HOWLING POTTERTON PROMAX BOILER!

[AndrewD]

We have a boiler that greets the day by howling like a dog! At 4.30 am it starts with a low moan that builds quickly to a reverberating howl that fills the entire house. This goes on for fifteen to twenty minutes with varying levels and pitch with harmonics and groans until it has reached it's running temperature when it slowly dies away to quiet. It started over a year ago with the odd brief sick cow moo which was tolerable but then developed into what we have now.
Our plumber is tearing his hair out. He’s done all the boiler manufacturers have told him to do. All to no avail!
First it was the gas valve…we replaced the gas valve. It’s not the gas valve.
It was the fan…we replaced the fan. It’s not the fan.
It’s the gas and air mixture…he adjusted the gas and air mixture in every which way possible. It’s not the gas and air mixture.
The seals have failed…we replaced the seals. It’s not the seals.
You get the picture!! All this, of course costs money and time!
The manufacturers are now out of ideas. Our plumber is out of ideas. And we are losing sleep!
Someone out there must have come across this problem and have figured out what the hell is going on here. I can’t believe our bloody boiler is unique!
It is a Potterton Promax FSB HE floor standing boiler. We had it installed when our good old faithful Potterton Kingfisher boiler finally gave up the ghost after thirty years good service, only needing the occasional thermocouple replacement to keep it working perfectly.
I'm hoping that someone out there may have an answer before I have to make the decision to rip it all out and bin the lot!

 

[Gasmk1]

get your registered gas fitter to try setting the gas valve properly this needs to be done with a flue gas analyser as per manufacturers instructions if this, also check the burner this burner was known to crack and it’s seals fail.

 

[AndrewD]

get your registered gas fitter to try setting the gas valve properly this needs to be done with a flue gas analyser as per manufacturers instructions if this, also check the burner this burner was known to crack and it’s seals fail.

He has done all of that quite a few times already. He's also had the burner out and checked it thoroughly. Everything in the boiler checks out correctly so far. He has done that whilst talking with the manufacturers on the phone as he did it, reporting back to them as he did so.

 

[Basher]

Seems you are not alone with a noisy Potterton!

GasBoilerForums.com - Information

 

[AndrewD]

Indeed but looking at these video clips ours is not quite the same. Our gas/air mixture is good and correct and our noise is at a higher frequency like a howl rather than a buzzing vibration. Clearly both are to do with combustion or related but, I suspect, different causes somehow. Thank you anyway. Still needing a solution to this.

 

[snowhead]

Has Potterton suggested checking / cleaning the airways through the heat exchanger.

 

[AndrewD]

I don't think so. Our plumber is coming later today to fit a new flue elbow on the top of the boiler as the seal did not look in good condition. Potterton for some reason do not sell the seals seperately so, very annoyingly, you have to have the whole kit. A very strange and expensive way of doing it. I will ask him your question as it was something that I was wondering about. I don't know what the heat exchanger is like not having seen one to examine. Are there many airways throughit and do they get glogged up very much? The fact that the noise dies away once it has got up to running temperature implies expansion plays a part in this unless I'm misunderstanding it all. If it was down to clogged airways wouldn't the noise continue all the time rather than die away?