Lightning strike

[Krigs]

Had a major lightning strike in my area last night which tripped the electric in the house, reset tripped fuses and everything worked ok apart from the boiler, investigated and found the 2 amp fuse on the pcb had blown,replaced the fuse twice and blew the fuse straight away both times.
Is it looking like a new pcb or am I missing something.

 

[lightning]

It would help to tell us what boiler you have

 

[Krigs]

It's a heatline Capri plus 24a

 

[muggles]

Could be the PCB, could be whatever other component that fuse protects. Needs proper diagnosis from a qualified engineer

 

[Krigs]

Boiler is only 2 years old so would be bad luck if it was any other part faulty given the circumstances.

 

[ianmcd]

your boiler came with 2 years warranty so if it is within that period get them out, but dont mention a lightening strike as the warranty doesnt cover that

 

[DP]

your boiler came with 2 years warranty so if it is within that period get them out, but dont mention a lightening strike as the warranty doesnt cover that

Ian I am sure they will know lightening took the pcb out. A few years ago attended where the lightening had hit this woman’s house, PCB track around the earth connection was vaporised, protective earthing was marked by flash burns, flue ( verticals) plastic was shattered

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Ian I am sure they will know lightening took the pcb out. A few years ago attended where the lightening had hit this woman’s house, PCB track around the earth connection was vaporised, protective earthing was marked by flash burns, flue ( verticals) plastic was shattered

Lightning damage to electronics is not always obvious, especially if the damage is from a near strike, rather than a direct one. Lots of electronics here and I suffered a large near strike here in the late 80's. It took several items out, including all of the landline phones in the area, there were no obvious signs of damage to any of my damaged electronics.

 

[bernardgreen]

especially if the damage is from a near strike,

It doesn't have to be a near strike. A strike close to a manned control room did no damage to electronic equipment in the equipment room at the site. But at the same time a transmitter 9 miles away ceased to operate. The damage was at the transmitter site. An energy surge had gone along the Private Wire (*) from the control room and taken out the Private Wire interface at the transmitter site.

(*) Private Wire was a continuous metallic pair from control room to transmitter site.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

It doesn't have to be a near strike.

In my case described above, the strike hit the church spire 100 yards from me at 2am. It was an 'elluva bang, fast asleep I left the surface of the bed.

 

[ianmcd]

Ian I am sure they will know lightening took the pcb out. A few years ago attended where the lightening had hit this woman’s house, PCB track around the earth connection was vaporised, protective earthing was marked by flash burns, flue ( verticals) plastic was shattered

Dan do you really think an attending engineer on a warranty call will even look at anything, they will just change the board

 

[bernardgreen]

Unless the policy is to immediately junk PCBs without inspection the failed PCB might be examined on return to depot.

Some manufacturers do examine failed modules as part of a quality control and/or ongoing product improvement.

 

[DP]

Dan do you really think an attending engineer on a warranty call will even look at anything, they will just change the board

Now that you say that, I see what you ran.

Bernard the PCB is seldom made ( Ideal designed and made their own pcb for Isar & Icos boilers) by the manufacturers. They know what conditions are applied to this ‘black box’ and what needs to come out of it. But to know how that process is carried out, I do to think there are many manufacturers that have the info. Of course I could be talking rubbish too.
Have been in situation where lacking this vital information, replacement of not needed parts was suggested.

 

[bernardgreen]

A minor change in the way the way a PCB is manufactured can have unexpected and unforeseen results leading to premature failures. An example is when the PCB manufacturer increased the size of the holes where plug pins were inserted and soldered into the boards. ( or used a smaller pin ) This made it much easier to fit pins into the boards. But it then relied totally on the solder for the mechanical strength of the joint. When designed the mechanical strength came from the pin being a very tight fit in the hole.

Vibration in the cable loom that was plugged onto the pins led to annular fractures of the solder joints and failure of the PCB. As I recall it was some time before this failure mode was discovered as dead PCBs removed from boilers were ( apparently ) scrapped and not routinely inspected.

One improvement was that the cable loom was altered and restrainers fitted to prevent vibrations from reaching the PCB.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Dan do you really think an attending engineer on a warranty call will even look at anything, they will just change the board

That is what I would expect, I also would not expect a manufacturer of boilers to have much in house expertise with regards to pcb's and electronics, they best they could likely do is a cursory inspection for visible damage / broken seals and a go/ no go test. Cost of a pcb to a manufacturer is minimal in the great scheme, hardly worth expending much money on checking a failed one, unless there are a series of failures, then they might decide to investigate.