Damsel in distress!!!!! ;-)

[Billy Bob Bob]

probably a re badged heat line

 

[ecowarm]

looked on the AA site and no mention of gas safe registration?

 

[Blackcatgas]

Back on topic, how can a condensate pipe put in level or with a slight backflow cause a boiler to lose pressure?

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

it cant sounds like a load of bull TBH

 

[raymondo68]

Surely this was the discharge and not the condensate?? Still nothing to do with being straight or level though???

 

[Bartdude]

The angle of the condensate pipe being wrong can't be the cause of pressure loss from the boiler,it doesn't make sense. The condensate pipe takes away waste water from the boiler,it can't re-enter the system and affect pressure.

The problem you've been having exhibits all the signs of a failed or weakly charged expansion vessel,maybe now that the weather has improved and the demand on the system has eased,the problem has disappeared. All it would take to confirm this is a pressure check on the vessel,it takes 30 seconds,and should have been one of the first things to be checked.

Good that it's working now however,hope it stays that way.

 

[kerry]

Firstly, it most definitely wasn't the expansion vessel. It has been checked and checked and checked! Secondly, my boiler is left on 24 hours and set at quite a high temp, even now because its left on for pets so I know that's not right either. Its never off. Nothing else has been altered on the boiler or on the pipe work. It isn't a load of bull either and actually I take exception to people saying that because what had been causing me huge problems for nearly two years is most definitely not causing me problems any more and it was from the day we altered the angle of the pipe and nothing else. That boiler has been thoroughly checked more than once. Wasn't heat exchanger or expansion vessel or valve. Sorry, but on this occasion this guy was right. He wasn't actually at my house because of the problem. He was just checking that the system looked ok for other reasons. I've actually paid five different plumbers to rectify the problem and not one of them did. I understand why you are doubtful but this did rectify it and thanks.....I too hope it remains that way. ;-)

 

[fuzzy]

still dont get it kerry, we are trying to establish how the angle of the condensate pipe would affect the system pressure?

 

[Reg Man]

It is not possible that the 2 points are related. The drain is totaly seperate from the water ways.

If the heat exchanger were leaking it would run to the drain and loose pressure. Adjusting the drain will make no difference to loss of pressure.

Back fall on the drain could cause water to backup to the boiler causing it to cut out. But there would be no loss in system pressure.

Main thing is, what ever the cause it sounds like the problem is solved.

 

[kerry]

Ye, fingers crossed! Its been fine for quite some time now and I know what some of you are saying but seriously, nothing else has been changed regarding the boiler or the pipework so you can see where Im coming from in my reasoning behind it now working ok since the white condensation pipe was altered. This guy wasn't aware even that I had a problem with the boiler. He did in fact say that the water would back up to the boiler but he couldn't understand why I wasn't losing pressure on it. I was losing pressure but I didn't want him to know that because they wouldn't have insured me if there was a problem. I can understand how frustrating it must be for some of you keep hearing me say that DID solve the problem, really I do but the reality is that I no longer have that problem so there is only one conclusion I can form. I even got someone to rip up solid oak floor because Homeserve plumbers, approx 6 different people over a period of time told me that I most definitely had a leak in the system and yet there was no leak whatsoever but I felt I had to investigate because they were convinced and the problem wasnt going away. They didn't come back with a cheque for the floor when they got it wrong though! They just didn't want to know and unbelievably the last guy that came said he couldnt solve the problem and asked me if Id wait a month or so before I called them out again because he would have to come back as an incomplete job and he didn't want to!!!! How some of them can call themselves Plumbers is beyond me. I even had to explain to one of them how to work the boiler because he really hadn't got a clue, lol. Oh ye, and one of them nicked the instruction manual to the boiler so now I don't have one, lol, unbelievable....... Ya gotta laugh really. Apologies if any of you think I'm ranting on about an area that clearly isn't my field but I can only go on the evidence, so I'm sticking to my guns and I'm afraid nobody will convince me otherwise, lol. He was the only person that got to the bottom of this for me, although I have had tons of help and ideas from people which I'm so so grateful for but I think I'd have to stick my money on him.....up to now anyway. Obviously the water was backing up the boiler which would cause the boiler to cut out. As for the pressure also dropping.....I haven't a clue but something caused the pressure to drop each time this happend, I just don't know yet what but I'm making it a mission to find out, lol. Possible fault with the boiler even making the pressure drop when its cut out....who knows. I mean...is it possible for the gauge to show that the pressure had dropped (due to a fault) but in reality it hadn't dropped at all and that the only reason the boiler had cut out was due to water backed up to the boiler? That's probably a really stupid thing to say so go easy on me .....please! Anyway, I'm sure you've all had enough of me rambling on, lol. Thank you

 

[raymondo68]

Hi Kerri

I have read through all the posts and (somewhat sadly) I have to say that I am really intrigued by the sequence of events. I am a boiler engineer and one of the things I love about my job is that you never stop learning.

If you do have the time I would appreciate it if you could answer the following questions about your experience with this fault.

1. When you say that the pressure kept dropping did it drop all the way to zero?
2. In one of your posts you said thath the H/S engineer altered the pressure at which the PRV operated has this action been reversed?
3. Some Glow worm boilers have an LCD display on the front which gives a fault code if the boiler fails, does your boiler have this and what fault codes did you get?
4. Condensate pipework is notorious for freezing up, is it possible that some of your breakdowns were due to frozen condensate during the recent cold spell?
5. I have known primary heat exchangers to have small leaks which are only evident when the boiler is hot. When cold there is a very tiny leak, when the boiler heats up, the metal expands and the tiny leak gets worse. These faults can go undiagnosed as any water found inside the combustion chamber is considered to be condensate. Unfortunately the only way to chack for this is to remove the heat exchanger and test it in isolation.

With all that said I genuinely hope that the situation is resolved and maybe the true cause will always remain a mystery.

Good luck

Raymondo

 

[Puddle]

Am just pleased you have got sorted out Kerry and keeping my fingers and toes crossed it stays that way

Thanks for all your input

 

[kerry]

Below are answers to the questions from yesterday. Really appreciate your help, thanks ever so!

1. Pressure dropped and boiler cut out as soon as the pressure dropped to 1.

2. I've no idea if the pressure has been reversed. One of the plumbers who had to check the boiler over did reset it so im afraid only you would know if that would have put things back to their original state, I haven't a clue.

3. Sorry, no LCD input screen on the boiler.

4. No, this happened whether it was summer or winter im afraid.

5. Interesting! and should the problem arise again this is something I will definitely get checked out, thanks for that!

Thanks to you all, you're stars! Kerry

 

[fuzzy]

1. did it continue to drop to zero?

 

[fuzzy]

did you ever get this sorted?

 

[leelister6]

Generally, if the expansion vessel is faulty, the pressure will rise and water will come out of the pressure relief valve when the heating is on and drop right down when the heating is off.If you are losing pressure and there is no water coming out of the P.R.V. then I would say you have a leak somewhere. If you are paying Homeserve for their services, they should sort the problem out for you, not keep fobbing you off! Get in touch with theiir customer services and make a complaint.

 

[Dan]

Don't mind me while I reply to a few of the threads. We need the new thread pages to be picked up correctly. If this thread isn't current, just visit the plumbing forum and post your own new thread or checkout the other existing threads.