HOWLING POTTERTON PROMAX BOILER!

[Chuck]

If someone competent has gone to town on the likely causes of a problem I usually look at less likely possiblities that they may have dismissed prematurely.

E.g. you didn't mention the circulating pump or water pressure in the system. Is the pipework properly secured? Noise travels, particularly at 4am. Are you sure the boiler is responsible and not a dodgy TRV somewhere? Hot water cylinder coils can also make a number of strange singing / humming noises.

Do you have a recording of the noise?

 

[Al Smailes]

We had the same problem (hence me finding this post)… in fact we’ve had it twice and both times the problem seems to have been lack of gas pressure. The first time the meter was largely at fault (not helped by street pipes being replaced by shoving new plastic ones up the old ones) and as soon as the meter was replaced by Cadent (National Grid’s proxy where we live) the howl went away. A year later it came back and we discovered that at certain times of day the pressure at the meter was on the legal minimum (or possibly less at times, we don’t know) and the pipes to the boiler were losing a chunk of it, so we only had 15.5mb at the boiler itself. Apparently some boilers are more tolerant of low pressure than others, but the FSB30HE is in the latter group. Long story short, our long suffering engineer Vince replaced the run with 28mm pipes (with much muttering about how bloody stupid the whole thing was) and, with the boiler getting 18mb+, the howl has gone away. Worth looking at if you have the same problem.

 

[ExPunkLondon]

We had the same problem (hence me finding this post)… in fact we’ve had it twice and both times the problem seems to have been lack of gas pressure. The first time the meter was largely at fault (not helped by street pipes being replaced by shoving new plastic ones up the old ones) and as soon as the meter was replaced by Cadent (National Grid’s proxy where we live) the howl went away. A year later it came back and we discovered that at certain times of day the pressure at the meter was on the legal minimum (or possibly less at times, we don’t know) and the pipes to the boiler were losing a chunk of it, so we only had 15.5mb at the boiler itself. Apparently some boilers are more tolerant of low pressure than others, but the FSB30HE is in the latter group. Long story short, our long suffering engineer Vince replaced the run with 28mm pipes (with much muttering about how bloody stupid the whole thing was) and, with 18+mb at the boiler, the howl has gone away. Worth looking at if you have the same problem.

 

[AndrewD]

The noise is definitely coming from the boiler itself. I have spent ages tracking down the precise location of the noise. The main pump was one early suspect but there is no noise coming from it at all. The noise can be stopped briefly by restricting the air inflow through the balanced flue but as soon as you take your hand away it starts up again. That indicates it's connected to the combustion/flue in some way. The problem is we cannot identify why it's doing it. There is nothing that appears to be wrong. I have recorded the noise on my phone a little while ago but I need to do another one to get the full effect.
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Well here's the thing. We are sort of hoping and suspecting the problem may possibly lie with the seal ring on the top of the boiler where the inner flue fits onto it. That has broken down and needs replacing. It's why my plumber has ordered the new elbow having been told the seals are not sold seperately. He has now been told, when the elbow arrived, that that particular seal only comes with the boiler, not the elbow. It's not listed seperately so you can only buy it if you buy a new boiler!. That's like saying when you wear out a tyre on your car you can only get a new one if you buy a new car. How bloody daft is that!! Nice one Potterton!!! Unbeliveable!

 

[Lou]

(Just bumping a few older threads, they will drop off what is new soon)

Check Out Plumbing News!

 

[Jezclayton]

Late in the day, but I normally associate howling with a leak in the seals on the concentric flue allowing products of combustion to be sucked back into the boiler. The Ideal Icos/Isars were another boiler notorious for this. The OP has not come back since the flue elbow was changed, so I expect that was the issue.

 

[AndrewDan]

Late in the day, but I normally associate howling with a leak in the seals on the concentric flue allowing products of combustion to be sucked back into the boiler. The Ideal Icos/Isars were another boiler notorious for this. The OP has not come back since the flue elbow was changed, so I expect that was the issue.

Yes, that turned out to be the problem. Once changed the noise subsided though it tokk a couple of weeks to happen. The sound got progressivley lower in pitch and duration until it died away altogether. All silent now.