Baxi Combi Issues - strange happenings!!

[gtechtwo]

Hi,
We have a Baxi Combi boiler which is approx 4yrs old.

Last year we had an issue where we would have to pressurise the boiler each morning, so having the British Gas (BG) homecare contract we called them out.

4 Engineers on 4 days couldn't find an issue, changed various parts, then insisted we rip up the floorboards upstairs and downstairs to find a leak...... No leak found.

I did find that the front room Rad was off, so turned it on, and for a year never lost pressure.

Go forward to April 2016, 3 weeks after having a new bathroom in and downstairs loo, with new rads, we start losing pressure again overnight.

Out comes BG who again find no issue with the system after doing various checks. And guess what..... want the floor boards up again.

Now the odd thing is, since the other day, get up each morning, pressurise the boiler, wife jumps in the shower, waters hot but rads dont come on till she is out of the shower.

Did exactly the same again this morning. Boiler indicator showed active with rads once she was out of the shower. I then tested it by turning the shower on, hot water light comes on, rad light goes out.

I am pulling my hair out with this dam system, and costing us a fortune every time we have to rip floor boards up.

If we were losing that much water every night, we would see evidence of the leak on the ceilings somewhere, but we dont.

The guy yesterday managed to get a floorboard up in the new downstairs loo and confirmed no water loss from that new rad.

Any help or advise on this situation would be most welcome, as my sanity is currently fading fast.

Many thanks for taking the time to read

 

[picasso]

Thats what combi boilers do ! you cant have the rads and hot water on at the same time, has any one checked the 15mm copper pipe that goes outside (probably goes through the wall just under the boiler) to see if its dripping?

 

[gtechtwo]

OK thanks for clarifying on the Shower/Rad element.... I had a feeling it was supposed to do that, logic was telling me one thing, my mind was then doubting it.

The engineer went outside yesterday and checked the pipe and found nothing.

I can have the heating on all day and no issues at all with pressure, but during the night it drops.

Last night I left the heating on all night, this morning got up to the error code for low pressure.

 

[AGAS]

you need to make sure its not leaking from the pipe outside as picasso has said , put a bag over the end to see if water is passing you can find all the info you need in the FAQ thread , you MIGHT have problems with expansion vessel but I would be surprised BG have not mentioned or looked at that. do you know what BG have looked at or tested ???

 

[Dan Robinson]

Hex leaking down the condensate when cold.

 

[AGAS]

Hex leaking down the condensate when cold.

surely having 4 BG engineers looking at it surely they would have tested for that , wouldn't they thats the question i suppose ?

 

[gtechtwo]

To be perfectly honest I dont know what they have checked as most of the time I have not been here. This time around, I know they gave the boiler a visual inspection and reported it was all fine. the guy yesterday EVENTUALLY went outside to look at the pipe, but to be honest it was pretty obvious he just wanted to get away with the excuse "This is not his area".

He was convinced the new rad in the downstairs loo was the culprit, but whilst he was there I ripped up the carpet and removed the floorboard so he could inspect, to his shock it was bone dry and no evidence of a leak.

As we have a 3ft crawl space under the ground floor, they now want us to cut a hole in the floorboards in the hall so they can get down and inspect all radiators/fittings that they can see under there.

After last years fiasco they dont instill much confidence.

Last year their supervisor who visited said the reason the front room rad was stone cold when the rest were hot, was down to it being an old type and was knackered, wanted £700 to change it........ actually it was only turned off at the valve

 

[gtechtwo]

Hex leaking down the condensate when cold.

What does this mean? anything I can inspect?

 

[lightning]

Top boiler up to 2 bar isolate boiler and leave over night
If boiler has not drop pressure not the boiler.
But when you open isolating valves on boiler and pressure drops you know it's pipe work or rads

Make sure you turn off at fuse spur

 

[gtechtwo]

Top boiler up to 2 bar isolate boiler and leave over night
If boiler has not drop pressure not the boiler.
But when you open isolating valves on boiler and pressure drops you know it's pipe work or rads

Make sure you turn off at fuse spur

Sounds good, as we are both at home tomorrow and dont generally have the heating on through the night, I will give this a go and see what happens.


Thanks

 

[steve32]

Has it had a proper service in the last 4 years has the expansion vessel air pressure been checked.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Has it had a proper service in the last 4 years has the expansion vessel air pressure been checked.

Unlikely if BG are involved

Hex leaking down the condensate when cold.

surely having 4 BG engineers looking at it surely they would have tested for that , wouldn't they thats the question i suppose ?

You'd like to think so, sadly not all BG guys are as good as the contributors like PP here

 

[gtechtwo]

Missed the service last year, but previous 3yrs serviced by BG

 

[Agile]

Put the bag over the PRV vent.

Let the system cool down. Note pressure, turn on and wait til all rads hot then see what the pressure has risen to.

Overnight don't use the boiler at all and turn off power. Interrupt or disconnect the condensate output pipe and put that into a bag or container. See if any water comes out overnight.


I was called to diagnose a leak on a Keston C55 under BG cover. It was constantly leaking from the condensate but BG had not checked that!

Tony

 

[gtechtwo]

when you say "Interrupt or disconnect the condensate pipe and put that in a bag". Is this the pipe that goes to the outside?