Potterton "Prima F" ignition problems
Helen Williams
A year ago I moved into a house with a Potterton Prima F gas boiler which
suddenly started misbehaving (on New Years Eve it filled our house with gas
resulting in us sitting in the dark with all the windows open until Transco
turned up looking for a gas leak!)
The engineer traced the smell to the "Prima F" failing to light the gas -
everything in the sequence happened as normal, except the spark must have
failed, so that the gas was spewing out of the flue (with some leaking back
into the house - not good obviously!)
I would have though there would be some sort of safety mechanism to stop the
gas
if it ever failed to light, but apparently not (or it was/is
non-functioning).
The unit was serviced less than a year ago (after the Transco callout), and
was found to be pretty filthy (previous owners had left it unserviced for
years according to the plumber), and he did actually look to do a pretty
thorough job (took it completely to bits and cleaned!) After which it has
worked flawlessly, until tonight, 11 months later! The heating comes on at
4pm to warm the house for when we get back from work, but we were out so
didn't get back until 8pm, and it *stank* of gas.... so it was open all the
windows time again...
The weird/ironic thing is that I turned the boiler back on, and it's been
fine over quite a few on/off cycles, but obviously we can't trust it to
behave on it's own. Does the Prima F have a safety mechanism for when/if
the gas fails to light? If so, then ours is faulty - would Potterton have
engineers able to fix it, and would you have a rough idea of cost?
I suspect the instruction booklet might help (didn't come with the house,
unfortunately).
Thanks for any help you can give.
Regards
Helen
tarquinlinbin
<he...@legend.co.uk> wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>A year ago I moved into a house with a Potterton Prima F gas boiler which
>suddenly started misbehaving (on New Years Eve it filled our house with gas
>resulting in us sitting in the dark with all the windows open until Transco
>turned up looking for a gas leak!)
>
I cant quite recall in detail the controls situation on the prima but
i suspect its fanned flued,fully electronic ignition with no permanent
pilot ?
It could be that either the pilot is failing to light and therefore
continually emitting a small amount of gas which shouldnt normally
cause a problem if the boiler case seals are in good condition and
intact .
It may also be that the main gas vavle is a bit leaky and isnt
shutting off tighly ,thereby passing some gas to the main burner when
in the off position..
to be honest,the possibilities are endless and only a thorough
examination by a competent person ,equipped with the right test
equipment ,will do.
Potterton do have their own service network i beleive so you could
track them down,,failing that,you are at the mercy of the yellow pages
or making a service call to British Gas which may be a bit pricey.
When its sorted,you;d be well advised to sign up for a maintenance
contract so that you have no future problems AND it gets
checked/serviced annually.
joe,manchester
geoff
<he...@legend.co.uk> writes
>Hi all,
So what did the fitter say the problem was ?
A stuck gas valve ? pcb relays welded open?
All boilers are fitted with some sort of cut-out device in the event of
loss of flame.
--
raden
Ed Sirett
geoff <ge...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:qLPy4WZg...@192.168.2.37...
ignition rate typical about 1/3 of the full rate, but obviously enough to
smell.
I wonder where the flue position is so that you can smell it so readily in
winter with the windows closed?
--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at www.diyfaq.org.uk
[neil]
news:ar3ugg$i2t$2$8302...@news.demon.co.uk...
>
> I suspect that the gas rate before the flame has been detected is at a low
> ignition rate typical about 1/3 of the full rate, but obviously enough to
> smell.
> I wonder where the flue position is so that you can smell it so readily in
> winter with the windows closed?
>
>
> --
> Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
> The FAQ for uk.diy is at www.diyfaq.org.uk
The flue goes out to the back of the house, but you could smell gas even
before you got in the house - the garden stank!!! Inside was even worse...
the gas had been on full (the boiler must have thought it was lit and was
serving gas full flow), which was going unburnt out of the flue, but I guess
some leaks back in the house....
The Corgi plumber that was supposed to come round at 4:30 on Friday ("Help
Link", covers Yorkshire region - I suggest you DO NOT use them!) failed to
turn up, even though I took time off work to make sure I was in for them....
two calls chasing them up to be told "someone is on their way" until I was
told at 9pm that they were too busy at another job and that they'd send
someone for 10am the next day so I told them to stuff it. The guy wasn't
too bothered, but did say he'd reduce the charge (from £45ph to £39ph!)....
We've got a different plumber coming tonight, will see what he says.
Neil