Decide to be a good boy scout ("be prepared") and get the boiler serviced before the cold of winter kicks in.

Plumber arrives, does the work and then finds that the boiler doesn't want to power up again. Spends a lot of time, including phoning the manufacturer's technical team, before coming to the conclusion that the PCB and / or fan has died. Great. Parts will need to be ordered. Not sure how long it will take before we have a working boiler again. Double great.

So we go from a working boiler to a non-working boiler (no heating or hot water at all) in the course of an hour.

I knew I should have just left the bloody thing alone!

At least there are showers at work... 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

God i cant stand boilers. The winter before last our boiler started playing up and wouldn't ignite from the timer. Someone came out to look at it and said it was so old it wasnt worth spending money on it but and lords being tight he fixed it, and then fixed it again and again ect as he refused to pay for a new one. it eventually wouldnt fire up with hot water and had every part replaced nearly and then finally the pcb gave out with a bang ond blew the electrics somehow. this went on for about a year and it had over 800 worth of parts. low and behold he finally fitted a new one. he should of done that when advised and would of saved himself 800 . the original boiler was over 20 years old

some boilers blow the pcb board if the fan goes, but you need a new pcb board fitted to get the code

so duff fan blows pcb, new pcb blown by duff fan, fan raplace along with 3rd pcb and fingers crossed.

If my plumber suspects this, he recommends a fixed price repair from british gas

Another boiler hater here too!
Ever since it was first installed mine lights with a loud bang sometimes but not every time. I think it is called explosive ignition.
PCB changed - no difference. Seems nobody can fix it! Surely it is just something to do with the wrong gas/air mixture - not exactly rocket science?

On the upside when the fan got noisy I fixed it for a fiver with a new bearing (instead of £200 part plus another £75 for an 'engineer' to come and fit it in 5 minutes). 2008 MY Java Black TDV8 HSE

We had a similar situation this time last year with the boiler not firing up. I took out a fixed price repair with the manufacturer at £185.

Engineer came, fitted new pcb, new control valve, new fan and a few other things and it still wouldn't fire up, kept sparking but that was all. He called someone else, came back and took the jet out which carries the pilot prior to full boiler igniting, cleaned it with a pin, replaced it and it fired up straight away on next attempt. He thinks a bit of debris must have got into it and blocked it whilst he was removing and fitting parts.

I was going to replace the boiler this year (14 years old) but since it had just about every part replaced bar the main chamber 12 months ago figured it should last a year or so yet (hope I'm not tempting providence here

RRSTDV8, do you have a hot water cylinder with an immersion heater? You can switch it on to get at least hot water until your boiler is fixed.

Not a fan of boilers myself (pun intended) and can't understand why they need to be so complicated - probably lack of knowledge on my part. I've had a couple of problems too but don't want to go into boring details. I have got CORGI "home plan" insurance since then. Costs me £22 a month but covers all heating, plumbing and electrics in the house plus annual boiler "service". Haven't had any major problems yet but they were fine with sending people out for smallish plumbing/boiler repairs. I could probably increase the cover on my home insurance policy to get the same sort of thing but this one doesn't have any excess, no increase in premium following a claim and AFAIK no claim limit. Current: Volvo XC90 T8 Inscription Pro PHEV with some optionals on top
Gone: MY16 RRS2 3.0 SDV6 Autobiography Dynamic, Carpathian Grey & Santorini Black Sliding Pano/Ebony & Ivory 2 Tone
Gone: MY13 RRS 3.0 SDV6 HSE Black Edition, Orkney Grey/Ivory
Gone: MY09 RRS 2.7 TDV6 HSE, Santorini Black/Almond

npinks wrote:

some boilers blow the pcb board if the fan goes, but you need a new pcb board fitted to get the code

so duff fan blows pcb, new pcb blown by duff fan, fan raplace along with 3rd pcb and fingers crossed.

If my plumber suspects this, he recommends a fixed price repair from british gas

fkarim wrote:

RRSTDV8, do you have a hot water cylinder with an immersion heater? You can switch it on to get at least hot water until your boiler is fixed.

Sadly not - it's a combi  2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

I was quoted £300 a pcb though the first time the supplier refunded the costs

Try the boiler manufacturer they sometimes have fixed price deals

If not see if there is a boiler replacement GReen Deal available

boilers always go wrong in the winter months ..... never in summer. Earlier this year we came back from holiday to find the boiler had :censored, : its pants. Four days before i could get replacement fitted, the Rangie was actually warmer sat in the garage than it was in the house. 2010 RRS, TDV8
bali Blue / colour coded
side steps / flappy paddles
black perforated leather
22" overfinch
heated everything, TV,fridge ...... now with gold calipers and mud flaps !( black mud flaps that is) !!
Many years ago,,,,, 1955 series 1 landie , sometimes wish I had kept it

Maybe I can give advice here as I am a gas safe engineer.

What make and model is it?

fkarim wrote:

RRSTDV8, do you have a hot water cylinder with an immersion heater? You can switch it on to get at least hot water until your boiler is fixed.

Not a fan of boilers myself (pun intended) and can't understand why they need to be so complicated - probably lack of knowledge on my part. I've had a couple of problems too but don't want to go into boring details. I have got CORGI "home plan" insurance since then. Costs me £22 a month but covers all heating, plumbing and electrics in the house plus annual boiler "service". Haven't had any major problems yet but they were fine with sending people out for smallish plumbing/boiler repairs. I could probably increase the cover on my home insurance policy to get the same sort of thing but this one doesn't have any excess, no increase in premium following a claim and AFAIK no claim limit.

Paddi wrote:

Another boiler hater here too!
Ever since it was first installed mine lights with a loud bang sometimes but not every time. I think it is called explosive ignition.
PCB changed - no difference. Seems nobody can fix it! Surely it is just something to do with the wrong gas/air mixture - not exactly rocket science?

On the upside when the fan got noisy I fixed it for a fiver with a new bearing (instead of £200 part plus another £75 for an 'engineer' to come and fit it in 5 minutes).

Paulcp wrote:

We had a similar situation this time last year with the boiler not firing up. I took out a fixed price repair with the manufacturer at £185.

Engineer came, fitted new pcb, new control valve, new fan and a few other things and it still wouldn't fire up, kept sparking but that was all. He called someone else, came back and took the jet out which carries the pilot prior to full boiler igniting, cleaned it with a pin, replaced it and it fired up straight away on next attempt. He thinks a bit of debris must have got into it and blocked it whilst he was removing and fitting parts.

I was going to replace the boiler this year (14 years old) but since it had just about every part replaced bar the main chamber 12 months ago figured it should last a year or so yet (hope I'm not tempting providence here

RRS Daz wrote:

Paddi wrote:

Another boiler hater here too!
Ever since it was first installed mine lights with a loud bang sometimes but not every time. I think it is called explosive ignition.
PCB changed - no difference. Seems nobody can fix it! Surely it is just something to do with the wrong gas/air mixture - not exactly rocket science?

On the upside when the fan got noisy I fixed it for a fiver with a new bearing (instead of £200 part plus another £75 for an 'engineer' to come and fit it in 5 minutes).

What's the make and model?

Explosive ignition can be something as simple as the spark gap, cracked burner, spark generator failure more than the wrong gas/air mixture as it's the build up of gas/air inside the heat exchanger before the spark lights it.

It is the ironically named 'Potterton Suprima 80'. When I've looked up the faults on plumbing forums it seems this model is pretty crap. Any recommendations on who might be able to fix it?

Thanks,
P. 2008 MY Java Black TDV8 HSE