Boiler controller
Discussion
The controller/timer for my boiler was claiming it was 12:65 and not responding to any of the buttons last night.
It's a Potterton EP2001, and have had a hunt online found the Potterton EP2 is supposed to be a direct replacement, so one should be arriving today and I'm hoping it's simply a case of swapping it over and keeping all the connections the same, but I'd like to have an idea how it's working just in case.
As far as I know the central heating is pumped, and the hot water is gravity fed. The boiler is a fairly old Ideal Mexico Super 2.
I've not taken the old controller off so far to know how many wires, but there's 4 cables coming out of it
1 to the power switch
2 to different bits of the boiler that look like 3 core mains cable
1 follows the pipes up towards the airing cupboard
Power's obvious, I'm guessing the one going upstairs is to a thermostat?
The wiring diagram on the boiler shows the supply as Earth, Neutral, LiveP and LiveB. I assume one of the lives is for the heating and the other for the hot water, so one of those cables will be a 4 core. What's the other cable doing? The wiring diagram shows the pump being powered from within the boiler so presumably not that.
It's a Potterton EP2001, and have had a hunt online found the Potterton EP2 is supposed to be a direct replacement, so one should be arriving today and I'm hoping it's simply a case of swapping it over and keeping all the connections the same, but I'd like to have an idea how it's working just in case.
As far as I know the central heating is pumped, and the hot water is gravity fed. The boiler is a fairly old Ideal Mexico Super 2.
I've not taken the old controller off so far to know how many wires, but there's 4 cables coming out of it
1 to the power switch
2 to different bits of the boiler that look like 3 core mains cable
1 follows the pipes up towards the airing cupboard
Power's obvious, I'm guessing the one going upstairs is to a thermostat?
The wiring diagram on the boiler shows the supply as Earth, Neutral, LiveP and LiveB. I assume one of the lives is for the heating and the other for the hot water, so one of those cables will be a 4 core. What's the other cable doing? The wiring diagram shows the pump being powered from within the boiler so presumably not that.
Just about to go through the exact same process this weekend.
As far as I know the EP2 is a direct replacement in as much as it fits to the same base plate as before so no wiring necessary. There's a full wiring diagram in the box anyway so should be able to solve any problems.
Only thing I'm concerned about is I too have pumped heating and gravity hot water. According to the instructions though when setting it up you can only choose between pumped or gravity. As I have a mixture of both I'm not sure what setting to put it on.
As far as I know the EP2 is a direct replacement in as much as it fits to the same base plate as before so no wiring necessary. There's a full wiring diagram in the box anyway so should be able to solve any problems.
Only thing I'm concerned about is I too have pumped heating and gravity hot water. According to the instructions though when setting it up you can only choose between pumped or gravity. As I have a mixture of both I'm not sure what setting to put it on.
EP2 turned up last night and I've got to say I'm very impressed with Potterton. The electrical connections are all on the backplate, and the new controller is compatible with the old (definitly more than 10 years, probably 20+) backplate, it has metal contact pins that slot in to sockets on the backplate. So all I had to do was unclip the old one, clip the new on in place, and then set it up.
I assumed as it had a pump that I should go with pumped, and it seems to be working ok, is it likely to be causing a problem somewhere though? I'll switch it over to gravity tonight and see what happens
silversurfer1 said:
Straight swop and set to gravity for you both
Does the pumped CH just work automatically from the builer with no input from the controller then? In which case I'm guessing the pumped options on the controller is to control a separate pump?I assumed as it had a pump that I should go with pumped, and it seems to be working ok, is it likely to be causing a problem somewhere though? I'll switch it over to gravity tonight and see what happens
Edited by RizzoTheRat on Friday 29th April 13:05
A gravity system is where the pump and boiler fire for heating and the boiler only fires for hot water, the cylinder coil being heated by the hot water naturally rising up the primary pipe work.
Fully pumped pump and boiler fire for both.
Neither have anything to do with how the water gets to the taps
good luck
ss
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