Why is this happening to my boiler?
Posted by: Kevin-W on 22 March 2007
Gentlemen (and ladies)
I have a Potterton Puma 80 combi boiler (installed Feb 2000). The pilot light keeps blowing out on it. Today said light has been blowing itself after 20 to 60 seconds. Just before the light blows out, the boiler makes a clicking sound.
This is very annoying as it's rather cold and I want a shower.
Anyone know why this is happening? Do I need to call out an engineer?
Thanks in advance.
K
I have a Potterton Puma 80 combi boiler (installed Feb 2000). The pilot light keeps blowing out on it. Today said light has been blowing itself after 20 to 60 seconds. Just before the light blows out, the boiler makes a clicking sound.
This is very annoying as it's rather cold and I want a shower.
Anyone know why this is happening? Do I need to call out an engineer?Thanks in advance.
K
Posted on: 22 March 2007 by Rasher
Dear Kevin
Hmm. You're torn, and you've been keeping yourself this way for months and months. You love your cloak-and-dagger job, so could it be that part of the thrill for you and this guy is the whole illicit thing? You and he court discovery with those flirty glances, touches, words. You both risk losing your jobs, blackmail or worse. But you carry on.
Does this mean you're going to be the perfect couple? Well, no. What it means is you spend an awful lot of time thinking about him, building up a perfect fantasy romance - and then confusing it with reality. You have no idea whether you and he would really hit it off, whether it would be worth changing jobs or moving, but neither of you actually feels strongly enough to take that risk. So you keep yourself stuck, enjoying the potent kicks you get from your fantasy built on a bit of flirting. It's worth saying that flirting isn't necessarily a come-on anyway. Often it's just a laugh, something to stave off the boredom and boost the ego. It gives short-term returns but it's self-defeating in the end. Do you really want a love who is good at hiding his feelings, flirting over the filing-cabinets and enjoying the ego-boost but avoiding real commitment? Do you want to stay in half a relationship for the rest of your life? One where the imaginary pleasure is a substitute for the real thing? Do you want a love where you can't even walk down the street together? Is the danger inherent in your job really worth giving up a real life for?
It's your call, Kevin. Maybe you're getting to the point where you've done this and now you're ready to move on. And maybe you're too scared of the thrills and spills of real love-lives. I wish you the decision that's right for you now. Good luck.
Hmm. You're torn, and you've been keeping yourself this way for months and months. You love your cloak-and-dagger job, so could it be that part of the thrill for you and this guy is the whole illicit thing? You and he court discovery with those flirty glances, touches, words. You both risk losing your jobs, blackmail or worse. But you carry on.
Does this mean you're going to be the perfect couple? Well, no. What it means is you spend an awful lot of time thinking about him, building up a perfect fantasy romance - and then confusing it with reality. You have no idea whether you and he would really hit it off, whether it would be worth changing jobs or moving, but neither of you actually feels strongly enough to take that risk. So you keep yourself stuck, enjoying the potent kicks you get from your fantasy built on a bit of flirting. It's worth saying that flirting isn't necessarily a come-on anyway. Often it's just a laugh, something to stave off the boredom and boost the ego. It gives short-term returns but it's self-defeating in the end. Do you really want a love who is good at hiding his feelings, flirting over the filing-cabinets and enjoying the ego-boost but avoiding real commitment? Do you want to stay in half a relationship for the rest of your life? One where the imaginary pleasure is a substitute for the real thing? Do you want a love where you can't even walk down the street together? Is the danger inherent in your job really worth giving up a real life for?
It's your call, Kevin. Maybe you're getting to the point where you've done this and now you're ready to move on. And maybe you're too scared of the thrills and spills of real love-lives. I wish you the decision that's right for you now. Good luck.
Posted on: 22 March 2007 by JoeH
I'd call out an engineer, but then I'm on one of those British Gas service agreement things, so it's a no-brainer for me.
When our ancient 30-year old boiler goes wrong, it's usually the fault you describe; something to do with the heat exchanger I believe, but such technical talk is all gibberish to me. I dread the day when they run out of parts and we have to 'invest' in a new boiler.
When our ancient 30-year old boiler goes wrong, it's usually the fault you describe; something to do with the heat exchanger I believe, but such technical talk is all gibberish to me. I dread the day when they run out of parts and we have to 'invest' in a new boiler.
Posted on: 22 March 2007 by Laurie Saunders
I can say with some confidence that the likely cause is the thermocouple (there as a safety device to shut off the gas supply in case of a fault) I had excatly the same symptons a few months back..you should be able to get it fixed for c £50 including parts
Laurie
Laurie
Posted on: 22 March 2007 by Bruce Woodhouse
quote:I'd call out an engineer, but then I'm on one of those British Gas service agreement things, so it's a no-brainer for me.
...oh if only that was true. We are awaiting resolution of a complaint with Brit Gas after they failed to fix our system. Three days we waited with someone in the house for them to call-they kept 're-booking' the engineer for the next day by ringing at about about 4.59pm to say they were 'unavoidably running late'. The one that eventually turned up was then not qualified to work on our (LPG) system despite them knowing all along that we had this....
