Potterton boiler mystery...

[Santajosep]

Hello gang,

I'm here hoping for help and advice with a problem which has already outsmarted four plumbers...

We have installed a Potterton Gold Combi 28. It doesn't work. It'll fire up but dies pretty much as soon as the fan kicks in. Here's the strange part. We have another fully functioning Potterton Gold Combi 28, and we have removed every single removable part from the duff model and tested it in the one that works - gas valve, PCB, every sensor, even the whole burner has been taken out. They all work in the old model but not in the new one. Four different plumbers have looked at this bloody boiler, checked all the obvious and less obvious issues it might have and cannot find out why it won't work. For complicated reasons we cannot get Potterton out to look at it under guarantee (don't worry, it's legit, nothing dodgy), and we have run out of ideas.

At the moment it's looking like a brand new, £700+ plus boiler is going to have to be junked, and I just can't see how that can be possible. Does anyone have any helpful suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Last Plumber]

Are you Gas safe registered?

 

[Santajosep]

I'm not a plumber, I'm the house owner.

 

[Last Plumber]

You are supposed to be Registered to work on a gas appliance.

 

[rpm]

Is the house in Spain?

 

[Santajosep]

I'm not working on the appliance, plumbers are and yes they either are or have been gas safe registered. And yes, it is.

 

[Gasmk1]

a long shot but is it set up for the right gas

 

[Santajosep]

Yep

 

[Last Plumber]

When you say the boiler starts, how long does it run?

 

[Santajosep]

The boiler will stay lit for between 5-20 seconds before cutting out. One pattern noticed is that when it's being tested or checked, it starts off cutting out within about five seconds. Keep trying it and it will go up to 20 seconds eventually, but no longer than that.

 

[Last Plumber]

Polarity at the fused spur!
Have you checked that?
If not, check it before you do anything else.

 

[Harvest Fields]

The boiler will stay lit for between 5-20 seconds before cutting out. One pattern noticed is that when it's being tested or checked, it starts off cutting out within about five seconds. Keep trying it and it will go up to 20 seconds eventually, but no longer than that.

Unfortunately, as you are not gas registered. I myself will not be commenting. However I would be more then happy for you to fly me the wife and kids over for 2 weeks and I will have a look whilst I am there.

 

[Santajosep]

Polarity has been checked.

 

[Santajosep]

And there's no danger that I will be going anywhere near the bloody thing to try anything myself. The most I do is hiss at it from a distance.

 

[snowhead]

It's a certainty that the boiler would have worked when it left the factory new.
Whether it was capable of working when it arrived with you is not so certain.

So it fires, until it's produced products of combustion.
Or it fires until it's exhausted the available oxygen.

Did any of the "Plumbers" use an Analyser before they thought it would be a good idea to randomly swop parts?

Was there another boiler in the location before the Potterton was fitted?
Have you thought of fitting (or rather getting someone qualified to) the other boiler in the same location complete, instead of just bits of it?

 

[Santajosep]

Fitting the other boiler in its place is about the only thing left we can think of, but I was hoping for a simpler suggestion first! It's a new installation, so no other boiler has been used there. I wasn't there myself when the analyser was used but I've been told all was as it should be. And is there any need for the rather sarky quote marks - "plumbers"?