Why would the boiler not turn on when its supposed to and have a red light?

[MaxP779]

I pushed reset on it and it seems to be working fine now... Are these things just a bit quirky like that or what?

Also in b4 it will explode

 

[MaxP779]

Not great on boilers, but with our boiler unit, the problem was with a motor not opening the right valve to get the flow going.

Do you hear a small gearing noise that opens a valve when you start the boiler ?
If the boiler doesn't engage when you don't hear it, then its probably that and it cost us 100 odd to replace, maybe more....

I just hear an indeterminate rumble, the usual noise.

I really wish this thing had a manual or at least a model number, the previous owners took the damn sticker off so i can only guess the model.

 

[MaxP779]

How old is it?
Has it ever been serviced?

I assume it came with the house so ~14 years old. Yeah it was serviced around 2010 said the home report (which was written in 2010). I bought this place in 2013. Previous people had a contract with B&Q i think? That may have involved yearly checkups, don't know though.

 

[MaxP779]

my house was built in 2000 and came with a potterton boiler, after a few years we kept getting the red flashing light you describe, press reset and it'd work for a while then trip out again. A bit of googling suggested a faulty circuit board. Not adverse to taking things apart I stripped the old one out and the board looked like it had been soldered by a 3 year old blind kid, it was shoddy.

Re-soldered all the dry joints and got another 3 years out of it. Bit the bullet and ordered another board from the Bay, which was a pukka potterton board for £100. The board had been redesigned and of better quality and to this day not had a problem.

Turns out Potterton boilers were reknowned for it, even made Watchdog!

could be the same for you?

Man i couldn't even figure out how to get the front panel off the thing.... I can build a computer from scratch though so i imagine if i could get the panel off I could fit a new board (as long as no soldering is involved).

I have £9 right now and things arent likely to improve so ill just keep checking for lockout now and again and hit the reset, when it finally kicks the bucket... well I dunno theres plenty of websites out there with info about how to have a cold shower and not die from it so yeah, can always try that!