General question to canvas some professional views please: Is it normal for a properly operating sealed system to lose pressure and need topping-up periodically?
The background is that last year our house had a major renovation, including absolutely all of the plumbing (water, heating and waste) so we now have a totally new sealed central heating system, including a Grant Vortex oil-fired boiler and hot water cylinder. The heating in the house is provided by a ground floor (wet) UFH omnie system laid into a new screed floor, then at F1 and F2 it's traditional rads (Stelrads). The hot water circuit has a secondary return.
Unfortunately the plumbing workmanship was very poor during an otherwise pretty straight-forward renovation; we had a catalogue of errors that needing rectifying because the individuals assigned to our job were badly trained / inexperienced and not adequately supervised by the subcontracted plumbing company. Six months after completion of the works and we have had another major leak which the company has just rectified.... but, I am still getting very gradual depressurisation from our system. It needs topping up around every 4 - 8 weeks, though not much is needed to move from the c0.5bar that it drops to, to get it back to 1 - 1.5 bar.
When I have challenged the MD at the plumbing company, I get a wooly answer about a bit of air somewhere in the system could be causing this drop of pressure. Seems plausible enough, but also possibly a convenient explanation for him. I would have expected any trapped air to settle down after one or two repressurisations. The fact that I need to do this more than just once or twice a year makes me think there's likely to be some other leak somewhere that needs tracking down...?? My father feels that the pressure should be rock solid with a new installation of the entire plumbing system.
Any views or ideas on this would be most welcome. And if it is a leak that needs attending to, how on earth do you find it give the very slow rate of pressure loss...??
Thanks in advance.
The background is that last year our house had a major renovation, including absolutely all of the plumbing (water, heating and waste) so we now have a totally new sealed central heating system, including a Grant Vortex oil-fired boiler and hot water cylinder. The heating in the house is provided by a ground floor (wet) UFH omnie system laid into a new screed floor, then at F1 and F2 it's traditional rads (Stelrads). The hot water circuit has a secondary return.
Unfortunately the plumbing workmanship was very poor during an otherwise pretty straight-forward renovation; we had a catalogue of errors that needing rectifying because the individuals assigned to our job were badly trained / inexperienced and not adequately supervised by the subcontracted plumbing company. Six months after completion of the works and we have had another major leak which the company has just rectified.... but, I am still getting very gradual depressurisation from our system. It needs topping up around every 4 - 8 weeks, though not much is needed to move from the c0.5bar that it drops to, to get it back to 1 - 1.5 bar.
When I have challenged the MD at the plumbing company, I get a wooly answer about a bit of air somewhere in the system could be causing this drop of pressure. Seems plausible enough, but also possibly a convenient explanation for him. I would have expected any trapped air to settle down after one or two repressurisations. The fact that I need to do this more than just once or twice a year makes me think there's likely to be some other leak somewhere that needs tracking down...?? My father feels that the pressure should be rock solid with a new installation of the entire plumbing system.
Any views or ideas on this would be most welcome. And if it is a leak that needs attending to, how on earth do you find it give the very slow rate of pressure loss...??
Thanks in advance.
