Hi.
We have an old boiler - Potterton Profile 60E - 26 years old that has been working fine. Don't shoot me down but I've never had it serviced or had any inhibitor in it! Only problem over the years has been the PCB. It's on its third replacement now. The system was a conventional system with a header tank for the heating and a cold water storage for the gravity hot water. It had a three way diverter valve for HW & CH.
Recently had the system upgraded as we wanted more pressure in the shower so we had an unvented hot water cylinder fitted. At the same time we had the system header tank removed and the heating system was converted to a sealed system. We also had a system power flush, the three way valve changed for two separate ones, a new digital room stat and programmer and a boiler service. I believed what we had was a 'Y' plan setup and now we have a 'S' plan one as a bypass valve was fitted next to the pump.
Initially it was fine apart from the last three remaining 50+ year old rads springing a leak (probably due to internal corrosion and the now pressurised heating system) so I changed them myself.
Now to my problem! Within a week or so and completely at random, the safety button on the bottom of my boiler would 'pop' and the system would not heat up. Never seemed to do it while running but normally happened during the night. I had noticed that the boiler was not 'running on' when the hot water or heating reached temperature so I got the heating company back. They replace a part in the boiler and it was back to how I remember the pump would 'run on' with the boiler flame extinguished to cool down before shutting off.
I still get the random shutdown and the heating company are telling me it's probably because the old boiler is scaled up inside and that I need a new one. I don't mind that if I have to but I'd be pretty ticked off if I had a new boiler installed and I still had the same shutdown problem due to some other reason. Is it because the old boiler cant cope with the new setup? Could it be to do with the pump and/or relief valve settings? Any advice from a heating engineer would be welcome. I've tried a few different combinations of the above and I'm now on what I think is my last combination option!
This morning I shut off all rads with TRV's (7) and completely closed the return relief valve. I then set the heating high leaving just the three rads that don't have TRV's (Bathroom, landing and Living room). I had the pump on speed 3 (max). When the pipes got too hot to touch, I slowly opened up the relief valve until the relief pipe started to get warmer indicating that the water was now circulating back to the boiler. I then closed it off a little. When I turned the temperature down, the heating zone valve closed, the boiler flame went out and the pump kept running proving the overrun worked and I could hear and feel the water returning to the boiler via the relief valve circuit. It shutb off after about 7-8 minutes. At a guess, I'd say I opened the valve to around 15% of its total adjustment.
I still won't know for a while if that was it - the boiler can go a couple of weeks before 'popping' or just a day. I had to reset it on Saturday and Sunday mornings this weekend.
Sorry for rambling on and I apologise if I've used the wrong terminology. As my user name suggests, I'm an MOT tester so if any advice is needed on that, feel free to ask!
We have an old boiler - Potterton Profile 60E - 26 years old that has been working fine. Don't shoot me down but I've never had it serviced or had any inhibitor in it! Only problem over the years has been the PCB. It's on its third replacement now. The system was a conventional system with a header tank for the heating and a cold water storage for the gravity hot water. It had a three way diverter valve for HW & CH.
Recently had the system upgraded as we wanted more pressure in the shower so we had an unvented hot water cylinder fitted. At the same time we had the system header tank removed and the heating system was converted to a sealed system. We also had a system power flush, the three way valve changed for two separate ones, a new digital room stat and programmer and a boiler service. I believed what we had was a 'Y' plan setup and now we have a 'S' plan one as a bypass valve was fitted next to the pump.
Initially it was fine apart from the last three remaining 50+ year old rads springing a leak (probably due to internal corrosion and the now pressurised heating system) so I changed them myself.
Now to my problem! Within a week or so and completely at random, the safety button on the bottom of my boiler would 'pop' and the system would not heat up. Never seemed to do it while running but normally happened during the night. I had noticed that the boiler was not 'running on' when the hot water or heating reached temperature so I got the heating company back. They replace a part in the boiler and it was back to how I remember the pump would 'run on' with the boiler flame extinguished to cool down before shutting off.
I still get the random shutdown and the heating company are telling me it's probably because the old boiler is scaled up inside and that I need a new one. I don't mind that if I have to but I'd be pretty ticked off if I had a new boiler installed and I still had the same shutdown problem due to some other reason. Is it because the old boiler cant cope with the new setup? Could it be to do with the pump and/or relief valve settings? Any advice from a heating engineer would be welcome. I've tried a few different combinations of the above and I'm now on what I think is my last combination option!
This morning I shut off all rads with TRV's (7) and completely closed the return relief valve. I then set the heating high leaving just the three rads that don't have TRV's (Bathroom, landing and Living room). I had the pump on speed 3 (max). When the pipes got too hot to touch, I slowly opened up the relief valve until the relief pipe started to get warmer indicating that the water was now circulating back to the boiler. I then closed it off a little. When I turned the temperature down, the heating zone valve closed, the boiler flame went out and the pump kept running proving the overrun worked and I could hear and feel the water returning to the boiler via the relief valve circuit. It shutb off after about 7-8 minutes. At a guess, I'd say I opened the valve to around 15% of its total adjustment.
I still won't know for a while if that was it - the boiler can go a couple of weeks before 'popping' or just a day. I had to reset it on Saturday and Sunday mornings this weekend.
Sorry for rambling on and I apologise if I've used the wrong terminology. As my user name suggests, I'm an MOT tester so if any advice is needed on that, feel free to ask!
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