Condensate pump repeatedly activating

@ianmcd A huge thanks to you, got your guidance on this. With your help I've isolated the problem down, and through elimination have proved it to be a problem with the NRV. So I have one on order, this morning as the pot and exit pipe was full of water, I removed the NRV with the exit pipe attached, and it all but poured back outwards through the NRV into the bucket.
 

Attachments

  • nrv.jpg
    nrv.jpg
    142.3 KB · Views: 85
Sponsored Links
New Non Return Valve (NRV) turned up yesterday, in a pack of 3. Fitted the new part and its a little smaller where the pipe attaches, but it does the job.

I added a little PTFE tape, and secured the pipe in place. And all seems well. Many thanks Ian.



To summarise the issue I had, in the hope that if someone searches for this again it may help.

My boiler / heating / hotwater all seemed to be working fine, but the boiler feeds into a condensate pump and is pumped up into the attic and to the soil pipe.

The pump would activate every 10-15 minutes, and then into the evening it could be every 3-5 minutes.

The piping was checked for any blockages (get a bucket to catch the water from the tube.

And it seems likely that the Non return valve (which should stop the water from draining back into the pump) was leaking water back in to the sump of the pump. Anfd then activating the pump again, on repeat.....

To test this you can remove the exit pipe (remember to drain it) and replace the tubing with some other tubing (hosepipe works with a little clamp) and you can drop the water to drain into a bucket below. - This drains the water away so it cant drain back in.

Alternatively, what you can do, is to remove the NRV with a simple twist, whilst the exit pipe is still attached. When i did this, it was clear that the water was simply draining back through the NRV.
The parts were ordered from Kooltech Limited and came next working day. (After a weekend)

Elsewhere the parts seemed very expensive.


Just want to thank Ian again for helping me out with this.

The plumber had told me it probably needs the exit pipe to have a high point to stop the water draining back down. But it probably wasn't really getting that far into the attic.
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top