Vokera Combi Losing Pressure

[GrantG7]

Hi

I have a Vokera Mynute 14e combi boiler.

We recently had a problem whereby the radiators would get hot if the hot water was on, so we had the heating on full blast during the summer if we wanted hot water. This was diagnosed as being two electronic valves on the pipes coming out of the boiler which circulate between the hot water tank and the radiators. Once replaced, we had hot water with no heating on - bliss!

A week or so later, I noticed the water was cold and radiators were cold too during the times we have set the thermostat to turn the water/heating on.

The boiler pressure was at 0bar, so from my understanding, it shuts the boiler off when the pressure gets below X bar to protect itself. Fair enough, but why did it drop below that anyway? It sat comfortably around 1.5bar with the heating on for the entire week previously. Strangely, the red light was on on the boiler to show the pilot light was out - but it was still humming away as usual and the Potterton Mini Minder E still had the lights on for the HW/CH being on.

We live in a fairly rural location with only one retailer within 20 miles who offer top-ups on the gas card. Our landlord said it was not possible to change to another method like direct debit due to a massive debt left behind by previous tenants some years ago. Bit of a pain, but we get by.

Alas, today, the same thing happened.

May be coincidental, but this is the second time in as many weeks where the gas has run out and the boiler has dropped to zero pressure, so cold water and cold radiators, pilot light out, but the boiler is still making a humming noise like it has always done for the past 5 years when it is on and the lights are on on the thermostat control unit.

Is this expected? I would guess not - but would appreciate some advice as to what to do with it.

Thanks in advance

 

[GrantG7]

Anybody?

 

[Aquaheat]

If your boiler has been running pretty much constant it could be a faulty expansion vessel and when you run out of gas it gets cold and the pressure drops? Only thing I can think of that would relate to a pressure drop when gas runs out other than coincidence.

Jon

 

[dilalio]

Your tenancy agreement should contain a clause which dictates that your landlord has to provide you with a safe, working CH and HW system - get on to him/her to arrange for a heating engineer to come out to you and diagnose the fault. They should be able to advise you whether gas starvation is causing any issues with the system!

 

[flameport]

We live in a fairly rural location with only one retailer within 20 miles who offer top-ups on the gas card. Our landlord said it was not possible to change to another method like direct debit due to a massive debt left behind by previous tenants some years ago.

That isn't true - the landlord is not responsible unless the gas/elec account is in their name.

If the gas/elec account is in the tenants name, the tenant is responsible, and the gas/elec company will pursue the tenant for any unpaid bills, provided the landlord can prove there was actually a tenant living there (usually by providing a copy of the tenancy agreement).

Doubtful that the landlord could actually prohibit you from having the meter changed, as doing so will restrict what tariff you are on, and make changing to a different energy supplier difficult or even impossible.