Hi all, I am looking for some advice for a fault my elderly mother has with her Potterton 80 Combi boiler.
At the end of last winter she called out British Gas through her homecare contract as she had a problem with the boiler.
The problem was when the boiler ignites it sometimes does so with quite a surge, basically there was too much gas released before ignition causing this surge/blast/thump (if that makes sense) of pressure when it does light previously you would not hear it ignite at all, now sometimes you can hear the boiler ignite from another room in the house. It always lights and never fails to light and once it’s lit it runs like new. The ignition problem is intermittent but it frightens my mother, so much so she is now very apprehensive to use the boiler so she tries not to use the boiler. The British Gas man said there was no problem with it and it hasn’t been as bad over the summer months but since the colder weather has returned the problem is intermittently bad again, perhaps worse on occasion.
I have been looking in the manual and searching on the internet for advice and came across this forum. What I can make out is it could possibly be faulty soldering on the Full Sequence Control circuit board which may have bad soldering due to age and the varying temperatures it has been exposed to. Or perhaps the electrode or wire from the board to the electrode is faulty but the British Gas man said this was fine although I wasn’t convinced he wanted to find a fault or even a slight depreciation in any parts performance. He actually seemed angry he had been called out for nothing, which left my mother feeling quite low as she knew there was an intermittent fault and nothing was being done about it.
My Mother no longer has the homecare cover as they advised her in the summer that they would be putting the price up and her cover would no longer fully cover her boiler, the cover was no longer affordable to her and basically she decided the cover was no longer worth having as she has paid for around 20 years and when she reported a fault it wasn’t fixed then they put the cost of the care up.
She hasn’t got the money to replace the boiler so I am hoping this could be fixed but I don’t want to call someone out to say there is nothing wrong with it as there clearly is, although it is intermittent. Does it sound like a problem to you?
Looking online I see the Full Sequence Control circuit board.which I suspect may be faulty is hard to get hold of but there does seem to be some sellers with the board, the Bristish Gas man did mention this board, saying he could no longer get one, in hindsight I think he may have suspected a board fault but didn’t have one. There are sellers with reconditioned boards, what would your advice be on having one of these installed?
Do you think if I called someone out they would be able to get hold of a board or would have the ability to repair the board?
What would be the cost of someone supplying and fitting a new Full Sequence Control circuit board (PART NO 2118602, CAT NO 929689), electrode (929550) and electrode wire? Would it be cheaper to purchase these parts and then paying someone to fit them?
Is there gas heating engineers on here in the IRVINE, AYRSHIRE area or someone you could recommend. Or would like to quote for the job.
Apologies for such a long post, I am just worried my 80 year old mother is going to be sitting in a cold house as she is reluctant to turn on her boiler.
Any help and advice would be very much appreciated.
Thanks
At the end of last winter she called out British Gas through her homecare contract as she had a problem with the boiler.
The problem was when the boiler ignites it sometimes does so with quite a surge, basically there was too much gas released before ignition causing this surge/blast/thump (if that makes sense) of pressure when it does light previously you would not hear it ignite at all, now sometimes you can hear the boiler ignite from another room in the house. It always lights and never fails to light and once it’s lit it runs like new. The ignition problem is intermittent but it frightens my mother, so much so she is now very apprehensive to use the boiler so she tries not to use the boiler. The British Gas man said there was no problem with it and it hasn’t been as bad over the summer months but since the colder weather has returned the problem is intermittently bad again, perhaps worse on occasion.
I have been looking in the manual and searching on the internet for advice and came across this forum. What I can make out is it could possibly be faulty soldering on the Full Sequence Control circuit board which may have bad soldering due to age and the varying temperatures it has been exposed to. Or perhaps the electrode or wire from the board to the electrode is faulty but the British Gas man said this was fine although I wasn’t convinced he wanted to find a fault or even a slight depreciation in any parts performance. He actually seemed angry he had been called out for nothing, which left my mother feeling quite low as she knew there was an intermittent fault and nothing was being done about it.
My Mother no longer has the homecare cover as they advised her in the summer that they would be putting the price up and her cover would no longer fully cover her boiler, the cover was no longer affordable to her and basically she decided the cover was no longer worth having as she has paid for around 20 years and when she reported a fault it wasn’t fixed then they put the cost of the care up.
She hasn’t got the money to replace the boiler so I am hoping this could be fixed but I don’t want to call someone out to say there is nothing wrong with it as there clearly is, although it is intermittent. Does it sound like a problem to you?
Looking online I see the Full Sequence Control circuit board.which I suspect may be faulty is hard to get hold of but there does seem to be some sellers with the board, the Bristish Gas man did mention this board, saying he could no longer get one, in hindsight I think he may have suspected a board fault but didn’t have one. There are sellers with reconditioned boards, what would your advice be on having one of these installed?
Do you think if I called someone out they would be able to get hold of a board or would have the ability to repair the board?
What would be the cost of someone supplying and fitting a new Full Sequence Control circuit board (PART NO 2118602, CAT NO 929689), electrode (929550) and electrode wire? Would it be cheaper to purchase these parts and then paying someone to fit them?
Is there gas heating engineers on here in the IRVINE, AYRSHIRE area or someone you could recommend. Or would like to quote for the job.
Apologies for such a long post, I am just worried my 80 year old mother is going to be sitting in a cold house as she is reluctant to turn on her boiler.
Any help and advice would be very much appreciated.
Thanks