Bruce
Posted on: 22 March 2007 by Staedtler
Another possible cause is a carboned up pilot light nozzle. Same thing happened to my Glow Worm boiler. All it needed was a good de-coke and all was fine again! I think that not enough gas was getting through so it would shut itself off leaving us with no heating or hot water.
Posted on: 22 March 2007 by Diode100
Never mess with gas boilers - they are far too dangerous - get a professional in, even if you do have to wait. & pay no attention to Rasher, he seems to have got it into his head that you have sabataged your boiler as part of some sort of sexual game play.
Posted on: 22 March 2007 by JoeH
quote:Originally posted by Bruce Woodhouse:quote:I'd call out an engineer, but then I'm on one of those British Gas service agreement things, so it's a no-brainer for me.
...oh if only that was true. We are awaiting resolution of a complaint with Brit Gas after they failed to fix our system. Three days we waited with someone in the house for them to call-they kept 're-booking' the engineer for the next day by ringing at about about 4.59pm to say they were 'unavoidably running late'. The one that eventually turned up was then not qualified to work on our (LPG) system despite them knowing all along that we had this....
Bruce
We have almost the opposite problem; the BG bloke turned up as arranged a couple of weeks ago, ran the usual checks and made a few adjustments. Since then BG have rung three times to say that our boiler is now due for its annual inspection, so could we please let them know when would be a convenient date for the engineer to call round.
Posted on: 22 March 2007 by Beano
No heating or hot water
Make sure that the power supply is on and that a fuse hasn’t blown. Remember, if a fuse has blown, you should always rectify the cause first. As always, take great care with any electrical inspection or work.
Check that the gas or other fuel supply has not been turned off inadvertently. In the case of oil, check that you actually have some oil in the tank by reading the gauge.
Make sure the Combi C/Htg system has enough water pressure in it, the pressure gauge should read 1.2-1.5 bar when the system is cold.
Check the flue outlet is clear and not blocked.
Check that the programmer is in the on position and that the thermostats are turned up high enough.
Check that the pump is running. If not, get a heating engineer in to investigate.
Check that the pilot light is lit. If it isn't, follow the details for relighting in the boiler manual.
If none of these solve the problem, it’s time to call in a heating engineer.
Beano
Make sure that the power supply is on and that a fuse hasn’t blown. Remember, if a fuse has blown, you should always rectify the cause first. As always, take great care with any electrical inspection or work.
Check that the gas or other fuel supply has not been turned off inadvertently. In the case of oil, check that you actually have some oil in the tank by reading the gauge.
Make sure the Combi C/Htg system has enough water pressure in it, the pressure gauge should read 1.2-1.5 bar when the system is cold.
Check the flue outlet is clear and not blocked.
Check that the programmer is in the on position and that the thermostats are turned up high enough.
Check that the pump is running. If not, get a heating engineer in to investigate.
Check that the pilot light is lit. If it isn't, follow the details for relighting in the boiler manual.
If none of these solve the problem, it’s time to call in a heating engineer.
Beano
Posted on: 23 March 2007 by Phil Sparks
We have a Baxi condensor boiler that had an annoying problem where it would turn itself off every once in a while - just to be helpful it was normally overnight on a cold night so the house was freezing in the morning and there was no hot water. I had a couple of local Corgi registered guys out to fix it, but because it was intermittant - if it worked for the next 30 mins they thought the prob was fixed.
About a year ago it started to happen more often so I called Baxi for advice. It happens that Baxi and Potterton are now the same firm so this may help you.
They offered may a one year 'guarantee' for the boiler. From memory it was about £200 - which I though was a bit steep, but after a few more shutdowns I bit the bullet. They sent an 'engineer' out who replced a handfull of parts and said to see how it went. It was better but still shut down. He came back and replaced a few more parts .. but it still shut down. He them came back and replaced all the electronic control boards finally it works, and seems to run better and hotter than it has for years. If I'd paid a local plumber to do this I'd guess I'd have spent £500 or more on labour and parts - so in retrospect the £200 doesn't seem a bad deal at all.
My advice would be to get a local plumber to have a quick look, eliminate the obvious stuff, but once it gets into the depths of the boiler consider the Potterton insurance deal.
HTH
Phil
About a year ago it started to happen more often so I called Baxi for advice. It happens that Baxi and Potterton are now the same firm so this may help you.
They offered may a one year 'guarantee' for the boiler. From memory it was about £200 - which I though was a bit steep, but after a few more shutdowns I bit the bullet. They sent an 'engineer' out who replced a handfull of parts and said to see how it went. It was better but still shut down. He came back and replaced a few more parts .. but it still shut down. He them came back and replaced all the electronic control boards finally it works, and seems to run better and hotter than it has for years. If I'd paid a local plumber to do this I'd guess I'd have spent £500 or more on labour and parts - so in retrospect the £200 doesn't seem a bad deal at all.
My advice would be to get a local plumber to have a quick look, eliminate the obvious stuff, but once it gets into the depths of the boiler consider the Potterton insurance deal.
HTH
Phil
Posted on: 23 March 2007 by Bruce Woodhouse
Phil Sparks, surely a name made for this topic! 
Posted on: 23 March 2007 by Phil Sparks
.... and would you believe I did electrical engineering at uni? Gave it all up for the lure of the dark side (bean counting) many years ago tho.