Discuss Pilot light going out, with loud noises from aloft! in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

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scoutkim3870

We have an old Potterton Prima B boiler, up until now working fine. We went away for several days, leaving HW and CH on (with rads low). We returned to find everything off and the pilot light out. I re-lit the pilot light and since then it runs for a while (sometimes as long as a whole day), with the HW and CH both working (although the HW does not seem as hot as usual) but then goes out again. Usually (but not always), this is accompanied by a loud noise (from the loft ?) not classic water-hammer, more like a roaring/vibrating kind of noise for a few minutes. I always like to have some understanding of the problem myself before calling for further help, and I’m thinking that perhaps the water in the cylinder is overheating and “boiling” up into the feed and expansion tank, causing the noise. Although of course this does not necessarily tie in with the water not being hot enough. I am thinking that perhaps the problem could be with the diverter valve next to the cylinder malfunctioning. Could I be right about this? Any other ideas? Thank you, in advance, for any help or light on the subject.
 
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Do you have to re-set the overheat or is there the noise without it tripping out?
 
Yes it always trips out after/at the same time as the noise and I have to reset the overheat.
 
Well it could be a couple of things .... The control thermostats on these are always f'ailing' to hotter than normal is one ... Just put the thermostat to its minimum and see if that stops the overheating. However there's a thing called the pump overrun fitted on these boilers that can sometimes turn the pump off when they switch over. This will give you the symptoms you're describing and would be my hunch if the boiler control stat seemed okay!

There are other possibles but these are the two most likely suspects IMO :)

Get yourself a GasSafe guy in to have a look at it.
 
could be as simple as no water in the header tank but my bet would be sticking pump especially as it started after being turned of for a while
 
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Got a qualified gas man in. It was the divertor switch upstairs - motor had burned out, somehow this was causing the boiler to trip out. Anyway, it's replaced now and everything is fine.
 
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