Potterton Suprima Repair or Replace

[Longclough]

I have a Potterton Suprima 40L (8 yrs old) fitted in my house. It seems to have the well documented intermittent Lock-out problem. The boiler can work perfectly for a week or so and then fail everyday for the week after. Usually after it been running for 10 mins or so the boiler will go into standby (green flashing light) when it a tries to relight it fails and locks-out and pump keeps running. Resetting it sometimes works first time or can take several goes.

It was looked at by a boiler engineer, who checked the stats and boiler itself, but come to the conclusion it is most likely the PCB. His recommendation was to replace the boiler rather than repair it (repair being approx £300).

1) Does the above sound like it is most likely the PCB?
2) If repaired what is the likely life would the boiler have before another failure?
3) The boiler is currently housed in a kitchen cupboard, supplying CH and unvented tank. What boiler would be a good recommendation if to replace?

Thanks in advance for any advice

 

[onlyfitidealboilers]

Worcester Ri Range or Vaillant ecotec are the two stand out for me

but I also like The Ideal logic Condensing Boiler

I would not waste a single penny on that lump of crap you have

Yes it sound like the pcb £170 ish for parts £65 Labour over £200 so not worth it

 

[Mr Smyth]

Keep the boiler.

I would not jump straight to changing the PCB. You describe it locking out on ignition.

I would check the ignition electrode, the gas pressures etc before even thinking about changing the PCB.

The 'engineer' seems to be more of an installer

The money you would spend on replacing it would not be made back in efficiency this decade!

If you don't know a good engineer in the local area, go for a BG fixed price repair. Far less than the £300 you have been quoted for the PCB.

Hope this helps

 

[nickso]

£300 and people say BG is pricey.

there is absolutely no reason to replace an 8 year old suprima, if you do you have more money than sense. get BG out on a fixed price repair at around £168 and they will replace the pcb.

suprima is a good simple boiler that will out last lots of other junk out there, i'm predicting an easy 20 year life for most of them.

 

[onlyfitidealboilers]

dont listen to these wollys change the boiler its a ****e boiler you will have at least another 3 or 4 pcbs in its 20 year life span plus any other crap that comes your way.

better to fit a nice new one

 

[oph]

Nice little compact unit and easy to work on

HOWEVER

if you do in fact need to replace the PCB we aware of this. It wont be the one and only time you do.
I has a custard with a suprima from 1997 in a property he rents out.
Usual problem and I said PCB. When changing it or rather when I started I remember thinking to myself that it had sone very well to get this far then I saw the date on the PCB which was 2003
Have heard stories that even the new ones can give problems.Far too much latent heat eminating from the casing hence the problem

 

[nickso]

dont listen to these wollys change the boiler its a s***te boiler you will have at least another 3 or 4 pcbs in its 20 year life span plus any other crap that comes your way.

better to fit a nice new one

pure speculation.

the current issue PCB is very reliable. what else ever goes wrong with a suprima? the odd gas valve and a noisy heat exchanger if the system is dirty. i'd have all of that over any worcester or vaillant, i would have a box of matches over any ideal.

if the OP thinks parts for a suprima are pricey wait til one of those boilers goes pop and he will find out the true cost, and thats after he has forked out for a new boiler install.

i wonder about your ability and sanity.

 

[ChrisR]

On average, once the original pcb is replaced with one of the current designs, they seem to be "OK". AS okay, lets say, as many a current new boiler, so replacing it wouldn't make sense.

Although, there's a Suprima in a part of London I decline to travel to any more whose pcb I changed 5 years ago, and 3 years ago, which now needs another one. I think the owner is very unlucky though!

 

[kevplumb]

dont listen to these wollys change the boiler its a s***te boiler you will have at least another 3 or 4 pcbs in its 20 year life span plus any other crap that comes your way.

better to fit a nice new one

bit early to be that pi$$ed

 

[Agile]

There seem to be a lot of installers above!

A BG fixed oprice at about £190 is very good value and the new design PCB is very reliable.

The boiler should last at least another six years, probably without any other fault as long as the system is clean and so the pump does not get jammed.

Tony

EDIT !!! I had typed UNreliable in error! Its corrected above now! Its very REliable!

 

[powell30]

Lot of rubbish typed on here.....

The old style boards were an issue. The new ones fail no more than any others i deal with.

I have seen hundreds of suprima's and replaced 3 new boards out of all of them.

If we still see an old board we replace so as to sort out any issues.

The boiler itself is a brick.......easy to work on and old boards aside very little goes wrong on em

 

[Longclough]

Thanks for your responses.

I was wondering if it could be something else, not just the PCB. The gas engineer does install potterton (he contracts from Barrats + Our house is a Barrat). I found him on the gas safe register and he installed a gas hob for me so was happy with his work.

As someone mentioned the boiler does sound louder than it used to. Also the pump sounds louder too. Could this be related? I have had the house 3 yrs and boiler serviced once coming up to 12 months now. don't think the system will have ever been cleaned. Is this advisable?

 

[Agile]

If a system has been properly cleaned when installed then no cleaning is needed.

BUT installers for housebuilders are known for not cleaning anything.

Someone bought bottles of cleanser cheaply on Ebay. When they arrived the label was missing. Obviously the seller should have put the chemical in the systems he was installing but instead all he did was stick on the labels and sold the chemical on Ebay.

Bleed a rad into a cup and see the colour of the water.

Tony

 

[nickso]

it's not just down to cleaning. system design is also an issue. i have never been particularly impressed with barratts use of drop feeds and ****e air seperators with all the pipework generally crammed into the cylinder cupboard. in my experience barratt houses are the typical installation to corrode faster than an 80's alfa romeo.

some of the barratts round here need a flush,cut and clear or a filter after as little as 5 years.

the heat exchangers on suprima's are easy to clean out and rather annoyingly BG's stupid sonic machine works very well on them.

 

[adlplumbing]

suprima to my knowledge is very reliable boiler pcb is an issue with it as mentioned as it at side boiler thus get bit too much heat too it
design flaw would been better underneath ware it would be cooler
but it damn good little unit and would not get rid off it that easy
but if u do go down that route their are few good heat only boilers out their