Protherm 80e Combi - heating cuts out

[Vinnie]

Boiler Make: Protherm 80e Combi (not 80E)

Problem: Central heating cuts out when display shows temp at 42. Boiler cools down and when display shows 28 the boiler automatically comes back on. Result - the rads go from cold to not cold.

Boiler Fault Code: Don't get one

Domectic hot water works - sometime get F1 fault = Overheating - but this is easily reset using external reset button.

So far I have replaced the Thermistor, cleaned the secondary exchanger , added a cleaner three days ago to remove sludge.

Checked pump - it works
Checked Fan - it works

Anyone got any suggestions what else I should check??

 

[Agile]

Er...which thermistor have you changed?

Do you still get the F1 fault?

Tony

 

[Vinnie]

Replaced the CH Thermistor/Temperature Sensor (referred to as both in the manual.

The manual also suggests in cases of overheating to press the button on the safety device (overheat thermostat/high limit thermostat). I can see what appears to be a red button on this thermostat but when I try to press it it doesn't seem to move. Hot sure if it's touch sensitive or if I need to put a lot of pressure in it. Don't want to break it.

 

[Agile]

You only reset the o/h stat when its tripped!

Without seeing the boiler, I cannot suggest anything further apart from measuring the resistance cold of the CH and the DHW sensors but thats something I would have expected anyone to have done at the beginning before deciding what needs replacing.

I think the F1 code is both overheating AND flame failure. If so, your F1 is probably a flame failure but because thats combustion related I cannot give any detailed advice and would recommend a CORGI if its too frequent to be a nuisence.

Tony

 

[Vinnie]

Had npower engineer out last Friday. Scratched his head a lot. He's sure the diverter valve is causing problems with DHW but seemed as confused as me about why the CH keeps cutting out. He called the manufacturer re: all his readings and didn't get a clear answer of what could be wrong.

So he's going to order the following: Diverter Valve, Pump and Water Flow Sensor.

Could there be much more wrong after these parts are replaced. There aren't that many part's left in Protherms.

I'm paying for a fixed price repair from nPower which is costing me £235.

 

[Vinnie]

Finally resolved this in case anybody is interested

Firstly though - I had asked nPower to fix it on a fixed price repair. First engineer arrived on 19th Sept - couldn't fix it - said I needed a new diverter valve, pump and thermistor and ordered parts. Didn't hear from them for two weeks so I chased them up. They said they needed to send another engineer to look at it again. He arrived 5 day's later said the same thing and reordered the parts. Then the 23rd October another engineer came with the wrong parts, the pump and diverter valve were for another boiler. He also complained that he didn't have time to fix the boiler as he had to go to a parent teacher meeting and shouldn't have been sent in the first place. He reordered new parts. Since then I made a customer complaint - haven't heard back from them, rang customer service on a daily basis trying to find out what was going on. Always got the reply - somebody would call me back the same day - they never did.

So on Tuesday this week I took another look at the boiler myself and noticed that the little plastic bit on the external CH temp knob that turns the CH dial on the PCB had snapped. So although the external knob was turned up to Max the PCB dail was set at 42 which explained why the boiler kept cutting out.

So I've super glued the plastic bit back and boiler works perfectly - although I'm sick of Protherm and looking for a new combi.

Funny thing then happened nPower called yesterday to say the parts had arrived. I told them where they could stick their parts.

 

[Agile]

That NPower experience demonstrates that sending muppets is very time consuming and wastes resources!

The trouble is that they will not pay enough to attract the top boiler engineers and in any case there are not enough to go round!

I assume you have not paid for their total incompetence.

The trouble is that 20-30 years ago you could have written to the MD and the problem would have been addressed. Now they have a whole department in India replying with standard format letters to anything sent to the MD who is holidaying on his yacht anyway.

When the Halifax failed to deal with a complaint for several months they finally said that they had lost my file!

Tony

 

[Vinnie]

Haven't and won't be paying them a penny. Thinking of billing them for the 3 days I have taken off work.