Leak in central heating, how easy is it to drain system?

[Sharpey]

Hello all.

Recently noticed the pressure on my combi boiler keeps going down, and I've found the leak which is causing it. Unfortunately it is not going to be an easy straightforward fix so I need to buy myself some time.

Does anyone know what I should do? Would it just be a case of draining the central heating system and that's it? Do I need to turn something off at the boiler as well, as for the time being all I want it to do is heat the tap water and nothing else, I don't want it to keep turning it self on from the thermostat.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[dilalio]

boiler make and model? controls? roomstat? Programmer?

 

[HERTS P&D]

Picture of the leak/fault who help.

Andy

 

[Sharpey]

Thanks for the replies.

This is all I have for the thermostat/control, I'm not sure of the model.



And this is the Vaillant boiler model



I don't have any pictures of the leak, as it is under wood flooring. There is water pooling near a door threshold though and I knew it would be that as my bodger dad messed about with the plumbing around that area a few years ago. I don't think he insulated the pipes correctly before concreting over.

I can't get to the leak without taking the entire floor up and that's not an option, but right now I just want it to stop leaking.

 

[HERTS P&D]

You have no option but to remove the floor to track/trace & fix the leaking pipe.

Andy

 

[Sharpey]

Could I not just bypass it and resite the rads? That was my intention.

I am also getting an F22 error code, which I think is the boiler shutting down and not firing up. The hot water taps pump out cold water until I up the pressure again, and normal service is resumed. Is there any way to just have the boiler do the water and not the heating?

This is going to be a nightmare

 

[dilalio]

Could I not just bypass it and resite the rads? That was my intention.

I am also getting an F22 error code, which I think is the boiler shutting down and not firing up. The hot water taps pump out cold water until I up the pressure again, and normal service is resumed. Is there any way to just have the boiler do the water and not the heating?

This is going to be a nightmare

Use the filling loop to pressurise the system to 1.2 bar then quickly isolate the flow and return to the CH pipework using the shut-off valves under the boiler - just those valves! The rest of the pipework will drop as the water comes out of the leak, but you can open a drain cock (if you have one somewhere) and collect the water quicker, from that point!

Turn your CH to off on the roomstat/programmer.

The boiler pressure should remain pressurised and provide you with HW and the internal automatic bypass in the boiler should bridge the flow and return.

Run a hot water outlet and keep an eye on the pressure gauge whilst you do this.

This should give you DHW whilst you sort out the leak.

 

[Sharpey]

Thanks for the reply dilalio, that was a great help.

I have got it sorted now, the radiators connected after the leak are all now isolated, I managed to get a plumber around this morning (I wasn't totally comfortable messing around with it myself) who has capped off the supply to them by cutting a bit of pipe before the leak and fitting two compression stop ends. The heating and water is all now working (obviously not the three rads that have been cut off) so I now have time to work out what to do next.