New central heating losing pressure

[simon_t]

Hi,

I have had a Potterton Performa 24 HE eco (I think that's all about right ) installed by a CORGI Plumber. The heating flow and return were connected (forming a closed loop) ready for me to fit the CH. I have now done so using plastic plumbing and push fit connections. I have 4 rads connected and after the initial dribbles and weeps I have stemmed any noticeable problems.

None of the speedfit connections have wept any only the compression fittings to the rads (one was a schoolboy mistake , just finger tight!!!! ) On Sunday night I left it with 1 bar exactly showing on the gauge but by Monday 5:00PM it has dropped 0.1 Bar. Lifting all the floor boards revealed no problems nor did and investigation of the radiator tails and valves.

At the moment the CH has not been turned on, only filled to 1 Bar, drained, re-filled, drained and then re-filled again. I wanted to let is settle before I did so and sit at this pressure for at least 24 hours. I have bleed the rads and they are empty of air.

The boiler is being used for hot water and seems to be running as before with no differences (was turned off for all the previous procedures and reset afterwards.) Can anyone offer ideas as to where the pressure is going or is this normal on a new system?

If the system was running with heat then I might expect not to see any evidence of leakage if it was so small as it would evaporate, but it is not fully operational so I was expecting to find at least a few drips

Cheers,
Simon

PS: I have removed the chrome from the rad tails for the speedfit, but not on the compression fittings, it this recommended as they seem to be the only parts that have given any leakage?

 

[Agile]

It seems pretty obvious to me that there is a leak and that you will have to find it.

Most professionals use soldered copper pipe and view pushfit as a DIY or cheap cowboy installation.

Tony

 

[Gasguru]

Did you use the boiler safety valve to drain down the boiler - if so this may now be leaking.

Check the towel rail connection carefully.

If you have used cheap radiator valves they can leak on the spindle (even when new).

 

[simon_t]

Hi,

The Rad valves are Danfoss RAS-C2 TRVs with lockshield, There is no towel rail on the system at the moment (barely a bathroom at present , but will be fitted soon along with bathroom suite). I used the drain cock on the flow\return loop to drain it before connecting into this. This does not seem to be showing any signs of leaking.

I wasn't sure if the system was showing a pressure of 1.0 bar that when the system had settled would drop a percentage rather than be a leak. Tomorrow I shall check all the pipes conncetions again.

I used plastic pipe as it is a DIY job, is it not up to the job?

simon

 

[chr15]

No problem with plastic as long as it's installed correctly-i've seen plenty of 'cowboy' copper installs too.