ran on to remove residual heat in the bolier rather than the pump stopping at the same time as the burner and the residual heat in the boiler tripping the overheat stat.

If you have the installation instructions you may need to check out how the pump wiring should be/has been connected.

although this is basically correct, not having the pump wired directly to the boiler would not usually stop the system getting up to temperature from cold. I think it will be a circulation problem, either a restriction in the pipework or the pump nakkered

 

[AgiIe]

I wonder how Sam is getting on with the boiler tripping problem?

Its not difficult to see if it has a pump over run by listening/feeling the pump after the boiler is turned off at the room stat.

Tony