Boiler pressure goes up and then turns off

[finnkiwi]

We have a problem with our boiler: Themaclassic F24E Plus (Saunier Duval, about 5-6 years old).

Our boiler has been fine in the previous winters and is always fine when the heating is not on. When we turn on the heating, the pressure rises to 2.0 and then crashes and turns itself off (after about 10-15 mins). This has happened a few times in the last couple of weeks when we have attempted to put the heating on.

In addition, the boiler has been dripping water for about a year. We have a bucket underneath it and it fills up about 10cm in a week.

We had a Heat Care engineer (through a Groupon voucher) come in to do a general check up a couple of weeks ago.
- In regards to the raising pressure, he recommended we pump a bit of air into a valve at the top area of the boiler (e.g. using a bicycle pump).
- Re: water dripping, he identified we need to replace the 'reduced pressure zone valve' in the bottom area of the boiler.

In regards to pumping air to the valve with a bicycle pump, this sounds a little strange!! And we haven't done it yet, and are not sure whether to do so.

Any thoughts or advice?

 

[RoBoTiCrOb]

pressure vessel needs pumping up and pressure relief valve needs replacing get an engineer out to do this [/b]

 

[Boilerman2]

Why the hell did he not do this for you!!!!
surely he was there to resolve the faults??
the air is needed in the Expansion vessel this must be pumped up to 1-00 bar with the system water pressure at zero and a drain cock open,

it is a requirement of maintenance that the air pressure is checked and re-charged annually

the LPZ valve is a common cause for leakage however getting the right part for the Saunier-Duval may prove difficult as it differs in design to the sister boiler (Glow-Worm) I have been un-sucessful in obtaining the right part in the past

However the engineer that attended was a manufacturer's Engineer
so I would have expected him to have completed both these operations in a single visit!!