Another "my boiler is losing pressure" post

That's the one @DavidH1983, that will at least identify where the issue is which is what you are trying to achieve? Yes it would be a good idea to top up the inhibitor. Isolate 1 rad, drain it and fill it with 1L of good inhibitor, cant go wrong.

I would be very surprised if the expansion vessel/prv was the issue here on a newish system, unless it was an out and out failure, if the pressure doesn't increase to 3+bar when the heating is on, then that's not the issue.

Blue roll - best thing to use to check for leaks as it changes to dark blue with any water on it.

Great shout on the blue roll. I have some here at work I can pinch.

I would be surprised if it was the boiler too but these things can happen I guess. I have yet to sit by the boiler and turn the heating on to test this but will do this at the weekend. Am I right in thinking I should see roughly a 10% increase in pressure?
 
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Thanks for your help. I will report back with my findings tomorrow after isolating the heating.
 
So I've managed to identify the pipes using the manual. Can I just clarify I have the right ones and that I'm not going to cause any other jobs by turning these off?

4 and 6 in this diagram (presuming they've plumbed it in correctly of course).

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Many thanks
David
 
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Yes, of course. 4 and 6 are what I use to top up the cold water. Silly me.

Thanks for clarifying.
 
Chaps, what do you make to the pic below? You can see the two valves on the filling loop but I was hoping there was going to be a pipe to the left of the left hand valve. There isn't. Now I'm confused.

I'm also concerned that I seem to have a plastic pipe as my pressure release? Is that right?
 

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Chaps, what do you make to the pic below? You can see the two valves on the filling loop but I was hoping there was going to be a pipe to the left of the left hand valve. There isn't. Now I'm confused.

I'm also concerned that I seem to have a plastic pipe as my pressure release? Is that right?
The valve probably connects directly to the heating iso valve.
The plastic pipe on the right is the condensate drain which must be plastic.
The expansion relief is the one that comes out in copper in front and goes around the trap.
 
An update: Until today I have been filling and refilling the system just to get by. This has been happening pretty much twice a day. I have not tried to isolate the heating system from the boiler. Today there was a development.

I came in from work and thought I'd give some Fernox leak sealer a go. I know it's a little hit and miss but I had nothing to lose. I powered down the boiler, took apart the Magnaclean filter, cleaned it all up and added the Fernox and put it all back together. I powered up the boiler and started to fill the system. This time it took absolutely ages to get to even .1 bar. It took around 3-4 minutes to get to 1.5 bar so I can only imagine the whole system was completely empty. Before it was only taking perhaps 20 seconds to get to that pressure.

Anyway, filled her up and turned the heating on and monitored the pressure, 1.8 was the max and then it started to fluctuate. I let it do it's thing and it eventually settled at around 1.5/1.4. I started checking rads. All OK upstairs. I went over to the downstairs radiator and immediately heard a hissing sound. It's coming from under the floorboards and definitely not the valve. Sometimes I can hear dripping and bubbling. My builder is coming tomorrow to sort but wants quite a bit more than I thought he would. So much so in fact I feel like perhaps finding someone else to do the job (which I really don't want to do).

bah.
 
Glad you've worked out out!
My builder is coming tomorrow to sort but wants quite a bit more than I thought he would. So much so in fact I feel like perhaps finding someone else to do the job
A builder isn't the best idea for this, a plumber or heating engineer would be better. Maybe the builder is going to subcontract it anyway!
Can you get the floor up and take a photo of what's leaking, it sounds like you've already done the hard parts so there's a good chance you can fix yourself for a few pounds in parts! And maybe a new spanner or two.
 
I really don't mind paying someone qualified to do a job, I honestly don't. What I object to is being given a figure for work that I think (providing there are no other nightmares involved) will take no more than an hour. I can then refill the system and bleed the rads if necessary. The figure is so far off it's stupid (think twice a london labourer's daily rate). Hell the system is completely empty so that's one thing less to do....

I am now in the awkward position where I feel like telling him I'll get someone else in which I really don't want to have to do. He's done some great work for us before and I feel it'll put his nose out of joint. I messaged the first plumber i found on Facebook within a decent radius and was told around 90-120. Much more realistic in my opinion.

I can get the floorboards up without too much of an issue I reckon. Even if I have to cut them it'll be no big deal as they're coming up in due course anyway.
 
Glad you've worked out out!

A builder isn't the best idea for this, a plumber or heating engineer would be better. Maybe the builder is going to subcontract it anyway!

Agreed. He is I guess multi-skilled and has done plumbing work for us before.
 
Another update: Plumber/builder came round and took up the boards near the rad. Both flow and return had flexible metal pipe installed under them and they'd both burst. Presumably because of the recent bout of cold weather (and the fact they shouldn't have been used in the first place). Two hours later with some new copper everything was put back to normal. This morning we woke up to a warm house and hot water. Happy days. I've put a mixture of inhibitor and leak seal into the Magnaclean so fingers crossed the pressure will hold. I will check tonight.

In hindsight this was not a job I could have done myself so glad I didn't tackle it though I have learnt a fair bit regarding our CH system in the process. I am also quite proficient in draining and filling the Magnaclean :)

Thanks for all your help.
 

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