So begins my sad saga.
Like most of us, I like a problem and the satisfaction of solving it and felt capable of doing so as I have had some plumbing experience (Pre Corgi) and have, in fact fitted a complete system around 20 yrs ago (Tho my mate, Bill the Plumber did the final checks)
Here begins. About a month or so ago, my 9yr old Main Eco30 Combi stopped working. No heat and no hot water.
I checked and seeing the pressure gauge had dropped, repressurised using the FIXED loop, to around 2Bar. Went round and bled the system and found a little air in the system after which the pressure dropped to about 1.5 bar. Fine for a week or two then it stopped working again.
Re-pressurised again and that lasted about 24 hours before needing to be once again Re-pressurised.
Checked a few forums and decided I needed to change the Pressure Release Valve to eliminate that as the cause. No probs as they are less than £5 on ebay. I decided to drain the whole system as the bottoms of the rads always seem quite a bit cooler than the rest (Took about 4 hours as a couple of rads are fed by micro-bore). No real sludge emerged tho.
I needed to slightly modify the pipe work to fit the kungfoo copy pressure valve as the dimensions were a slight difference, but having done that was up & running in no time.
I purposely closed both valves on the towel rail so that I could add inhibiter once I was satisfied that the problem had gone away.
After around 2 weeks felt I could safely do just that. WRONG!! A week later no pressure again??
I carried on Re-pressurising every morning whilst deciding what to do then decided to have a go at the Expansion Vessel. Took it to 14.5 PSI having found no pressure (At least I dont THINK there was) and that fixed it.
Feeling a bit paranoid, I kept looking at the gauge for almost a week before feeling comfortable and that I had finally cured the problem. Just beginning to relax and deal with other problems in life and....Wait for it...
Last week (After about 2 more weeks) it went yet AGAIN!!!!
Re-pressurised once more and that lasted 24 hours and I have had to re-pressurise it again this morning. - Ok. Now what?
I am thinking that the system is over pressurising and blasting the water past the valve a few times when it gets too hot and then eventually there isn't enough water left in the system?
From what I have read, it seems it could be a pinhole in the Diaphragm of the pressure Vessel or a small leak in the heat exchanger (Evaporating before it shows) then over heating, losing water and then losing pressure.
I feel a failure here and am now considering calling in 'The Man' as, although I could change the pressure vessel, it might not be that and an engineer can test parts that I am not able to and obviously he should be better able to spot the problem as he should know where to look.
Is it now time to hand over the reins?
Any thoughts or observations?
Like most of us, I like a problem and the satisfaction of solving it and felt capable of doing so as I have had some plumbing experience (Pre Corgi) and have, in fact fitted a complete system around 20 yrs ago (Tho my mate, Bill the Plumber did the final checks)
Here begins. About a month or so ago, my 9yr old Main Eco30 Combi stopped working. No heat and no hot water.
I checked and seeing the pressure gauge had dropped, repressurised using the FIXED loop, to around 2Bar. Went round and bled the system and found a little air in the system after which the pressure dropped to about 1.5 bar. Fine for a week or two then it stopped working again.
Re-pressurised again and that lasted about 24 hours before needing to be once again Re-pressurised.
Checked a few forums and decided I needed to change the Pressure Release Valve to eliminate that as the cause. No probs as they are less than £5 on ebay. I decided to drain the whole system as the bottoms of the rads always seem quite a bit cooler than the rest (Took about 4 hours as a couple of rads are fed by micro-bore). No real sludge emerged tho.
I needed to slightly modify the pipe work to fit the kungfoo copy pressure valve as the dimensions were a slight difference, but having done that was up & running in no time.
I purposely closed both valves on the towel rail so that I could add inhibiter once I was satisfied that the problem had gone away.
After around 2 weeks felt I could safely do just that. WRONG!! A week later no pressure again??
I carried on Re-pressurising every morning whilst deciding what to do then decided to have a go at the Expansion Vessel. Took it to 14.5 PSI having found no pressure (At least I dont THINK there was) and that fixed it.
Feeling a bit paranoid, I kept looking at the gauge for almost a week before feeling comfortable and that I had finally cured the problem. Just beginning to relax and deal with other problems in life and....Wait for it...
Last week (After about 2 more weeks) it went yet AGAIN!!!!
Re-pressurised once more and that lasted 24 hours and I have had to re-pressurise it again this morning. - Ok. Now what?
I am thinking that the system is over pressurising and blasting the water past the valve a few times when it gets too hot and then eventually there isn't enough water left in the system?
From what I have read, it seems it could be a pinhole in the Diaphragm of the pressure Vessel or a small leak in the heat exchanger (Evaporating before it shows) then over heating, losing water and then losing pressure.
I feel a failure here and am now considering calling in 'The Man' as, although I could change the pressure vessel, it might not be that and an engineer can test parts that I am not able to and obviously he should be better able to spot the problem as he should know where to look.
Is it now time to hand over the reins?
Any thoughts or observations?
