So many promblems with potterton puma 100. Please help.

[elmo]

Hoping and praying someone can help me with the mess my boiler is in!

Its a potterton Puma 100 and we have been having trouble for months.

A week before christmas the pcb board burnt out in the top left hand corner, we had this replaced then a month later the power to the boiler went again. Got the power restored and called the plumber in have a look at it. As it still was not working right, the outlet pipe was gushing out and so we were losing pressure he repressurised the expansion vessel and said we needed the pressure relief valve replacing and also the pump had been previously fitted upside down! he turned this around. He said if all that didn't work the heat control thermostat on the pipe could have gone. So we had the pressure relief pipe and the two thermostats on the ch pipe replaced.
All this time the boiler had a leak some where, we managed track it down to the heat exchanger. This has now been fixed we also had to replace a broken cooler fan too but when the boiler was all put back on the switch that controls the central heating is not working, the boiler standby/on switch is but as soon as you switch this to on the heating fires up although it is only heating up two rads, but we thought at least we finally have hot water after all this time, however now the hot water is getting hot but it is only coming out of the tap a bit and the red led light that comes on when you call for hot water doesn't always come on.

So what could all this be? pcb board again? or hw diverter switch or both? or something completely different.

Im so fed up of this boiler as soon as I fix one thing something else goes wrong with it, it was only installed new in 2000. We are ready rip it off the wall. I have a two year old so I need the hot water and it was bad enough trying to survive winter without heating or water.

Thanks for reading, sorry its such a long one.

 

[croydoncorgi]

Hate to say this, but....
It's seems you don't really understand the boiler or the heating system it's part of (actually, why should you have to?). Apparently, neither does your 'plumber'!

Before you spend any more money on anything, I strongly suggest you find a heating engineer who understands boilers and heating systems and can advise you what must be done, what should be done (to your benefit or to the system's!) and to discover if there's underlying problem(s) that are messing up the boiler. From your description, and assuming the thing worked at least adequately in the first place, at least some of your problems must be 'repairer induced'.

 

[CorgiIOW]

Before you spend any more money on anything, I strongly suggest you find a heating engineer who understands boilers and heating systems and can advise you what must be done,

Ditto, croydoncorgi , i have to agree, " Get somebody who is reg, and more to the point, knows what he is talking about, and knows what he is doing.

Dave.

 

[elmo]

Thanks. The heating engineer we got out is a corgi guy and it said in his ad that he is a combi boiler specialist.

Does it sound repairable or do we just cut our losses? i dont want to keep paying out for parts if the thing is just too knackered even though I really cant afford to replace it.

 

[BOB.DOLE]

Hoping and praying someone can help me with the mess my boiler is in!

Its a potterton Puma 100 and we have been having trouble for months.

A week before christmas the pcb board burnt out in the top left hand corner, we had this replaced then a month later the power to the boiler went again. Got the power restored and called the plumber in have a look at it. As it still was not working right, the outlet pipe was gushing out and so we were losing pressure he repressurised the expansion vessel and said we needed the pressure relief valve replacing and also the pump had been previously fitted upside down! he turned this around. He said if all that didn't work the heat control thermostat on the pipe could have gone. So we had the pressure relief pipe and the two thermostats on the ch pipe replaced.
All this time the boiler had a leak some where, we managed track it down to the heat exchanger. This has now been fixed we also had to replace a broken cooler fan too but when the boiler was all put back on the switch that controls the central heating is not working, the boiler standby/on switch is but as soon as you switch this to on the heating fires up although it is only heating up two rads, but we thought at least we finally have hot water after all this time, however now the hot water is getting hot but it is only coming out of the tap a bit and the red led light that comes on when you call for hot water doesn't always come on.

So what could all this be? pcb board again? or hw diverter switch or both? or something completely different.

Im so fed up of this boiler as soon as I fix one thing something else goes wrong with it, it was only installed new in 2000. We are ready rip it off the wall. I have a two year old so I need the hot water and it was bad enough trying to survive winter without heating or water.

Thanks for reading, sorry its such a long one.

I AM sorry to say but the boiler is on its way out a boiler is like a car by the time you keep spending money on it replacing parts at the end of the day it will be cheaper to replace it.
in my opinion its about time all boilers should have a sell by date after 10 years the boiler should be replaced with a new one.

 

[elmo]

Thanks, we have already spent over £200 on it and its such a waste as its still not fixed. Looks like I better get trying to get some money from somewhere to replace it. It never rains, eh?

 

[BOB.DOLE]

Thanks, we have already spent over £200 on it and its such a waste as its still not fixed. Looks like I better get trying to get some money from somewhere to replace it. It never rains, eh?

its the same old mistake people make with boilers they think they will last as long as the pyrimids but saddly not i9f i where you i would raid the piggy bank and do some spending and make a gas enginner,s dreams come true.

 

[CorgiIOW]

Elmo, i have read your post, and to be truthful, and its only my opinion, but others may disagree.

I don't know a great deal about your boiler, but just because a chap says, or advertised hes a "combi specialist" means jack **** !.

To be fair, most combis work in the same manor, but as you may find on this site, most posters have dedicated knowledge on particular boilers.

You seem to me, and its not your fault to have underlying faults with your boiler, you really need a chap that understands, YOUR Boilr Or think well, enough is enough, and cut you losses and invest in a good boiler,and more to the point, try and get a competent, reg guy to fit it .

Sounds to me, you have chucked enough money at this boiler, and that don't include , your so called " Boiler specialist!".

Dave.

 

[elmo]

If only I had a piggy bank to raid! I would make me and a gas engineer happy.

I think it doesnt help that we live in a very hard water areaand we left it to stand for about 8 months in 2003/4 it's never been the same since.

 

[elmo]

Thanks corgiIOW. How do I go about finding a good gas person in my area? I rang loads when I found this guy and not one of them rang me back after I had left messages.

How much roughly do you think I'm looking at for a new boiler?

 

[geoff@cetltd]

reply to bob dole

I dunno, my 242e was still going strong after 18 years

I only replaced it because someone gave me a new 28i Junior

 

[Agile]

To the original poster!

Your boiler is a common model and its true that they are not very reliable but that does not mean that its not repairable.

I agree with the others that probably several of the things that have been done so far were not necessary.

£200 does not go very far towards car or boiler repairs. It goes less far with a parts changer who does not know what he is doing.

From what you have described I have no idea what problems you have now or even if the pump is pumping in the right direction on your boiler. The impressed arrow on the side should point upwards!

All I can say is that we could get it going for £200 in NW London but as you say you are in a hard water area I assume you are in Buxton or Bracknell.

Tony

 

[ollski]

Surely potterton would come out and do this on their fixed fee repair...if it's only 6 years old.

 

[elmo]

Im in Stoke on Trent. The pump is now the right way round as the heating engineer turned it round for us. The problem was all this time was that the heat exchanger had a hole in it and was spurting out water, it has obviously got the electrical things wet, thats why Im thinking the switch is now not working.

 

[elmo]

Ollski, it was fitted in July 2000 by the couple who lived here before us, we moved in in dec. It was fitted by a local plumber. When I tried to search for potterton it just came up with loads of forums similar to this with people having problems with their potterton!