Potterton F50 banging

Joined
4 Jun 2004
Messages
115
Reaction score
0
Country
United Kingdom
Last night I was sat in my lounge and there was a couple of crashing sounds which sounded like something had fallen off the window sill in the room above, which it hadn’t. Now I think it may have been a noise from the radiator as this morning the boiler (Potterton F50 located downstairs) didn’t come on.

I reset it and it fired up but was making quite a worrying banging noise after about 10secs (the heating and water was stone cold) and I also noticed that turning down the control thermostat didn’t have any effect, this happened for about 20 seconds before I shut it down. Any ideas what it could be?
 
Sponsored Links
sounds like it could be the pump

Hi are you able to give me a bit more information about why it could be the pump?

The banging starts after about 10secs, bearing in mind that the water and heating are totally cold.
 
if the pump doesnt pump then the water in the boiler boils and it bangs loudly

:)
 
Sponsored Links
if the pump doesnt pump then the water in the boiler boils and it bangs loudly

:)

Hi,

Would it boil that quickly though (10/20 secs?), given that heating and hot water supply is cold? Would that also explain why the thermostat has no impact - usually it has to be on 4 or 5 to fire up?

Thanks in advance
 
with 50000 btu on a low water content boiler it would boil almost instantenously

the thermstat would not react quickly enough to shut the boiler down

why dont you want to check that the pump is spinning??
 
Help!

You were asking for help and you have been advised that the pump seems to have failed.

Instead of going and checking your pump and repairing or replacing it you seem to now want a lecture on how heating systems work.

You could either get a book on how heating systems work or read all about it many times over by searching on "pump" on this forum.

Tony
 
I'm a home owner with basic DIY knowledge and I don't think I have asked for a lecture (but thanks for yours) and I am merely trying to ascertain what is wrong so I can call someone out with a degree of confidence. Is that so wrong? And if other people on here who have taken the time to provide an initial response are willing to provide more additional detail I don't see why that is a problem for you?

Corgiman, thank you very much for your help. I am at work at the moment so will check tonight. Thanks again.
 
The pump is an easy thing to check as a DIY job ( see FAQ on this site ) and not a very difficult thing to change either if it has working gate type valves.

It may only be jammed and could be restarted by spinning it.

However if slotted screw valves then never touch them until you are reasy to replace them with gates.

Tony
 
Thank you also, Tony. I will take a look at the FAQs.
 
Pump is dead (spins freely when I insert a flathead screwdriver though) and it looks like a cap on the end of a three way pipe (I guess a valve -- it has "mix" at the bottom, W at the top and K at the opposite side of the cap) has come loose -- not sure if that is related or not.
 
For closure on this thread, the engineer put a screwdriver inside the motor with the power on and gave a few turns and it started up. (As Agile suggested but I was wary of turning the power on and turning it)

Thanks for everyone's help.
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top