Over the past year or so we have suffered from our Potterton Suprima 60L locking itself out (boiler turning itself off and the red light flashing). We had tried hundreds of times pressing the reset button to coax it back into life. Sometimes that worked for 30 mins sometimes for 30 hours. Our plumber has now said that it is definately the pcb (printed circuit board). Best price we can find is £150 plus fitting. Watch Dog has highlighted this problem this week with hundreds, if not thousands, of other customers having the same problem. I have found out the Potterton are now on the THIRD version of this part to try to rectify the problem! However if you call Potterton they will deny there is any problem with either the pcb or the boiler design. The fault seems to lay with the solder used on the pcb, as under Health & Safety rules the use of lead in solder has been banned. The high tin content in the "New" solder means that with high temperatures and vibration the soldered joints crack and fail, giving what is called a "dry" joint. This could be rectified pro tem by resoldering all the joints but this should not be attempted unless you know exactly what you are doing and are qualified to do so. Potterton DO know all this but will lie to you when challenged - they did to me. If you Goggle the subject under "potterton pcb" you will get an idea of the size of the problem and possible fixes. My plumber will no longer buy Potterton/Baxi (check other names they trade under)boilers neither will we. The product and company are faulty.
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Feb 9th, 2007
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