Now I'm not too technical when it comes to boilers, but let me take through the story 
I have a Glowworm Compact Electronic - there is no number, just this name on the boiler. About 18 months ago I came home to find the pressure was too low for it to work - I spoke to Glowworm, they told me how to increase the pressure, sorted.
The pressure in the boiler after that ran too high if anything. I sorted this out as the weather turned this autumn. Heating worked fine (one radiator did take a while to warm up but has been fine since) and the hot water was fine too, although it had it cut out on the over ride a few times over the summer.
In the last month I have had more problems, mostly with the hot water. The boiler has been cutting out after about 20 seconds when hot water is called for, instead of the usual 40 seconds or so. The result is a luke warm bath, etc, etc. I got round this by running the water slower, although it did cut out occasionally.
This method didn't work yesterday though - I left the bath running slowly for a few minutes and it was ice cold. It had cut out, so I reset it and continued on. However, after the burner had ignited and gone out as normal, the pressure suddenly increased from 1 bar up to 3 bar really quickly, in a couple of seconds. The boiler made some funny noises, hard to describe - like it was going a bit mad. I turned the boiler off at the mains electricity, ran the hot water until the pressure came back down and tried again - same thing. Cue much anxiety last night as I thought I would be killed by a Glow worm
The pressure also dropped to zero (without the boiler actually being called upon to do anything) during this period - it took a long time to refill. I have checked for leaks and can find none anywhere, but this seemed weird....
Today I have not tried the hot water. The heating works fine, but the pressure has dropped over the last 3 hours or so from 1.5 bar to 0.5 bar - I've obviously stopped it so that I can correct that.
So, I know full well that I need the boiler serviced and seen too, but is there anything I can do in the meantime to struggle through until I have some money to sort it (probably March), or would an engineer condemn the boiler as blinkin' dangerous and shake his head at me whilst saying "dear oh dear, what a mess"
Any help with this rambling tale of confusion would be gratefully appreciated
I have a Glowworm Compact Electronic - there is no number, just this name on the boiler. About 18 months ago I came home to find the pressure was too low for it to work - I spoke to Glowworm, they told me how to increase the pressure, sorted.
The pressure in the boiler after that ran too high if anything. I sorted this out as the weather turned this autumn. Heating worked fine (one radiator did take a while to warm up but has been fine since) and the hot water was fine too, although it had it cut out on the over ride a few times over the summer.
In the last month I have had more problems, mostly with the hot water. The boiler has been cutting out after about 20 seconds when hot water is called for, instead of the usual 40 seconds or so. The result is a luke warm bath, etc, etc. I got round this by running the water slower, although it did cut out occasionally.
This method didn't work yesterday though - I left the bath running slowly for a few minutes and it was ice cold. It had cut out, so I reset it and continued on. However, after the burner had ignited and gone out as normal, the pressure suddenly increased from 1 bar up to 3 bar really quickly, in a couple of seconds. The boiler made some funny noises, hard to describe - like it was going a bit mad. I turned the boiler off at the mains electricity, ran the hot water until the pressure came back down and tried again - same thing. Cue much anxiety last night as I thought I would be killed by a Glow worm
The pressure also dropped to zero (without the boiler actually being called upon to do anything) during this period - it took a long time to refill. I have checked for leaks and can find none anywhere, but this seemed weird....
Today I have not tried the hot water. The heating works fine, but the pressure has dropped over the last 3 hours or so from 1.5 bar to 0.5 bar - I've obviously stopped it so that I can correct that.
So, I know full well that I need the boiler serviced and seen too, but is there anything I can do in the meantime to struggle through until I have some money to sort it (probably March), or would an engineer condemn the boiler as blinkin' dangerous and shake his head at me whilst saying "dear oh dear, what a mess"
Any help with this rambling tale of confusion would be gratefully appreciated
