My boiler being crap too!
Discussion
Was making a weird tweety airy kinda noise, so checked it over.
The heating system water pressure was down at 0.
Hmmmm.
So I turned it off, ran the domestic cold feed over to the system and pumped it up to 1bar, ran round house and bled rads, all had pressure and ran water.
Added another half bar, then let her rip.
Hot water seems to be going out of the pressure release valve pipe and out into the gutter outside...
Pressure slowly went down, and the tweety noise came back (over about 1.5hr)
It's running ok, and it's making the rads all hot.
Any ideas. My plumber guy said the pressure vessel thing might have run down and need re-filling?! But can't come out till the end of next week.
Not sure what to do really. The book says it will not run over 3bar sys pressure, and has a 0.4bar cutoff, so is the pressure gauge lying if the pump is spinning away and the boiler lit making my rads hot at near 0bar?
Main one, will it blow me up if I leave it?
Dave
Hmmm, the rad nearest the boiler is cold after my tinkering, the rest are all red hot. Domestic hot water is red hot.
Tinkering with the thermostatic valve on the rad as the pipe to it is hot. About 10 seconds after opening/closing the tap, and tinkering with the thermostatic valve, the boiler made a noise like someone was flushing the loo inside it. Pressure at 0.45bar... hmmmm... stopped leaking water out pressure relief valve now too.
Anyone suffered similar? Maybe a mega airlock somewhere? Pressure gauge reading bollarks, or relief valve broken, making the boiler dump pressure?
Or does that air vessel thing really need 're-filling'?
Dave
The heating system water pressure was down at 0.
Hmmmm.
So I turned it off, ran the domestic cold feed over to the system and pumped it up to 1bar, ran round house and bled rads, all had pressure and ran water.
Added another half bar, then let her rip.
Hot water seems to be going out of the pressure release valve pipe and out into the gutter outside...
Pressure slowly went down, and the tweety noise came back (over about 1.5hr)
It's running ok, and it's making the rads all hot.
Any ideas. My plumber guy said the pressure vessel thing might have run down and need re-filling?! But can't come out till the end of next week.
Not sure what to do really. The book says it will not run over 3bar sys pressure, and has a 0.4bar cutoff, so is the pressure gauge lying if the pump is spinning away and the boiler lit making my rads hot at near 0bar?
Main one, will it blow me up if I leave it?
Dave
Edited by Mr Whippy on Thursday 7th January 21:34
Hmmm, the rad nearest the boiler is cold after my tinkering, the rest are all red hot. Domestic hot water is red hot.
Tinkering with the thermostatic valve on the rad as the pipe to it is hot. About 10 seconds after opening/closing the tap, and tinkering with the thermostatic valve, the boiler made a noise like someone was flushing the loo inside it. Pressure at 0.45bar... hmmmm... stopped leaking water out pressure relief valve now too.
Anyone suffered similar? Maybe a mega airlock somewhere? Pressure gauge reading bollarks, or relief valve broken, making the boiler dump pressure?
Or does that air vessel thing really need 're-filling'?
Dave
Edited by Mr Whippy on Thursday 7th January 21:45
I have exactly the same, has been doing it for a couple of years. Asked a friend who has done plumbing in the past and he did say that something was faulty (cant remember what) but said that as long as it continues to vent vent water out the overflow that its safe. Me being the skint person i am hasnt got round to fixing it. When mine drops right down in pressure it sometimes shuts off. Have bled the rads etc and they are fine. I keep the pressure topped up every few days and it works fine, rads are nice and hot as is the hot water. Once it goes off in the spring i'll get it looked at properly
Well, I waited for it to cool down last night, but this morning when it came on at made a loud hissing. Ummm.
Was down to 0bar.
Re-filled the system to 1bar, fired her up, and it hissed and water came out of the valve thing on top a bit...
So it seems that as the water is expanding it's making the air blow out of the pressure thingy and up out the top of the boiler...
The pressure relief pipe is frozen up now with a big icicle, doh.
I'm guessing had I just left it to hiss this morning, that it would have just expanded the system water and been happy, but me refilling it has meant it's now over-full, and the relief valve pipe being blocked may not help now.
I *think* that in the state it seems happy running at after doing all it's hissing etc, all it's doing is running open to air at the top of the system, so the water expands and contracts and it's hissing as air gets blown in and out (cos something is broken)
I guess this would be an issue if I had a head of water, but the boiler is pretty much the head above all the rads, so it's ok. Maybe not pumping as efficiently as it could, but hmmmm...
Will thaw my pressure relief pipe, then run a pipe from that bit at the top of the boiler and let it heat up again and find it's equilibrium, then in the morning when it goes off again, I'll monitor the hissing and see if it's just the air in the system blowing out as the system water expands.
Gah, bloody nightmare I tell yee
Thanks for the replies so far. My brother said that his plumber said, if relief valves go off, they can often then not operate right again (the 3bar ones)...
I am wondering if maybe my pressure vessel thing went faulty, failed, and in doing so fired the relief valve?!
