Potterton Suprima 60 noisy

[DarrenGuest]

Since we have moved into our house last year the heating has never been anywhere near as warm as we would like. Firstly the boiler would constantly cut out so after reading about this on the internet we got the circuit board replaced with the latest revision. This fixed the problem of the boiler locking up with a red flashing light.

Secondly we have had no end of British Gas engineers over who have suggested many, many things but have never seemed to fix the problem.

So far we have had a new 3 way valve, new tank thermostat, new heating thermostat and the system completely rewired. Last month we had the pump replaced as it was noisy and this did seem to make some improvement, especially after I balanced the system although it does seem colder again now than it used to be.

One thing I have noticed is the upstairs radiators need bleeding every week at least. After reading on here about Hydrogen in the rads I tried to light the gas and to my amazement it burned like a blowtorch!

I have bought some Sentine x400 which I planned on leaving in for a few weeks but after this I am not sure it is going to make much difference. One of the British gas engineers suggested a powerflush but wanted £800 for this. I can get hold of a machine myself, is it something that I could do myself?

Finally the boiler seems pretty noisy and I am wondering if we should just bite the bullet and replace it? It makes a wubwubwub noise when it first starts up and when it gets hot it starts to make a loud whistling noise. We have 12 radiators in the house and I just wonder if it is not man enough for the job? We had a Worcester Bosch boiler at our last place and it was silent, reliable and warm! The Potterton boiler is only 4 years old and it seems such a waste to throw it away.

I am sick of wasting time and money on this and have been tempted to just get someone to replace the entire system (even though we can not afford it). Would a powerflush and maybe a new boiler and pump be the way to go? What sort of boiler would you recommend for a 3 bed detached house with 2 bathrooms and 12 radiators in total?

Many thanks for any advice!

 

[nickso]

if it were mine id flush it out, depending on how bad the water quality is, maybe add a magnaclean and then replace the heat exchanger in the boiler. the last bit is almost certainly the cause of the noise. worth checking the boiler hasnt been piped up backwards as this can sometimes be an issue on suprimas.

 

[heatingman]

Sent X400 is not realy strong enough to stop gassing, use Ferroquest/X800 (good dose) for a week, flush/wash through extremelly well (gallons of water), two bots of X100.
With regards the boiler noise. Check that its piped up correctly, theres an F & R on top. The F gets hot first.
Question? Is it an old system thats been converted to fully pumped, if so is the bathroom rad on a winter/summer operation, (comes on with hot water) if so. Check that it is not still on the old gravity primaries.
Have come across a few Sups with your symptoms, whistle & growl found it to be old gravity towel rails not re-located correctly.