K
kingstinger
Hi All,
Yes I know another boiler losing pressure thread but Im hoping that I really have covered all the obvious off. Sorry in advance for the long post but its best to give as much detail as poss I guess.
My boiler is an Ecotech 837 about 3 years old & has been losing pressure since we had a loft conversion done (2 years ago) While conversion was being done I shut the boiler off (I may have drained it down as well) & fitted a new radiator in the conversion & did various other pipe removing exercises. I was very careful to make sure I had no leaks etc.
Anyway refilled the boiler to 1.5 bar & over say a period of a few weeks the pressure would drop to say 1.0 or 0.9 bar. This would indicate a leak somewhere, couldn’t find one anywhere & Ive spent a long time looking. Ive been toping up ever since :-(
Anyway Ive finally decided to try & get othe bottom of this, 2 weeks ago I disconnected all rads except the one which is directly connected to the boiler in the kitchen. Ran that for a few days & still get pressure loss. Read lots on the internet & about charging the EEV it was a bit low but is pressurised ok now & I have never had the the low to high pressure symptoms this exhibits when running the heating anyway. It dosnet leak water when you let the air out either, so not split.
Next I isolated the Central heating at the boiler, repressurised & switched the boiler off this resulted in no pressure loss, so only seems to be doing it while hot. Next I ran just Hot Water only so no radiators connected (manual states ecotc 837 can be run on DHW only with no probs) Pressure is still being lost. Checked the AAV (automatic air vent) on the internal pump & its weeping a very small amount of water nothing really. Took the AAV out & tested it in a glass of water & sucking through the vent seems to seal ok.
Next stop the PRV (pressure release Valve) This is dry as a bone tied a balloon over it & nothing so no leaks there & I don’t want to trigger it needlessly trying to clean it unnecessarily for fear of getting dirt in it.
So any ideas? to recap losing pressure 1.5 to 0.7 last night with only DHW on CH Isolated. My train of though is its either the AAV & its slight weep or it’s the Heat Exchanger at fault which is leaking internally & evaporating the leaking water. Although the Ecotec 837 has a stainless steel HE so I would have though that would have been ok but I guess maybe a manufacturing fault or a warp or something? Something else to be aware of is that due to the constant loss of water I have been running it with out inhibitor in the system for 18 mths (i know not good but this fault occurred before the lack of inhibitor)
Any help or advice greatly received, I'm a very practical guy & hate giving up on things like this but I fear it may be time to get a Valiant Engineer in :-(
Stu
Yes I know another boiler losing pressure thread but Im hoping that I really have covered all the obvious off. Sorry in advance for the long post but its best to give as much detail as poss I guess.
My boiler is an Ecotech 837 about 3 years old & has been losing pressure since we had a loft conversion done (2 years ago) While conversion was being done I shut the boiler off (I may have drained it down as well) & fitted a new radiator in the conversion & did various other pipe removing exercises. I was very careful to make sure I had no leaks etc.
Anyway refilled the boiler to 1.5 bar & over say a period of a few weeks the pressure would drop to say 1.0 or 0.9 bar. This would indicate a leak somewhere, couldn’t find one anywhere & Ive spent a long time looking. Ive been toping up ever since :-(
Anyway Ive finally decided to try & get othe bottom of this, 2 weeks ago I disconnected all rads except the one which is directly connected to the boiler in the kitchen. Ran that for a few days & still get pressure loss. Read lots on the internet & about charging the EEV it was a bit low but is pressurised ok now & I have never had the the low to high pressure symptoms this exhibits when running the heating anyway. It dosnet leak water when you let the air out either, so not split.
Next I isolated the Central heating at the boiler, repressurised & switched the boiler off this resulted in no pressure loss, so only seems to be doing it while hot. Next I ran just Hot Water only so no radiators connected (manual states ecotc 837 can be run on DHW only with no probs) Pressure is still being lost. Checked the AAV (automatic air vent) on the internal pump & its weeping a very small amount of water nothing really. Took the AAV out & tested it in a glass of water & sucking through the vent seems to seal ok.
Next stop the PRV (pressure release Valve) This is dry as a bone tied a balloon over it & nothing so no leaks there & I don’t want to trigger it needlessly trying to clean it unnecessarily for fear of getting dirt in it.
So any ideas? to recap losing pressure 1.5 to 0.7 last night with only DHW on CH Isolated. My train of though is its either the AAV & its slight weep or it’s the Heat Exchanger at fault which is leaking internally & evaporating the leaking water. Although the Ecotec 837 has a stainless steel HE so I would have though that would have been ok but I guess maybe a manufacturing fault or a warp or something? Something else to be aware of is that due to the constant loss of water I have been running it with out inhibitor in the system for 18 mths (i know not good but this fault occurred before the lack of inhibitor)
Any help or advice greatly received, I'm a very practical guy & hate giving up on things like this but I fear it may be time to get a Valiant Engineer in :-(
Stu
