M
Mike Jackson
Always blaming the installation and never the boiler.
I had that problem today on an Atag A325 ECX. Only thing was the boot was on the other foot today.
Had a call from Wayne Herbert at Atag to go look at the boiler. The fault noted was no pressure in boiler pressure vessel faulty.
I rolled up to the job and noted that the pressure in the boiler was at zero. Took the casings off and discovered that the muppets that fitted the boiler hadn't thought fit to fit the isolating valve on the return, great no way to easily test the vessel against atmospheric pressure. As the pressue in the system was right down I checked the pressure and it seemed a wee bit low so I bunged some more in, taking it higher than normal to account for the fact that I was working against some water in the system. Refilled the system and it all fired up okay and seemed to be working okay. I hung around for a while and nothing seemed to much amiss. Put it down to a numpty engineer and left the job advising the customer to contact Atag should the problem re occur.
4 hours later I get a further call from Wayne, the pressure has dropped again. I go back to the property and the pressure is at zero again. Check the expansion vessel., pressure is the same as when I left it. Strip sump off, re pressurise system and check bottom of heat ex for leakage none evident. Okay perhaps it's a crack opening up when it's hot, put boiler in service mode and proceed to cook it. No visible pressure drop.
Now obviously the next step is to close the iso valves and prove where the leak is. Oh whoops there's no iso valve on the return. Okay time to think outside the box. I shut off the boiler, emptied the condense trap and cluttered off to remove a cooker. 2 hours later I called back and the pressure had dropped to .7 bar from the 2.4 bar I had left it at. The trap was bone dry and no sign of any discharge through the PRV so I've chucked it back as a leak on the system complete with a list of installation faults.
No Iso on return, No auto bypass (2 zone valves fitted), soldered connection to boiler pipework (instructions specify compression), no shock arrestor on cold main, No air gap on condense and system water filthy.
I bet I'm going to be popular with the installation company, bloody service agents always pushing the problem back on the installer.
image6 by Mike Jackson1, on Flickr
I had that problem today on an Atag A325 ECX. Only thing was the boot was on the other foot today.
Had a call from Wayne Herbert at Atag to go look at the boiler. The fault noted was no pressure in boiler pressure vessel faulty.
I rolled up to the job and noted that the pressure in the boiler was at zero. Took the casings off and discovered that the muppets that fitted the boiler hadn't thought fit to fit the isolating valve on the return, great no way to easily test the vessel against atmospheric pressure. As the pressue in the system was right down I checked the pressure and it seemed a wee bit low so I bunged some more in, taking it higher than normal to account for the fact that I was working against some water in the system. Refilled the system and it all fired up okay and seemed to be working okay. I hung around for a while and nothing seemed to much amiss. Put it down to a numpty engineer and left the job advising the customer to contact Atag should the problem re occur.
4 hours later I get a further call from Wayne, the pressure has dropped again. I go back to the property and the pressure is at zero again. Check the expansion vessel., pressure is the same as when I left it. Strip sump off, re pressurise system and check bottom of heat ex for leakage none evident. Okay perhaps it's a crack opening up when it's hot, put boiler in service mode and proceed to cook it. No visible pressure drop.
Now obviously the next step is to close the iso valves and prove where the leak is. Oh whoops there's no iso valve on the return. Okay time to think outside the box. I shut off the boiler, emptied the condense trap and cluttered off to remove a cooker. 2 hours later I called back and the pressure had dropped to .7 bar from the 2.4 bar I had left it at. The trap was bone dry and no sign of any discharge through the PRV so I've chucked it back as a leak on the system complete with a list of installation faults.
No Iso on return, No auto bypass (2 zone valves fitted), soldered connection to boiler pipework (instructions specify compression), no shock arrestor on cold main, No air gap on condense and system water filthy.
I bet I'm going to be popular with the installation company, bloody service agents always pushing the problem back on the installer.
image6 by Mike Jackson1, on Flickr
