Our boiler, a two-year old Ideal Logic+ combi is repeatedly turning itself off with the message "Low water pressure". It then says to refill the system to 1.0 Bar and bleed radiators or call out an engineer. I've done this a couple of times, and it lasts anywhere between two weeks and 24 hours before the pressure very quickly drops to zero again. Ideal have sent an engineer out who says that the boiler itself is absolutely fine, and passes all their tests including the pressure in the pressure vessel. One suggestion was that a lack of inhibitor in the water might be causing bubbles to form in the system and that leads to a drop in pressure, but I'm not convinced (especially since it sometimes happens over 24 hours).
If I refill the system (and when the Ideal engineer did it) it purrs along quite happily, with the pressure getting up to a maximum of just over 2 Bar when the central heating is running.
The other suggestion is that it might need a power flush, but there are no cold spots on the radiators. Of the seven radiators, three were new when everything was installed two years ago (old hot water tank etc removed, so literally all the piping is new too). The guy who installed it says that it was flushed at the time but he didn't think it needed a power flush.
My girlfriend did mention that the water pressure at the taps was unusually low when she was running a bath last night, and this has happened a couple of times in the past. My understanding is that this shouldn't affect the pressure of the central heating system though, should it? We've had no problems with it for hot water during the summer, regardless of water pressure at the taps - it's only started since we switched it to winter mode and turned the heating on.
There's no leaks anywhere in the system, i.e. under floors etc, as far as I can tell (and I'm assuming that they'd be visible if we were losing that amount of water in less than 24 hours). I can't see any sign of anything being vented through the little valve on top of the boiler. It also doesn't look like any water has come out of the little copper overflow pipe which runs outside from directly below the boiler (no frozen drips on the end this morning, no sign of any water on the wall or the floor below). If I refill the system to the recommended pressure then the boiler comes back on, but I've been told that refilling it with fresh water will introduce more air which may compound the problem.
I really don't mind paying to get someone out to fix this, but the problem seems to be that no-one has any idea what's causing it! If anyone can suggest anything this might be worth investigating then I'd be very grateful - at the moment I'm stuck in a cycle with no way out. We're supposed to be away over Christmas, and I'm seriously worried about getting frozen pipes and the like whilst we're away if it packs in again (or damaging things by constantly refilling it even if we stay here).
If I refill the system (and when the Ideal engineer did it) it purrs along quite happily, with the pressure getting up to a maximum of just over 2 Bar when the central heating is running.
The other suggestion is that it might need a power flush, but there are no cold spots on the radiators. Of the seven radiators, three were new when everything was installed two years ago (old hot water tank etc removed, so literally all the piping is new too). The guy who installed it says that it was flushed at the time but he didn't think it needed a power flush.
My girlfriend did mention that the water pressure at the taps was unusually low when she was running a bath last night, and this has happened a couple of times in the past. My understanding is that this shouldn't affect the pressure of the central heating system though, should it? We've had no problems with it for hot water during the summer, regardless of water pressure at the taps - it's only started since we switched it to winter mode and turned the heating on.
There's no leaks anywhere in the system, i.e. under floors etc, as far as I can tell (and I'm assuming that they'd be visible if we were losing that amount of water in less than 24 hours). I can't see any sign of anything being vented through the little valve on top of the boiler. It also doesn't look like any water has come out of the little copper overflow pipe which runs outside from directly below the boiler (no frozen drips on the end this morning, no sign of any water on the wall or the floor below). If I refill the system to the recommended pressure then the boiler comes back on, but I've been told that refilling it with fresh water will introduce more air which may compound the problem.
I really don't mind paying to get someone out to fix this, but the problem seems to be that no-one has any idea what's causing it! If anyone can suggest anything this might be worth investigating then I'd be very grateful - at the moment I'm stuck in a cycle with no way out. We're supposed to be away over Christmas, and I'm seriously worried about getting frozen pipes and the like whilst we're away if it packs in again (or damaging things by constantly refilling it even if we stay here).
