Watchdog program on Potterton PCB's

[electronman]

Hi There,

Did anyone see this program? I missed it but am curious to know what model boiler has the pcb problem, and what, if anything, Potterton were going to do about it.

Thanks,
Electronman.

 

[sooey]

Q1 It's the suprema, if you do a search on this forum it's been covered many times.
Q2 As little as they can get away with of course.

 

[electronman]

Ok, I was just wondering as I know some companies tend to 'buckle' a bit when confronted with program's such as watchdog!

 

[gas4you]

Suprima pcb's been playing up for years, as well as gas valves. I thought new ones had been fitted with new version of pcb that is now more reliable.

Why have they only now put this on telly?I know its expensive to replace but how can they expect potterton to pay for a pcb that is a few years old and out of warranty for a while (bad news is good news )

Perhaps i'm missing the point though. No i'm not pro potterton/baxi as baxpoti will tell you, but why don't they just pay to have it repaired like the majority of other suprima owners.

I'm not trying to be controversial or stir up a hornets nest.

What u think baxpoti?

 

[gazthepottertonengineer]

I agree with you the so called expert they had on the program said that a pcb should last at least 5 to 10 years and the majority that i go to are over 5 years so they are contadicting themselves

yes it is a weak point of the boiler but so is the pcb on most boilers but because the suprima was the nmber 1 selling boiler for over 10 years it has been highlighted more

disagree with you about the gas valves though as they are pretty reliable

 

[ollski]

Pcbs are a fairly common failure point for all manufacturers I mean just think theres:
potterton suprima
potterton prima
potterton profile
potterton lynx
potterton puma

um, oh yes glow worm micron.

 

[gazthepottertonengineer]

Profile and Prima are one of the most reliable boilers ever made so i disagree about the pcbs on them
But the rest you might have a point

 

[corgiman]

With the amount of boilers that potterton have sold I still think the suprima is a reasonably reliable boiler

My main beef with potterton is the HUGE prices they charge for their spares

 

[namsag]

Profile board used to play up quite a bit and the pilot shields used to fall apart before redesign. And on the netaheat profile the little orange connector block used to come adrift from the board but they are a good boiler.

Even if the suprima was the top selling boiler the board failure rate is horrendous even after several upgrades over the past ten years approx. As for most boards lasting over five years, a few years ago while doing a boiler change in a close with ten houses that where just over five years old with suprimas fitted . When asked why changing it, was due its third board seven of the house holds said they thought it was normal to reset them at least twice a week as they had been doing it for ages,

Gas valves also used to stick on them and was a known problem to potterton about seven years ago.

 

[ollski]

Profile and Prima are one of the most reliable boilers ever made so i disagree about the pcbs on them
But the rest you might have a point

Hmmm not a bad boiler but are you saying the majority of them are supposed to attempt to spin the fan several times before a successful ignition attempt?, if so I think it's a good idea that function has been dropped from the new boards

Hang on thought of another notoriously bad board:
Baxi solo 2 / 3
Surely that one can't have anything to do with potterton can it

 

[croydoncorgi]

Watchdog researchers are clearly a bunch of incompetent dilettantes.

When the Suprima PCB issue first came up, all they needed to do was ask Poxy Batterton 2 questions:

- how many Suprimas sold BEFORE the latest PCB modification was introduced?

- how many REPLACEMENT PCBs have been sold since the Suprima first launched?

Clearly, Poxy has easy access to the numbers and clearly they'd be quite easy to confirm statistically by some telephone research using customers (Do you have / had a Suprima? How many replacement PCBs?). As has been pointed out, LOTS of Suprimas were sold, so finding users 'at random' would be dead easy. So, in fact, Poxy could not risk lying and no research would actually be needed!

Then, Watchdog would have had some SOLID evidence to put to Poxy and then they MIGHT actually get something out of them!

 

[gazthepottertonengineer]

Wot like us going out and fixing them free of charge even if they are 10 years old never been serviced and not wired up correctly oh yes we are doin that

how many other manafacturers would be doing that

 

[namsag]

A number off maufacturers have done this with no problems about a service history. Even baxi when the solo2 heatexchangers started to mushroom inside and fall apart. Vailant on the 242 when gas pressures stated to change due to faulty part in the gas valve , Cannon on the coleridge when pilot tube started shalling and when comin on with explosive ignition and shattering the glass.. Gloworm minimiser had a service kit which would have cost about £200 but still done it for nothing. List goes on. Several of these where advertised in the national press. So how are they gettin away with it

 

[corgiman]

sorry to be picky but werent the hellish minimiser an Ideal boiler?

 

[gazthepottertonengineer]

A number off maufacturers have done this with no problems about a service history. Even baxi when the solo2 heatexchangers started to mushroom inside and fall apart. Vailant on the 242 when gas pressures stated to change due to faulty part in the gas valve , Cannon on the coleridge when pilot tube started shalling and when comin on with explosive ignition and shattering the glass.. Gloworm minimiser had a service kit which would have cost about £200 but still done it for nothing. List goes on. Several of these where advertised in the national press. So how are they gettin away with it

nearly all of those were safety issues which had to be done as they could have been sued like we did with the Olympic problem