Potterton Gold C28 HE Combi

[ChrisR]

Installed apparently well, by a non rgi, about 4 months ago. I did Landlords GSR, all the usual checks were fine, though I didn't dismantle the flue or anything unusual. I asked about the flue restrictors and he got the answer right - whatever it was. Standard horiz flue. Gas supply is OK.

It was fine, now it's started going out repeatedly.
Owner called Potty, who said ( I heard recording) that the prods of combustion were re-entering somehow causing flame lift/non detection. So an installation fault, they didn't investigate.
Anyone seen this fault develop, on this model?

 

[baxpoti]

Is it the fan cutting out?

 

[ChrisR]

Don't know, havent been there yet. Complaint from tenants is on-off hot water (though CH does it too that's not so noticeable).
From what I heard it's flame failure that stops the boiler.
I assume the boiler is going through a re-lighting cycle for it to stop for a while... what are you thinking?

 

[Agile]

That sounds typical of a leaking inner flue seal. Installer error.

I do have to say that if you did not do an FGA on it then you may have been "sanitising" an unregistered installation because a lot of landlords treat an LSC as an alternative to a Benchmark.

I went to a non RGI install which had exploded as a result of a flue assembly fault. The HSE sent the landlord a letter telling him to use an RGI in future. They then went after the RGi who had wrongly issued a clean LSC !

Tony

 

[ChrisR]

Inner seal is what I suspect, though "it was fine when I tested it, guv".

What was wrong with the flue you heard about?
LSC doesn't include dismantling flues...

 

[andsam]

Could the condensate be backing up ?

Andy

 

[Agile]

What was wrong with the flue you heard about?
quote]

I did not hear about it, I had to do the report on why it had exploded!

Several faults!

300 x 400 mm flue exit hole in wall stuffed with newspaper and bits of brick.

Inner tube pushed in from outside so was not locked in place.

Seal elbow to boiler inner missing.

Seal flue einner to elbow about 30 mm along inner tube so no seal in place.

As inner not locked and no seals then vibration by traffic had allowed the inner to fall out of socket of elbow so total recirculation of gas/air until 5-15% mix achieved and then it exploded!

Tony

 

[ChrisR]

Sorted - as far as I'm concerned anyway.
Some clown has put 2.5 metres of (internal) concentric flue up the outside of the house to take the plume away from the annoyed neighbour, then put the terminal on rotated about 90 degrees.
I asked the landlord if they had flues in Lagos with the ends connected to flue problems. He asked how I knew he was from Nigeria.

I refused further involvement, and forgot to tell him the boiler was turned off with a warning notice.

Apart from flue-chilling issues, the boiler should work with up to 10 metres of that type of flue so something else must be wrong.

 

[Agile]

I do have to say that I teach all my trainees to inspect the flue on arrival before touching the boiler.

If it were faulty then starting the boiler might be dangerous and it could explode and we might be blamed for the damage!

I wonder if Chris ever got paid for that!

Tony

 

[ChrisR]

Perhaps I wasn't clear - the extra flue parts had only been there a week or two!
The installer paid me. Getting one over on a sly Nigerian has to be worth a few quid too!
As with so many, the internals of the flue elbow were not viewable without severe dismantling, due to the flue being fixed in the wall. As far as I could tell, having unscrewed everything likely, it won't come off. I would like to be told if that's not the case.