Potterton 50e boiler not working.

[staff18]

System failed. When I turn on the electrics, there is a a rush, a flush of water if you will for about 2 seconds. Then there is nothing. No pilot, no water. Just a void, no firing into life and the provision of hot water.

Previous month I heard fan making harsh sound. As I was not home that often, I turned off. Any ideas. PS, where are the bleed screws for this system.Would like to try and bleed any air out of the system. Thanks.

 

[bengasman]

..Previous month I heard fan making harsh sound.

What happened in the month since then?

PS, where are the bleed screws for this system.Would like to try and bleed any air out of the system. Thanks.

In the rads most likely.

 

[staff18]

I was looking for a bleed tap on the boiler. Will look at the RADs and try and bleed. The system has been off as I have been working away from home. Only back for a day at a time every so often.

Turned on once a few times to see if it would fire.Still no functioning boiler, just a temp grinding of the fan. Ended up blowing fuse in switch. Replaced fuse on the wall socket and I am back to previous state. The Honeywell timer is now up and running when I turn it on. However, I have kept the system powered down.

As I am out of work I do not have the funds to pay out for repairs. so any advice is welcomed. These cold showers are too much.

 

[staff18]

The Potterton has gurgled. Bled all the Rads. Now the System attempts to run without crashing to a halt.

The is no ignition of pilot and I wonder if the system needs to be topped up with liquid. How do I go about this? I am about to look in the loft and see what magic and dragons lay undistured.

It sounds better than it did early on today. Yet I know I am only part way there.

Thanks in advance for any input that comes my way.

 

[staff18]

It is almost 20 hundred hours at the time of writting this update. I think that I may have cracked this Potterton 50e problem.

Bled all the Rads and then started to explore the system. After the voyage to the attic, discovered that the tank for the Boiler was very low. I topped up with water but feel that I should have placed another agent into system.

At the moment I am running the boiler and all seems OK. lets see what 24 hours running do for the system. Any suggestions as to what I should place in the tank to help protect the boiler??

 

[Terry7556]

some inhibitor, easy way is to tip into the top of a towel rad after draining some water out or tie up ballcock in cistern, pour in inhibitor into cistern and then drain some water from a rad. when you open bleed key to let air out the water from the cistern will bring the water and inhibitor down into the system where it is needed. keep an eye on the water level in the cistern as you do it, dont let it drain to empty and after undo ballcock to fill up

 

[staff18]

Thanks for this advise. I do not have a towel RAd, so how do I apply? New year greetings to all. I think I have saved myself a few hundred pounds here. Yet let us not get too full of ourselves until I have given this a good run for a day or two. Only then will I feel able to jump up and down and be happy. Thanks again for the advise.

 

[bengasman]

Open vent system? 10:1 that a bottle of fernox f3 or f5 even, in it for a couple of weeks will improve things.
Only works when the system is running though.

 

[staff18]

What do you mean by 'open vent'. Do you mean the tank. If not what and where is the VENT? thanks.

I will take a look for the products you suggested this Monday. Do not think there is much open on Sunday unless I can get to one of the DIY places.

 

[bengasman]

If you do not know what open vent means, I suggest you read all faq and all wiki items about 3 times before you go any further; your knowledge of heating is rather wanting, which is not conducive to getting a reliably working ch system by doing it yourself.

 

[misterdubya]

I think I have saved myself a few hundred pounds here.

Do you? Why?

Mr. W.

 

[staff18]

I have had a week or two with the system working.

However, it began to make the noise again. I have turned the whole system off. I did my reading and I am trying to apply a cleanser to the header tank. Tried to go through the rad, but this did not work.

I am now trying to release a drain tap on the downstairs rad with hose going into garden. However, there is no tap on the drain pipe. Any advice on how I release this tap?

The idea being that I introduced the cleanser into the feed pipe that comes from the header tank for a 4 week period and then sentinel 800 one hour deal to clean up any other ends. Hopefully after this I will add the inhibitor.