Advice needed - Boiler pressure fault (Long Post)

[mayfield4]

Hello folks,

Please can somebody save me from going insane?

Boiler is Potterton 80 Combi.

Had clanking noises and tripping out problems last month. Went on MyBuilder, hired a Gas Safe engineer, who diagnosed a faulty Diverter Valve - he replaced it, took him over 3 hrs and i paid £320 in total.

3 weeks later - same issue returned. Called the My Builder engineer back, left voicemails etc, never got a reply - so i went on to My Builder AGAIN, hired somebody else.

He said the pressure is dropping because the expansion vessel is faulty. We went outside into the drive and he showed me an external pipe halfway up the wall that was dripping water, albeit slowly. He said this is the reason the pressure drops and i have to keep using filler loop.
Rather than take the boiler to pieces, he said its cheaper for me and quicker for him to put a secondary expansion vessel in and connect it to the exisiting pipework.

He did this, charged me £160 in total, now 4 days later, no pressure in boiler, red light comes out and it trips out again.

That's 2 so-called Gas Safe Engineers, £480 in cash and 2 days i've had to take off work - and i've got nowhere.

Can anyone recommend what i do next and what the problem might be? I can't keep paying supposed engineers to come and fix something that they ain't fixing. I'm throwing money away and the problem isn't being cured.

Thanks for any advice you may have. I'm genuinely trying to get the problem solved best i can - i've paid good money, used a so-called trusted site for reliable tradesmen, and i think i've been screwed twice.

 

[Agile]

Your experiences show a good reason for NOT finding people from that kind of web site.

They pay for the leads! Perhaps they dont get much work from personal recomendations?

I dont see how a failed diverter valve could have caused your problem! Of course it might have been failed as well.

Why dont you just top up the pressure again?

 

[mayfield4]

I won't be using that site again.
To be fair though, i did try to search out someone with good feedback etc - and it was either that, or take pot-luck choice from the Yellow Pages.

I can just top it up again, sure. But if i need to do this every 2 or 3 days then someone must be wrong and i'd rather know what it was.

It might be a slow leak somewhere that could cause untold damage to the rest of the house perhaps? Not really wise just to ignore it and keep topping up surely?

 

[Agile]

Is the pressure relief valve vent leaking?

Tony

 

[mayfield4]

No idea what that is, sorry.

The pipe that sticks out of the outside wall is dripping slowly.

I don't have a clue about any of it. I've only used phrases like 'diverter valve' and 'expansion vessel' because i've been told them by the 2 engineers. They may as well be talking Chinese really, i'm none the wiser about any of it.

 

[Agile]

Right the presssure release valve is leaking!

That needs to be changed.

I would charge £84 plus about £20 for the part.

Tony

 

[mayfield4]

Thanks Tony,
Much appreciated.
I've managed to get hold of one of the Chuckle Brothers who fitted the expansion vessel (probably needlessly it seems), and i'll see what he says and does.
If he says the same thing i'll get him to quote for it. If not, i'm moving to Valparaiso to live under an assumed name.

 

[Onetap]

Thanks Tony,
Much appreciated.
I've managed to get hold of one of the Chuckle Brothers who fitted the expansion vessel (probably needlessly it seems), and i'll see what he says and does.
If he says the same thing i'll get him to quote for it. If not, i'm moving to Valparaiso to live under an assumed name.

Yes, but, if the expansion vessel loses its air charge (maintenance task, pump it up again) or the diaphragm perforates (new expansion vessel needed), then there is nothing to accomodate the water expansion, the pressure will rise and the PRV valve will open to discharge the excess volume. The PRV will often then fail to reseat (new PRV needed).

Messrs Chuckle & Chuckle might not have been at fault, though a new PRV often follows the expansion vessel failure and they might have spotted it if they'd checked.

PS Excuse me, Just read the first post properly; they had seen it dripping. You can sometimes get them to reseat by operating the 'easing knob', but not often. It should have been sorted at the time.