potterton puma 100

[spaglemon]

hi ,

been having problems with my boiler , gradual drop in pressure over the last while requiring regular re-pressurisation , pressure vessel seems fine , found a small weep on one of the radiators yesterday , tightened up connection and leak stopped , this morning no pressure in system , tried to re-pressurise but it won't hold any pressure at all , looked outside and pressure relief valve vent has been leaking as there is a large patch of damp down the wall , does the pressure relief valve need replacing and if so could this have been the reason for the system gradually losing pressure recently or do they tend to just go suddenly ?

UPDATE : forgot to mention that the system seemed to maintain pressure well while it was running and tended to lose pressure when the boiler was not in use , i have just flicked the red knob on the end of the pressure relief valve and the water has stopped pouring out of the vent outside the house and the system appears to be maintaining pressure at the moment


thanks

 

[spaglemon]

anyone please ?

 

[Gasguru]

Check expansion vessel as explained in the faq's. ie vessel pressure must be checked (should be about 0.8 Bar) with the system pressure at ZERO.

On the Puma it is not uncommon to find the flexible hose connecting the vessel blocks on the formed bend (where it joins the manifold). I suggest you replace the safety valve... once they have been leaking there rarely reseal. Set system presure to 1 Bar...shouldn't go more than 2 Bar with rads hot.

 

[spaglemon]

thanks for the reply , went to check the pressure in the pressure vessel , made a bit of an arse of it trying to squeeze my pressure gauge in to place and let a fair bit of air out before i got a reading of 4.8 psi ,i think the pressure was possibly about right , have increased the pressure back up to 11.5 psi , pressure relief vent outside house is dripping and system pressure is dropping steadily , have ordered a new pressure relief valve , do you think that should fix it , i'm looking into flushing the system and adding inhibitor too

thanks

 

[Gasguru]

Hope you measured the 11.5psi with ZERO pressure showing on the system gauge. Change the safety are then see.

 

[spaglemon]

yes , i made sure the gauge was reading 0 psi before re-pressurising , thanks i'll let you know if the new pressure relief valve fixes it

thanks