Potterton Suprima 30 water working no heating help!

[nursek]

The house we have moved to has an old Potterton Suprima Boiler been working fine since we moved in but now we have hot water but no CH, the light on the circuit board is amber/green. We have tried resetting etc but same problem. Coming up to summer obviously we won't be needing the CH but my partner has serious health problems and we can't have this hanging over us until the winter. I was told it was likely the PCB board but wouldn't that stop the HW as well as the CH? Also heard it could be the syncron valve but don't understand what this is. I haven't got a clue about these things myself but struggling to find a gas engineer who will touch old boilers and we can't afford to have a new boiler.
Any help or suggestions please?
Many thanks
Kate

 

[DP]

Kate, your boiler is just like your kettle. It heats the water and you can then make a cuppa or two.

You ( most likely) have two zones. heating and hot water zones.
Timer has two channels. CH and HW

When HW Channel calls, motorised valve for that channel opens the valve if the thermostat is calling for from the boiler. The valve within the switch fires the boiler and heated water is pumped through the motorised valve to the cylinder. Cylinder starts heating, reaches thermostat setting, motorised valve releases and boiler goes off

Same for CH.

PCB cannot be faulty. If it was, then you would have no heating or hot water.

If your heating chap is struggling with a simple system like yours, he has no chance in hell to resolve complicated issues on modern boilers.

Come back here for further help if you require.
Would help if you posted your location as a regular gap here might be able to assist.

 

[nursek]

I had that advice from a boiler man online not local so not sure whether he was properly qualified or not! Thanks though. What is your guess to what the issue is then please?

 

[DP]

Above is a picture of a motorised valve
In the slot in the silver box. there is a lever.
This lever, if the valve goes faulty, can be pushed to the right and positioned in the slot that arrests the lever such that the valve stays open.
Going by your description, I suspect the heating motorised valve lever is manually opened so when you put the hot water on on your programmer, the water also passes to your radiators by virtue of manually open heating valve ( because it is defective)

Bad advice over the phone is no excuse. Your fault description is more than clear to enable a person, even not a heating engineer, to surmise the pcb cannot be defective.

Download the user instructions for your boiler, get to know what the light sequence is.

 

[nursek]

Thanks, so presuming it is the valve issue would it require fitting a new valve or possibly be fixable with the existing one?
I have seen the light sequence in the Potterton manual which says 'no call to heat' is the fault

 

[fixitflav]

I had that advice from a boiler man online not local so not sure whether he was properly qualified or not! Thanks though. What is your guess to what the issue is then please?

Do you have 2 valves like #4, or 1 with 3 pipe connections?

 

[nursek]

I'm not to sure I'll go have a look, is this on the boiler or where the water tank is?

 

[fixitflav]

I'm not to sure I'll go have a look, is this on the boiler or where the water tank is?

Not part of the boiler, on the pipework somewhere. Usually after the pump, perhaps in the airing cupboard or wherever the hot water cylinder is.

 

[nursek]

Thanks I'll take a look and photo if it's accessible

 

[nursek]

Photos of our existing valve, is there anything simple I can do myself to diagnose the problem?

 

[terryplumb]

Do you have a wall thermostat for central heating ? If so ,is it calling for heat ( put the temperature up to its maximum).
If you have a programmer/ timer ,is it set "on" for central heating ?
If both the above are calling for heat ,the motor inside your valve has probably failed ,and will need replacing ( or the valve itself can be replaced).
Sliding the manual lever to override and latching it in that position will allow your radiators to heat ,but only if domestic hot water is in operation and heating the hot water cylinder. Once the cylinder reaches temperature the boiler will shut down and heating rads will also cease.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Also heard it could be the syncron valve but don't understand what this is. I haven't got a clue about these things myself but struggling to find a gas engineer who will touch old boilers and we can't afford to have a new boiler.

Your 'synchron valve' is what is normally called a 3-port, or perhaps two 2-port valves. With the actuator for the CH port failed, or simply stuck. In which case, it should be a fairly simple job to resolve it..

 

[fixitflav]

Photos of our existing valve, is there anything simple I can do myself to diagnose the problem?

You have a 3-port valve. That sends hot water from the boiler to either the rads or the HW cylinder (or both at the same time, depending on the type of valve). Sounds like it's stuck in one position, covering the rads port. Not a big job, but I doubt if you can do it yourself. As stop-gap, using the manual lever might give you heating. The HW cylinder might get a bit hotter than usual, but shouldn't be a problem.

 

[nursek]

So I move the slider slightly to the right to manual not all the way where it says overide only? So this will only work if I'm running the hot water?

 

[CBW]

So I move the slider slightly to the right to manual not all the way where it says overide only? So this will only work if I'm running the hot water?

Before moving the slide over, have you checked and answered what @terryplumb has mentioned?