Both Baxi and Potterton boilers are popular with customers and fitters alike, and one of those reasons is their reliability. Sooner or later, though, you are probably going to end up with some sort of fault occurring, but before you call out an expensive engineer there are a few things that you can check for yourself. Follow this guide first and you might save yourself a few pounds (dollars, Euros or other currency).
Check your electricity and gas[]
It might sound obvious, but you need to make sure that your boiler has fuel and power. Try the hob on your oven to see if it heats up or has a gas supply – if that’s your problem, then the issue isn’t just with your boiler or heating system and you need to be contacting your supplier.
Check the water pressure[]
Your gas boiler should have a pressure gauge. Most of these will be marked to indicate when the pressure is too low for the boiler to function, so if the needle is the ‘red’ or ‘low’ zone you need to re-pressurize it. If you find that you’ve done that and the pressure continues to fall, the chances are you have a leak and should be calling a plumber or checking out your pipes and radiators yourself. If you try to re-pressurise and can’t do it, then there may be an external fault, such as the water being off at the mains or some damage caused to the pipe network.
Look for warnings[]
If your boiler was made in the last few years, it may well have a display panel which provides an error or fault code. Your user manual may tell you what this code means, or you can look it up on the internet. Either way, it will either let you know what to do to fix it or if you can’t do it yourself it will mean you can tell an engineer exactly what the problem is.
Check the drain[]
If you have a combi boiler and the weather is unusually cold, check the condensate pipe outside. If it has frozen up it may have blocked, which will make the boiler shut down for safety. Carefully thaw it out with warm water and you should find your boiler is back in working order.
Check the timer and thermostat[]
If nothing else stands out, make sure the timer hasn’t been adjusted – ‘helpful’ children are a good one for doing this. Switch the boiler to ‘on’ and turn up the thermostat, hopefully forcing the boiler to fire up. If it doesn’t, then you may have a problem with your thermostat and you can replace these yourself.
Safety[]
Please remember that there is a limit to the work you can do on your Potterton or Baxi boilers. Anything that involves the gas supply or combustion, or the electrical elements, require a suitably qualified person to do the work. Failure to comply with the law around this could be dangerous, and additionally in the event of an insurance claim you might found a payment refused.
Related[]
External links[]
Commercial sites
- Baxi boilers and Potterton boilers on boilers-sale