We have a British Gas Worcester Bosch C1 combi boiler. When we have the heating on the pressure gauge needle sits at 4, which is the max. It's been off the last few months, but we've had it on and off over the last couple of days. It was switched off at 9am this morning. It is now 3.15pm and the needle is sitting just below 2.
Occasionally my husband has to bleed the radiators upstairs (usually the towel rail one in the bathroom) to get the pressure down, but it soon starts to rise again. He knows he can't do this too often as it is a sealed system. He hasn't touched the silver snake hose (sorry I don't know how else to describe it) that has a screw valve on either end. Is there anything he should do with this instead of bleeding radiators?
For the last 3 or 4 years the BG engineers have always had to recharge it as part of the annual service each April, and they accept this will need done every year. We've also sometimes had to call them out between service visits to have it recharged. During their visits they have always cleaned and adjusted valves and the last time one was replaced, just in case.
We have a small pipe outside which drips constantly when the heating is on. The engineers have told us not to be concerned about the high pressure as it will just give us the dripping pipe, which in itself is nothing to worry about. But surely the whole reason you have a pressure gauge is to keep tabs on the boiler and stop that happening?
Also the last two years the boiler has occasionally failed to ignite when we have run the hot water, usually first thing in the morning and usually following a period of heavy rain. We get a lot of that here! When we press the reset button it fires up no problem. When I question this with any of the BG engineers they say that there could be a host of things that could cause this and, unless they were there at the time this happened, they will never be able to diagnose the cause of this.
The boiler was fitted as part of a new central heating system in June 2000. Whenever I have asked any of the engineers if I should start saving for a new boiler I've always been told no, that it is a good boiler and should do us for at least another 3 or 4 years.
Any advice would be appreciated as I would like to be able to query above points with the BG engineer, rather than just coming across as a daft woman with no technical knowledge (which is true, lol!).
Occasionally my husband has to bleed the radiators upstairs (usually the towel rail one in the bathroom) to get the pressure down, but it soon starts to rise again. He knows he can't do this too often as it is a sealed system. He hasn't touched the silver snake hose (sorry I don't know how else to describe it) that has a screw valve on either end. Is there anything he should do with this instead of bleeding radiators?
For the last 3 or 4 years the BG engineers have always had to recharge it as part of the annual service each April, and they accept this will need done every year. We've also sometimes had to call them out between service visits to have it recharged. During their visits they have always cleaned and adjusted valves and the last time one was replaced, just in case.
We have a small pipe outside which drips constantly when the heating is on. The engineers have told us not to be concerned about the high pressure as it will just give us the dripping pipe, which in itself is nothing to worry about. But surely the whole reason you have a pressure gauge is to keep tabs on the boiler and stop that happening?
Also the last two years the boiler has occasionally failed to ignite when we have run the hot water, usually first thing in the morning and usually following a period of heavy rain. We get a lot of that here! When we press the reset button it fires up no problem. When I question this with any of the BG engineers they say that there could be a host of things that could cause this and, unless they were there at the time this happened, they will never be able to diagnose the cause of this.
The boiler was fitted as part of a new central heating system in June 2000. Whenever I have asked any of the engineers if I should start saving for a new boiler I've always been told no, that it is a good boiler and should do us for at least another 3 or 4 years.
Any advice would be appreciated as I would like to be able to query above points with the BG engineer, rather than just coming across as a daft woman with no technical knowledge (which is true, lol!).