boiler losing pressure and water

[ewanfogg]

I am hoping I can get some help with an inherited boiler. We moved into a new house just before Christmas 2010. The house had a 3 year old boiler fitted and thus I was not too worried about its provenance etc. All fine at 1st then it seemed the boiler was running a lot and DHW seemed to be intermittent at best. Water kept appearing on the kitchen work surface below it.
So out comes the manual. Its a Ideal ISAR HE 24 (I know! Its already fitted! ).
Investigation found the leak to be coming from a spigot on one of the valves below the boiler. I re pressurise with water about once a week to about 1.5bar and within days its dropped to about 1 bar and filled the plastic container below the spigot. Recently its dropped to 0.5 bar after a few days.
The leak is coming from the drain valve! This is shown below.

The red will be going soon honest!

clean as a whistle in here...

- I have taken off the front panel and had a look around and cannot see any other leaks or tell tales.
- The PCB is the upgraded orange cover and I am getting no error codes.
- I have yet to check condensate but the trap is inside and runs to the sink drain.

A lot of research on internet and I cannot find any info about this particular problem. Lots of info on ISAR's . Found lots of useful and helpful advice given on this site and wondered if anyone could help/point me in the right direction.

 

[bengasman]

Try tightening the valve a little bit. (with due care not to break it )
If that doesn't work, I would suspect that it is a typical "Ideal" install, where corners have been cut.
5 give you 10 that the system was not cleaned properly, the boiler is not installed to spec, and the gaspipe is undersized.
Dirt in the system due to inadequate cleaning is a common cause of leaking valves.

 

[ewanfogg]

Thanks bengasman. I forgot to mention that I have tried this 3 times now. I have also added sealant in the pipe. To no avail!

looking at the paperwork it was fitted by a bloke from Newcastle? I live in Bristol!

How do I check for dirt in the system and a gas pipe too small?

Any pitfalls in replacing the valve myself? What is the best wa to 'clean' the system?

Sorry lots of questions.

 

[mysteryman]

The filling loop is all wrong as well.

 

[Rob]

The filling loop is all wrong as well.

No its not