Infrequent Central Heating

Hi

I have a Gledhill Boilermate 2000 and Micron 50FF boiler. I always have hot water, but the central heating comes on very infrequently and only for brief periods, despite the hall thermostat being set to over 30 degrees. Thanks to this forum I learnt how to do some basic troubleshooting but I'm not clear what to do next, can anyone please help?

I noticed the following:

1. The Micron 50FF is set to maximum
2. The Gledhill is set to draw hot water between 60 and 68.
3. The Gledhill rarely gets to 60.
4. The left most pump (boiler) is almost always running.
5. When it does occasionally get to 60, the heating comes on (indicated by the LED), and the middle pump runs. The radiators are hot.
6. The Gledhill temperature drops below 60 after a few minutes and the heating switches off.
7. The small 'cistern' tank above the Gledhill is not very full, it has just enough brown gunky water at the bottom to lift the ballcock. If I press down on the arm, it fills some more.
8. I have heard/felt the right most pump (plate heat exchanger) running, but not very often.
9. FYI I recently had the Micron 50FF repaired (new PCB) so I'm pretty sure it is fine.

Any ideas anyone please? Would be happy to employ a regular poster to this forum if there is Gledhill expert work required.

Thanks in advance, Adam

I also noticed that the boiler doesn't seem to operate for very long, despite the fact the Gledhill is below its target temperate, and despite the Gledhill pumps being on setting III.

Further reading on this forum suggests this could be an issue of the inadequate circulation. The boiler cannot replace the heat lost from the store as fast as the rads or hot water use it up.

Unless anyone can suggest otherwise, I think my only option is to call my local Gledhill expert as advertised on this forum.

Cheers, Adam

Finally resolved my problem. Gledhill engineer confirmed there was nothing wrong with the Boilermate and pumps were fine. Problem was with the Mixron 50FF boiler. SInce having the new PCB it kept cutting in and out so the boilermate never made 60 degrees. A 2nd replacement PCB seemed to allow the boiler to run for longer periods, but the problem was not completely resolved until the thermister was replaced too. Now everything runs great.

Handy hint - if the boiler never reaches 60 degress, you can swap a couple of wires on the PCB to force the heating pump to run anyway, giving some heating to your radiators. PM me if you need this information and do this at your own risk!

I seem to be having the same problems as many people - the store temperature reaches 57 or 58 and the boiler switches off.

This of course means no heating as the temperature never seems to be able to get above 58. To try and force it on, I removed the socketed chip from the board and switched the Boilermate back on. I now have heating although it is effectively on 'full' all the time (no room thermostat control)

Presumably with no controller chip everything just comes on and stays on all the time unless you physically switch the unit off at the wall.

I'm not sure if this proves that the board is faulty or the controller chip as I can't monitor the temperatures on the board with no chip installed.

The boiler seems to stay on for longer when the chip is out although if I re-install the chip and check the current store temperature, it still says 58.

Sounds like my Potterton Suprema 30L might be on the way out !!!

Any advice would be appreciated.....

morgulwarrior - your problem sounds similar to mine. On the boilermate I moved the live wire for the heating pump to the signal from the hall 'stat. This too has the effect of running the heating even if the store is less than 60, although this often means hot water is in short supply. You can still turn the heating on or off with the stat and monitor the store temp on the boilermate display.

The boilermate display will indicate if the boilermate is 'calling' for hot water from the boiler, and the left most pump will be running. If that pump is not running and the store is not up to temp then maybe the boilermate is at fault.

I assume your boiler is set to max? Does the boiler switch on and off alot, even though store temp is less than the boilermate's target (70 on mine I think)? If so then it is probably a faulty PCB or thermister as per my experience. If it is running constantly yet the boilermate never reaches 60 or more then it's probably someting else, but either way I'd get someone to look at the boiler.