Potterton Suprima Faults

The Potterton Suprima  Story

Potterton suprima were a very good boiler in their time, they were small and compact and would fit nicely inside a kitchen cupboard. 

They came in many heat output sizes from 30,000 BTUs right up to 120000 BTUs and all in the same size case. 

The 120s were recalled a few times due to problems and eventually withdrawn, but all in all, they were a good boiler.

The Potterton suprima had its faults though and one of them was the PCB or otherwise known as the printed circuit board. 

Depending on how often the boiler was used the PCB problem would eventually show itself

 The problem was because the boiler was so small the PCB which is located on the right-hand side if you are facing the boiler used to start to overheat when you looked at the PCB you could see burn marks.

This used to make the boiler go into lockout. 

You could reset the boiler then it would work for a while then back to lockout. In the end, 

you could not reset the boiler, and so you had no heating or hot water.

What Potterton eventually did was encase the PCB in a plastic box to try and stop the overheating, 

this seems to work, but I still came across a few that showed the same signs as the old style PCB.

The new PCB came at a price, 

I remember fitting the old style PCB and the cost was around £75 plus vat give or take a few pounds, but the new style PCB is now around £175 plus vat. 

When installing the new PCB you have to renew the whole wiring loom, basically all the wiring within the boiler. 

Everything needed comes in the box.

If you still have a Potterton suprima fitted in your property then you will 

know that it comes with its faults. The main one being the PCB, the next one being the heat exchanger, 

looking at the boiler on the left-hand side with the front cover removed you will see a little

plug this tends to corrode and start to leak.

This is due to the water in the system 

not having inhibitor added.

The next common problem is the fan, after some time the fan starts to make a noise 

then eventually it stops. The next problem is the seal on the case, this tends to break down after a while, 

the problem here is should the seal break then it starts to leak products of combustion into the room.

Todays Potterton suprima is the HE model which is condensing, again it has its faults but that’s another story. 

All in all the Potterton suprima was and still is a good boiler compared to today’s condensing boiler.

If you have any questions re the Potterton Suprima or any others boilers then just enter your details in the box below and we can arrange a time to make contact.

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