Help...Glow-worm Hot Water Express 80 not heating anymore...

[martyp]

Hi all,

Please excuse any ignorance of general knowledge of heating systems, this is my first house, I've only been here since May...

Basically, I have the above mentioned combi boiler which over summer has worked fine, always produced hot water when needed.

Now it is getting colder, I switched the central heating on to test it. Went round all the radiators and bled them, they all worked great. Later last night, no hot water.

I really don't know what to do. I switched the boiler off, then back on, re-ingited the pilot light (seems fine). The thing starts up when the hot water tap is turned on.

Then I noticed that the pressure gauge on the boiler is on 0? According to the instructions in the cover it should be at least 0.6?

Please can someone tell me what this might mean as I'm terrified of a massive nightmare bill from the British Gas ads and programmes about plumbers from hell etc.

It's annoying, I've just got plumbing cover from the water supplier but don't think it covers boilers. My electric & gas is with Scottish Power...

Can anyone help at all?

 

[chrishutt]

I'm terrified of a massive nightmare bill from the British Gas ads and programmes about plumbers from hell etc.

Thanks a lot, BG.

If you're so distrustful of heating engineers, why do you seek our advice on this forum?

To answer your question (if you're willing to trust a non BG engineer) you need to top the pressure up via your filling loop. There's a nice big picture of one in one of the other current threads.

 

[kevplumb]

how many times have i posted this pic

 

[chrishutt]

Thanks kev

 

[ChrisR]

NB the pressure dropped because you bled "air" out. There shouldn't BE any air in the system, it's almost certainly due to corrosion. I would get the system drained and refilled, with corrosion inhibitor.

 

[martyp]

Cheers guys, thanks loads for the help. Wouldn't have believed I'd be getting help from Cuba or Antarctica!

Sorry to seem like I'm casting aspersions about the heating engineer thing. It's purely through no experience of these things and watching a prog last week ironically! Bit hard up at the mo with a major worry of an MOT next month (Thanks Egg adverts! Although I know cars and computers a lot more than boilers...I work in IT hence why my first port of call for a fix was 'reboot the boiler'!)

I actually work for a Utilities company anyway (npower...don't hate me!) so am supposed to be anti-BG in theory!

Thanks for the picture too. Thing is, where do I find it? Any clues?

I did remember the main stop cock was only partly on from fitting a new sink so turned that on fully and the pressure went up to about 0.1 then dropped again when I switched the boiler back on...

I can't find anything looking like what you have in the picture. There are copper pipes going up behind a cupboard but there doesn't seem to be anything similar...

 

[martyp]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

Found it...

Surprising what's in the cupboard under the sink...

Found a knob that looked like the one in the picture. Couldn't see the rest of the pipes though, had to get in there with a torch, right in the corner directly under the boiler (in the corner of my kitchen).

Thing is, I turned it and the pressure went above the red marker before I turned it off...the red marker is at 1, the needle is now a little above that...on 1.3.

What should I do, is that bad??? I have hot water though!!!

Thanks so much for sorting my problem...I've learnt something new...!

 

[chrishutt]

1.3 bar is fine. Anything between 1 bar and 1.5 bar is a normal setting. But check how much pressure rises when system gets hot. If it's approaching 3 bar you could have an expansion vessel problem.

Please note that this free service was provided by independent heating engineers (at their own expense) and not by BG or any other corporate monstrosity intent on screwing the consumer for every penny...

 

[martyp]

Many thanks again for your help; really appreciated.

I wouldn't doubt at all that you definitely know your stuff!

I will keep my eye on the pressure setting to make sure it's ok.

It's only one radiator that needed some air bled out and it stopped coming out after a little while but no water followed. I didn't realise I had taken all the pressure from the boiler by doing that...

I'll have a go with the corrosion inhibitor treatment. Cheers for that.

Central heating is about the only thing I don't have insured. It tends to be the way that if you don't cover something, it'll go horribly wrong and be very expensive!

Don't worry, I do have loads of trust and appeciation for your help with this. I need the central heating working to avoid my other half constantly using the gas fire (apparently more expensive method of heating?)

Thanks again