boiler not firing

Hi,

I have a boilermate 2000 system with a potterton boiler in the kitchen in my house.
But I do not live at the house anymore, I live two hours away, and I rent it out. My tenants have said that the "boiler does not fire" and the only way they can get hot water and heating is to use the override switch on the boilermate 2000. I guess that is an electric immersion heater?

Is there anything obvious I can ask my tenants to check, before I resort to calling in a professional?

Thanks

Steve

Hmmmm tricky....

There is a facility called "Switch Backup" on some of the later Boilermates for use when the gas boiler fails. It switches the boilermate from getting its heat from the gas boiler to getting it's heat from internal electric heaters. There is very little that I can think of to ask your tenants to check to find out if this is a boiler failure or a Boilermate failure, other than asking them to make sure controls on the boiler are actually set to ON and the temp control set to MAX.

Might be able to make better suggestions if I knew the make and model of the gas boiler. Can you find that out and post again perhaps?

Cheers, Mike

rundlesm wrote:Hi,

I have a boilermate 2000 system with a potterton boiler in the kitchen in my house.
But I do not live at the house anymore, I live two hours away, and I rent it out. My tenants have said that the "boiler does not fire" and the only way they can get hot water and heating is to use the override switch on the boilermate 2000. I guess that is an electric immersion heater?

Is there anything obvious I can ask my tenants to check, before I resort to calling in a professional?

Thanks

Steve

Hi - I also have the same set up of potterton boiler and gledhill boilermate 2000 and recently had exactly the same issue of the boiler not firing and in turn not heating up the water in the store hence no heating or hot water unless the store is on the "switch mode". This turned out to be the PCB on the boiler and nothing actually to do with the thermal store (on this occasion although have had plenty of issues in the past with this too). You can try pressing the boiler reset button as that sometimes triggers the boiler to fire up for a while but apparently this is a common fault on these boilers and has just cost me £350.

Good Luck

Steve,

Your tenants should open the hinged cover on the boiler and look for a flashing red light. Steady red is OK, but flashing red means a boiler problem (green light means actively heating). There is a reset button next to it. Just press reset and with luck it will be OK for a while.

If the problem is persistent, the pcb in the boiler needs replacing. The offical replacement is a different design to the original, apparently difficult to fit and expensive, but if you look on ebay there are people who sell repaired original boards quite cheaply. They aren't too difficult to fit. Biggest problem I had was detaching the wires from the old board. They are really stiff.

These comments about boiler control board failure all pre-suppose the boiler is a Potterton Suprima in particular, which the original poster has not confirmed. Even if it is, I cannot support people doing their own control board replacements or using the unofficial board repair services on eBay as suggested here.

It may be simple to unplug a dead board and plug a new one in but you are unlikely to have the knowledge or tools needed to carry out the four statutory safety checks needed afterwards to prove the gas boiler is safe to use after the repair. It probably IS safe, but the law requires you to carry out the tests and PROVE it.

Cheers, Mike

We have a similar problem. The boiler does not fire up (it is Ideal Slimline Classic SE12 FF). On the boiler pcb there is an orange light and a clicking sound. On the Boilermate 2000 the display is working and lights HL1 and HL2 are on but not HL3. Any suggestions?
Thanks everyone.
David (in Guildford)

David,

The HL1 and HL2 lights tell us the Boilermate is demanding heat from the boiler, so this indicates a probable boiler failure rather than a Boilermate failure. Control board or fan are the favourite candidates for failure in that boiler. A local boiler repair bod should be able to fix an Ideal Classic with ease.

Mike

The fault was the combustion fan on the Ideal Slimline boiler. Thanks Mike for your reply.