Hi everyone,
We've recently had a new Grant oil condensing boiler (26K) fitted by a reputable local firm which, other than a faulty flow switch which was changed after a couple of days has been working well.
Recently, after 2 or 3 weeks of its installation the boiler has been firing up at around 3 or 4am for about 10 minutes and making a massive noise (gurgling, water sounds etc). The pressure guage was at zero despite the low pressure light not being on and the central heating & hot water still working.
I bled the radiators (lots of air in the upstairs, fine downstairs) and repressurised to 1 bar. Within a few hours it was back to zero. I repeated the exercise and again, it dropped to zero.
Speaking to the company they felt it could only really be a leak in our closed system which is causing the loss of pressure. He did say that the boiler might be dumping out of the little white pipe and to put a balloon over it to check whether it fills up. I've not done this as yet (primarily as I've not been around in daylight hours and the pipe is high up as the boiler is located upstairs in the eaves of our main bedroom).
Sorry for the long winded explanation - my questions are:
- Is it likely we've got a leak? Most of our pipes are cemented in and so would be very difficult to find. Our previous boiler never lost pressure. If we do have a leak could the "power flush" they conducted on install be the cause of this?
- Is it significant that despite the pressure being displayed as zero that the low pressure light hasn't come on? In addition is it not odd that both the central heating and hot water appears to be working perfectly?
- What could be the reason for the loud gurgling noises the boiler is making when firing and is this possibly related to the other symptoms?
Again - sorry for such a long post! The plumbers / central heating company that installed it didn't seem keen to visit us to check it out and before digging my heals in to ask them to come back I wanted to know whether we feel it is something they should be investigating.
Thanks in advance for any help, advice or direction you guys might be able to give me.
Cheers,
Brad
We've recently had a new Grant oil condensing boiler (26K) fitted by a reputable local firm which, other than a faulty flow switch which was changed after a couple of days has been working well.
Recently, after 2 or 3 weeks of its installation the boiler has been firing up at around 3 or 4am for about 10 minutes and making a massive noise (gurgling, water sounds etc). The pressure guage was at zero despite the low pressure light not being on and the central heating & hot water still working.
I bled the radiators (lots of air in the upstairs, fine downstairs) and repressurised to 1 bar. Within a few hours it was back to zero. I repeated the exercise and again, it dropped to zero.
Speaking to the company they felt it could only really be a leak in our closed system which is causing the loss of pressure. He did say that the boiler might be dumping out of the little white pipe and to put a balloon over it to check whether it fills up. I've not done this as yet (primarily as I've not been around in daylight hours and the pipe is high up as the boiler is located upstairs in the eaves of our main bedroom).
Sorry for the long winded explanation - my questions are:
- Is it likely we've got a leak? Most of our pipes are cemented in and so would be very difficult to find. Our previous boiler never lost pressure. If we do have a leak could the "power flush" they conducted on install be the cause of this?
- Is it significant that despite the pressure being displayed as zero that the low pressure light hasn't come on? In addition is it not odd that both the central heating and hot water appears to be working perfectly?
- What could be the reason for the loud gurgling noises the boiler is making when firing and is this possibly related to the other symptoms?
Again - sorry for such a long post! The plumbers / central heating company that installed it didn't seem keen to visit us to check it out and before digging my heals in to ask them to come back I wanted to know whether we feel it is something they should be investigating.
Thanks in advance for any help, advice or direction you guys might be able to give me.
Cheers,
Brad