Vokera combi boiler help

[leedsladmatt]

Good evening all

hoping someone out there can help me, I have a Vokera compact HE Combi boiler that has given good service for about 8 years now, no issues except that sometimes if you turned the heating down on the thermostat in the hall it would lock out but only once a blue moon. If you topped it up with the feed loop and reset it all would be well.

Recently though it's been happening daily - wake up, boiler locked out, top up all ok. Go out to work come home same again. I cant see any leaks anywhere, I've checked all the radiators etc nothing obvious. Once you re-pressurize the system it stays at roughly 1 bar when I'm sat watching it.

What we have also noticed tonight is if I am upstairs sorting the boiler and my Girl friend is cooking the gas pressure drops. Starting to worry now its something serious and I don't have lots of brass for a new boiler right now, any advice or information would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards

Matt

 

[ianmcd]

A few issues happening here Matt, 1st if the boiler firing affects the cooker/hob then you have a pipe sizing problem which should be addressed immediately, the pressure loss problem ? there are two isolation valves at the bottom of your boiler try turning these off when you dont need the boiler to operate, say when you are going to work and see what happens to the pressure with these closed, if the pressure drops then the leak is within the boiler, if it doesnt but subsequently drops when the valves are opened again then the leak is on your system pipework or radiators

 

[leedsladmatt]

Thanks Ian

under the boiler I see three taps/valves. One "Vokera stop cock" & one yellow one thats "+" Shaped, are these what I need to turn?

In terms of pipe sizing, is there a way to identify where the issue is without ripping up every floorboard?

Thanks

Matt

 

[ianmcd]

The yellow one is the gas so just forget about that for now, the two you need to turn off should be 22mm in diameter or the largest two of all the pipes not concerning the one with the yellow tap

 

[CBF]

what does the pressure gauge do or say when the heating is on ?

 

[martyn88]

check the prv, copper pipe that normally goes to outside and see if its dripping or showing signs of dripping ?

 

[leedsladmatt]

ok well last night i turned the black vokera stop cock off under the boiler. Pressure dropped and locked out again overnight but only into the red - previously its gone all the way off the dial..

CBF - When the heating is on and I'm watching the guage it doesnt move it seems to very slowly drop off. Or perhaps it drops when the heating clicks off overnight/out at work?

Martyn - Once I set it up again this morning i checked the pressure release out the building and it was dripping/nearly trickling warm water out.

 

[leedsladmatt]

ok bit of an update on this

The low gas pressure is solved, I found a red stop lever for the gas in a disused cupboard in the kitchen where an old boiler was - it was nearly set to off, something had falled down and caught it. Put fully onto on and all is well so thats good.

Boiler wise, I turned the heating down on the thermostat last night but not off (showing about 15 on the dial) so the radiators were warm but not hot. Boiler still on this morning, however my GF has been at home today, I told her not to touch the heating but by around 1pm it had gone off again - does this point to a leak on the central heating side perhaps?

Many thanks

Matt

 

[bellairaphon]

seems like you could have an expansion vessel fault and pressure relief valve fault. could be a case or recharging the vessel unless it is ruptured. If the discharge pipe outside is continuosly releasing water or before the system pressure reaches 3 bar then its time for a new valve.

Nath