Hi,
I recently moved into a house with a Potterton Puma 80 combi boiler. Since we moved in it has never been able to provide a consistent flow of hot water to the bath and shower (one floor up from the boiler), and recently it started making a loud humming noise whenever you ran hot water or the radiators were on.
Just recently it has stopped firing up at all, when you try and draw hot water, all you can see through the window is the little pilot light burning. The boiler makes a tiny bit of noise which gets a little louder as you keep on running the hot tap, the pressure of the water from the hot tap also falls to about half. The red light on the circuit board comes on when you run the tap, but turns off when you shut it off.
Guessing that it was probably the pump that had failed, I tried to unlock it by unscrewing the bolt in the middle and relocating it, but couldn't really find a point at which it "clicked". I did notice, however, that a lot of very black water dripped out of the hole when I unscrewed it (although the water that came out when I tried bleeding a radiator was very clean!). I would try desludging, draining and refilling the system, or even cleaning the pump, but the only instructions I have are the rather useless little booklet that fits inside the front cover and tells you little more than how to set the timer and relight the pilot!
Anyway, I was considering replacing the system with a condenser boiler eventually anyway, so don't want to waste any money getting a plumber out to fix what I'm just about to replace. So is there anything I can do so I can keep clean and warm whilst I sort out a replacement?
Or are condenser boilers as bad as the naysayers would have us believe and should I therefore get a plumber in and hope that my boiler lasts a few more years? I try to use as little central heating and hot water as possible, and I hear that condensers are only really more efficient if you use them "full pelt", is this really the case?
Any advice would be much appreciated!
EDITED - For clarity
I recently moved into a house with a Potterton Puma 80 combi boiler. Since we moved in it has never been able to provide a consistent flow of hot water to the bath and shower (one floor up from the boiler), and recently it started making a loud humming noise whenever you ran hot water or the radiators were on.
Just recently it has stopped firing up at all, when you try and draw hot water, all you can see through the window is the little pilot light burning. The boiler makes a tiny bit of noise which gets a little louder as you keep on running the hot tap, the pressure of the water from the hot tap also falls to about half. The red light on the circuit board comes on when you run the tap, but turns off when you shut it off.
Guessing that it was probably the pump that had failed, I tried to unlock it by unscrewing the bolt in the middle and relocating it, but couldn't really find a point at which it "clicked". I did notice, however, that a lot of very black water dripped out of the hole when I unscrewed it (although the water that came out when I tried bleeding a radiator was very clean!). I would try desludging, draining and refilling the system, or even cleaning the pump, but the only instructions I have are the rather useless little booklet that fits inside the front cover and tells you little more than how to set the timer and relight the pilot!
Anyway, I was considering replacing the system with a condenser boiler eventually anyway, so don't want to waste any money getting a plumber out to fix what I'm just about to replace. So is there anything I can do so I can keep clean and warm whilst I sort out a replacement?
Or are condenser boilers as bad as the naysayers would have us believe and should I therefore get a plumber in and hope that my boiler lasts a few more years? I try to use as little central heating and hot water as possible, and I hear that condensers are only really more efficient if you use them "full pelt", is this really the case?
Any advice would be much appreciated!
EDITED - For clarity
