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- 14 Apr 2005
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I have had awful problems with my suprima 50 for more than a year. The boiler would trip out more than 10 times a day ( flashing red light). - it drove us mad.
Potterton wanted more than £200 to change the PCB ( the main cause of these Suprima problems ) but I hated the idea of paying them so much to solve a problem with their poorly designed boiler.
On another forum someone had identified the main cause of these PCB problems as 'dry joints' ( poorly soldered joints) on the PCB. Apparantly the solder used is high in Tin and low in lead which makes the soldered joints very prone to cracking.
The good news is that the PCB is very easy to repair. On my Suprima 50, I switched off the power, then one screw removes the cover and a second screw allows the unit containing the PCB to tilt forward by about 45 degrees. This gives you access then to unplug the wires connecting to the PCB. It looks daunting at first, but all the plugs are different so it would be difficult to plug them back incorrectly. Take a digital photo for reference before you start.
Then undo the 4 screws that hold the PCB. This all takes about 5 minutes. Look at the back of the PCB. On mine, I could see a circular crack in the soldered joint on about 6 of the pins - the crack looks like a thin black line - you need good light to see it.
I am a complete novice with a soldering iron, but I bought myself an iron with a very fine tip ( mine was a butane one from Halfords) and used solder with 40% lead from B&Q (avoid the lead free solder). I heated the pin surrounded by the cracked solder and added more solder - the solder flowed in very easily and I took care not to add too much solder. I fixed 6 faulty joints in this way.
It took 5 minutes to put the PCB back into my boiler and it has worked without a glitch ever since. In total a half hour job.
Warning, it takes half an hour to fix the PCB, but it will take years to recover from the psycological damage caused by cold showers and never knowing whether the boiler is about to trip out again !!
Potterton wanted more than £200 to change the PCB ( the main cause of these Suprima problems ) but I hated the idea of paying them so much to solve a problem with their poorly designed boiler.
On another forum someone had identified the main cause of these PCB problems as 'dry joints' ( poorly soldered joints) on the PCB. Apparantly the solder used is high in Tin and low in lead which makes the soldered joints very prone to cracking.
The good news is that the PCB is very easy to repair. On my Suprima 50, I switched off the power, then one screw removes the cover and a second screw allows the unit containing the PCB to tilt forward by about 45 degrees. This gives you access then to unplug the wires connecting to the PCB. It looks daunting at first, but all the plugs are different so it would be difficult to plug them back incorrectly. Take a digital photo for reference before you start.
Then undo the 4 screws that hold the PCB. This all takes about 5 minutes. Look at the back of the PCB. On mine, I could see a circular crack in the soldered joint on about 6 of the pins - the crack looks like a thin black line - you need good light to see it.
I am a complete novice with a soldering iron, but I bought myself an iron with a very fine tip ( mine was a butane one from Halfords) and used solder with 40% lead from B&Q (avoid the lead free solder). I heated the pin surrounded by the cracked solder and added more solder - the solder flowed in very easily and I took care not to add too much solder. I fixed 6 faulty joints in this way.
It took 5 minutes to put the PCB back into my boiler and it has worked without a glitch ever since. In total a half hour job.
Warning, it takes half an hour to fix the PCB, but it will take years to recover from the psycological damage caused by cold showers and never knowing whether the boiler is about to trip out again !!