Dave
PS, boiler is 2.5yr old Ravenheat, so maybe under warranty (service is over-due 3mnths though)
Might give em a bell later as they are only local!
Was down to 0bar.
Re-filled the system to 1bar, fired her up, and it hissed and water came out of the valve thing on top a bit...
So it seems that as the water is expanding it's making the air blow out of the pressure thingy and up out the top of the boiler...
The pressure relief pipe is frozen up now with a big icicle, doh.
I'm guessing had I just left it to hiss this morning, that it would have just expanded the system water and been happy, but me refilling it has meant it's now over-full, and the relief valve pipe being blocked may not help now.
I *think* that in the state it seems happy running at after doing all it's hissing etc, all it's doing is running open to air at the top of the system, so the water expands and contracts and it's hissing as air gets blown in and out (cos something is broken)
I guess this would be an issue if I had a head of water, but the boiler is pretty much the head above all the rads, so it's ok. Maybe not pumping as efficiently as it could, but hmmmm...
Will thaw my pressure relief pipe, then run a pipe from that bit at the top of the boiler and let it heat up again and find it's equilibrium, then in the morning when it goes off again, I'll monitor the hissing and see if it's just the air in the system blowing out as the system water expands.
Gah, bloody nightmare I tell yee
Thanks for the replies so far. My brother said that his plumber said, if relief valves go off, they can often then not operate right again (the 3bar ones)...
I am wondering if maybe my pressure vessel thing went faulty, failed, and in doing so fired the relief valve?!
Dave
Edited by Mr Whippy on Friday 8th January 09:10
PS, boiler is 2.5yr old Ravenheat, so maybe under warranty (service is over-due 3mnths though)
Might give em a bell later as they are only local!
Edited by Mr Whippy on Friday 8th January 09:41
Yeah, auto air vent.
Well, managed to get a plumber around to look at the boiler.
He drained it, re-pumped the air diaphragm thingy and it pushed water out the drain hole while doing so == diaphragm broken.
Re-set the system, fired it up, and out the water comes from the 3bar pressure valve (just pissing it out)
Long story short, the system hasn't really been setup right when it was installed I wouldn't say. Nothing really bad, just the domestic cold feed > heating circuit wasn't isolated. It has a non-return valve, but the valve at the domestic side was leaking a very little bit when closed = constant supply of fresh water to the heating circuit every day, likely over-pressuring the system = blowing the pressure valve eventually = then crudded up with debris (so not fully shut), so always then leaking a bit.
That process has likely damaged the diaphragm too maybe?!
Either way, it's running ok now on a very low setting with a new 3bar valve, isn't going above 1bar. OK, it's not piping hot in the house, but we have heat and that will do until we can get a new diaphragm put in!
THEN we will have some cleanser in, then a drain and re-fill with new system fluid/inhibitor stuff, since it's pretty s
tty water in there now (likely 90% is just normal tap water from all the slow-filling/leaking it's been doing)
Happy to pay to get it fixed, just a bit peeved it wasn't done 100% right when it was fitted in the first place 28 months ago.
Dave
Well, managed to get a plumber around to look at the boiler.
He drained it, re-pumped the air diaphragm thingy and it pushed water out the drain hole while doing so == diaphragm broken.
Re-set the system, fired it up, and out the water comes from the 3bar pressure valve (just pissing it out)
Long story short, the system hasn't really been setup right when it was installed I wouldn't say. Nothing really bad, just the domestic cold feed > heating circuit wasn't isolated. It has a non-return valve, but the valve at the domestic side was leaking a very little bit when closed = constant supply of fresh water to the heating circuit every day, likely over-pressuring the system = blowing the pressure valve eventually = then crudded up with debris (so not fully shut), so always then leaking a bit.
That process has likely damaged the diaphragm too maybe?!
Either way, it's running ok now on a very low setting with a new 3bar valve, isn't going above 1bar. OK, it's not piping hot in the house, but we have heat and that will do until we can get a new diaphragm put in!
THEN we will have some cleanser in, then a drain and re-fill with new system fluid/inhibitor stuff, since it's pretty s
tty water in there now (likely 90% is just normal tap water from all the slow-filling/leaking it's been doing)Happy to pay to get it fixed, just a bit peeved it wasn't done 100% right when it was fitted in the first place 28 months ago.
Dave
Mr Whippy said:
He drained it, re-pumped the air diaphragm thingy and it pushed water out the drain hole while doing so == diaphragm broken.
That process has likely damaged the diaphragm too maybe?!
...until we can get a new diaphragm put in!
So you need a new expansion vessel? Sometimes (depending where old one is located), it's easier to install a new one externally on the wall and tee into the pipework.That process has likely damaged the diaphragm too maybe?!
...until we can get a new diaphragm put in!
Gingerbread Man said:
So you need a new expansion vessel? Sometimes (depending where old one is located), it's easier to install a new one externally on the wall and tee into the pipework.
This is what happened to my boiler recently, and the plumber fitted an external expansion tank, as the original is at the back of the boiler (Baxi combi). The cost was £270, including new corosion inhibitor.My insurance (Barclays) wouldn't pay out
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