In message , Malc
writes
raden wrote in message
...

Not having seen the start of this thread I'm wading in. I used to work for
Potterton in the 80s in the R& D dept. A lot of their stuff was made down to
a price to compete with electromechanical stats etc. The cheapest
manufacturers were used at all points and some of the dodges used to make
the first electronic tank stats work were ludicrous. I made myself quite
unpopular with my boss by telling him so in a memo (first job out of uni
too). I dunno if they are like that now of course but....

Were they totally ****e then?

I think not

Fairly ****e yes. The boilers which generally speaking were designed
much earlier, were reliable, the controls much less so. At one point
we were selecting relays for the tank stats based on how slowly they
would switch, the slower the better. If we weren't getting enough slow
switching ones (for production) we'd adjust the timer so that more
passed (or failed dependent on your view point). The potentiometer for
the stats was a preset because the guys who designed them thought
people would just set one temp then leave the stat alone which is not
what happens. The stats and the EP range of controllers were powered
by capacitive droppers

As do at least half the control pcbs on a majority of boilers - really
doesn't help when it comes to Suprimas


--
geoff