S.O.S. !!!! Boilermate II/Potterton Suprima 40 Boiler Problems

Hi there,

We have a Boilermate II/Potterton Suprima 40 Boiler conventional system in our 10 year old house which has recently developed problems.

Problem 1

A few months ago we found we had no hot water & called out Scottish Gas through which we have a Homecare 200 Plan. The engineer had to fit a new mixer to the upstairs Boilermate cylinder however, ever since when we run the hot water tap on the kitchen we have to leaving it running for a couple of minutes or so before the hot water comes out ?

No-one has ever been able to explain why this is happening as previously, we more or less had instant hot water when switching on the tap- can anyone help with this problem ?

Problem 2

On a more serious note our Potterton Suprima started leaking last Sunday & after a further call out the engineer had to drain our system & radiators due to a burst Heat Exchanger.

A different Scottish Gas engineer called on Tuesday to fit the Heat Exchanger but before refilling the system he advised my wife he would have to fit an External Cold Water Feed pipe running from the Sentinal X100 Inhibitor top tank sitting on top of our Boilermate, due to a blocked pipe presumably blocked with sediment ?

Anyhow he eventually got the system up & running !

NB. The engineer refused to fit the Heat Exchanger until she signed an agreement to pay a £206.00 which we are trying to dispute under the terms of our Homecare agreement (Incidentally, the same boiler problem resulting in an External Cold Water Pipe being fitted happened to one of our near neighbours the same day & they are also disputing their £206.00 charge !!).

Problem 3

All was well after the Heat Exchanger & External Cold Water Feed Pipe was fitted until 2 days later, late on Thursday night when I noticed the downstairs thermostat seemed to have switched off earlier than normal.

Thinking no more about it we went to bed only to wake in the morning with no Central Heating which appeared to have packed in !!! We then noticed water accumulating on top of the Boilermate & trickling down the side soaking the carpet in the airing cupboard, so my wife immediately called for yet another Engineer visit.

Despite being booked as a priority, Scottish Gas told us they were so busy the earliest they could get someone out would be Sunday (i.e. tomorrow).

In the interim period however the leak from the Sentinal X100 Inhibitor top tank has been getting so bad part of the carpet outside the airing cupboard is also getting saturated in water so we tried to get the engineer to come out quicker but with no success.

We are confused as to why the heating is not working at all ? Not being very technically minded on Central Heating systems, does a leak of this sort automatically trigger the heating system to stop working & if the Sentinal X100 needs to be replaced are these still available & might there be any further consequences of the actual Boilermate II starting to leak or needing to be replaced ?

I am also suspicious about whether or not fitting the External Cold Water Feed pipe has possibly caused this leak to occur ?

Although we live in a soft water area of the country in Aberdeenshire we are also concerned that the whole Central Heating system (i.e. Boilermate II & Potterton Suprima boiler) may need replaced soon given that it is just over 10 years old, as we are unsure of the life expectancy of either, given the problems we are currently experiencing ?

Sincere apologies for so many questions but it's it's pretty cold up here right now (around -6c) & we are starting to panic about possibly still having to heating apart from our living room gas fire, until after Xmas !!!!!!!!!

We are certainly not looking forward to the engineers diagnosis/solution when he hopefully arrives tomorrow :-(

Any help or advice on the above issues would there be so very much appreciated :-)

I can not answer all your questions.
But.
The BM II's do suffer from blocked cold feeds from the header tank into the unit.
This can be due to bad installation from new.
Or work carried out later.
In both the above not enough inhibitor will have been added to the system or replaced.
No company will cover for sludge or lime scale problems!
From your unit to the kitchen tap, how far is it?
The water in the pipe will be cold. And until you run that off, the hot will not arrive.
It really does sound like a severe sludge problem.
Whether this can be resolved by the local guys.
Have you googled up in your area for anyone local.
Or look on the home page list of advertisers.
You can also down load the manual from Gledhill website for free.
Mike
MGC/H2O
Norfolk