Potterton boiler help please

[LIZS]

We have a Potterton Prima F boiler but no operating instructions. Radiators seem cold, water hot. Not sure if boiler has gone out or if temperature is supposed to be ok as it isn't firing. No obvious button to reignite it if it has gone out.

Right.

Let's recap.

Do you have any hot water at all form your taps?

Is it just the heating we are talking about?

Try diynot.com by the way - i have used these guys before and it is full of diy nerds - very useful.

Have to get the kids to bed and other such assorted nonsense - good luck. try that site i mentioned as engineers lurk about in it.

Well have got boiler to fire by restarting it (found instructions at last !) , but as soon as you turn the dial from 0 (should be set at around 3/4) it stops. Am giving it half an hour to see if radiators warm up then will reset the dial.

Not sure if it is pressurised ,there is a red tap thing under the tank but no guage as far as I can tell. We have hot water in taps. House, and boiler presumably , about 15 years old. Will look for overheat stat.

Tried reset button but it didn't really move so not sure it worked. Can only set boiler just above 0 or it stops firing again.

It's difficult doing this on-line really.

I would really need to be there to look at your system as every one is different.

I would suggest doing what you are doing - ie. trying everything - and then call someone out. At least you can say you did what you could before you called the experts out. Just make sure you specify no call-out charge when you phone - just pay for the work as it may be something really simple.

I had an issue a while ago when the heating cut out and it took a while to find what it was.

(It ended up being the combi boiler - the condensing water was running back down the outlet pipe as it should be - but was finding its way out of a 'seal' and down the inside of the boiler and shorting the mother board. It took three weeks of me, my dad and an engineer to finally figure that one out so i know it is sometimes very confusing and not immediately obviuos even to the professionals. Even the gas engineer took two visits to work it out)

In the meantime i borrowed heaters from neighbours and ........... (sensitive environmentalist can look away at this point.......) left my cooker on overnight with the door open.

It worked a treat cos my kitchen is immediately below the stairs and it gave the whole house a nice toasty glow.

Hello

The Potterton Prima Boiler is knowned for having circuit board problems. We had the same problem and had to keep pressing the reset button behind the white door on the boiler. It got to a point we were resetting it every 10-15 mins. We have a British Gas contract so had the board replaced. Majorityof the houses on my road was fitted with these boilers when the houses where built and 9 out of 10 houses have had the same problem.

You could try phoning Potterton themselves I did see something on Watchdog about these boilers. If you even google it you will see hundreds of forums discussing this problem. I would phone around a few places and ask how much it would be to have the circuit board replaced.

Potterton boilers.....

We had to pay out £300 ish quid when it was 2 years old to have the pump and some other crappy part of it changed and just before CHRISTMAS had to fork out £500 to have the circuit board and a little motor for the switch mentioned changed.

If you can prove you have had your boiler serviced yearly, Potterton may reimburse you if you need the board changing.
They are real arrogant arseholes but agreed to reimburse me if i could come up with the proof, but I couldn't, and seeing as they freely admitted to Watchdog the boards were faulty, couldn't understand why I would have to?

We had to pay out £300 to have a new circuit board fitted. Had cancelled our contract to have it serviced every year as the engineers in our area were rubbish. Then the heating packed up!

Had it fixed and took out a contract with British Gas.

We are in the process of claiming our £300 back through Potterton.

9 out of 10 houses in our street have had the same problem - Saz73 do you live in the same place as I do?

Hi I live in Reading, Berkshire not sure if you are local or not.

Our estate there's about 30-50 houses and majority fitted with these blooming potterton boilers. Luckly when we moved in we started a contract with BG and then 7 mths later we started having probs. Guy came out and knew what the problem was straight away and said he carrys several of these boards in his van and fitted a new circuit board. Didn't see that article on Watchdog til later last year.

It was a nightmare as I had just had DS and wanted the heating on 24 hrs a day and DH and myself had to take it in turns to reset the boiler before we actually knew what the problem was. A couple of neighbours paid over #500 for replacement boards.

Ah - I used to live in Berkshire (worked in Reading).

The boiler I am actually talking about lives in a house in a village on the outskirts of York.

I worked for a big Life Assurance Company on the Kings Road. We lived in Thatcham Nr Newbury. Twas many years ago now - nigh on 10.

I'm a northern stuggling to live in the south.... I so wish southern hubby would move!!! Got annoying neighbours, maybe that's another thread i should start.

I am a northerner too - a Leeds girl. It was because of DH's job we moved down South.

Just gotta work on your DH and tell him how nice it is up here.

yep we have had untold problems with our potterton combi boiler too. no thermostat as well.

someone fitted one for us, but all it does is turn it on (hot rads) or off. we can't control the heat at all unless we turn each radiator up or down.

it's cost us about £800 in the 8 years we've been here with things going wrong. avoid potterton.

Had engineer out who says the thermostat on boiler needs replacing and a valve in the airing cupboard isn't working properly so too much hot water recirculating rather than going to radiators. Coming on Monday to replace both.