U
Unregistered
I have 11 year old Potterton Flowsure+ oil fired boiler with on board hot water storage. It has needed topping up about every 3 to 4 days. Found the PRV leaking and the fill shut off tap (boiler side) so replaced both. Since then can hold pressure for a couple of days and at other times will empty and lock out in 24 hours or less.
By accident I forgot to put the power back on and got up next morning to find base was quite deep in water. Removed this with a Vax, checked pressure vessel was at 1 bar released pressure to check for water in it, no water re pressurised it and then refilled system. Since then it is still loosing a little pressure on the gauge but no more lock out or water in the base, until....
Yesterday we had a power cut for about 2 hours, when restored I notice the floor around the boiler was wet. On checking found the base almost overflowing and removed 3 Litres of water from it with the vax but, the system pressure was still at 1.2 bar.
I concluded that therefore this water was not coming from the heating part of the system and could have only come from a water mains fed section of the boiler and therefore leaving the power off I turned off the water mains feed into the hot water part of the boiler resulting in no water coming out of any hot tap. Since then I have removed about 8 plus Litres from inside the base since about 7pm last night.
As the on board holds about 8 litres I assumed that by now it would be almost empty so to prove a point turned the mains feed back on, I only heard a slight/short "whoosh" as it bought the system up to pressure, no prolonged filling and almost instantaneous, with no airlock, water to the hot taps. So again I assumed that the water in the base could not have come from the hot water storage tank.
I have put the boiler back on this morning and the base seems to be drying out and the pressure is holding.
Unless my brain is in a real muddle, logically I have to (again assume) that there is a mains water leak inside the boiler casing somewhere and when the boiler is hot it evaporates the leaking water before it gets into the base. The mains feed pipe comes up the back of the boiler on the outside, and then turns at 90 degrees into the top of the boiler, there it branches into two, one to feed the hot water system, via a shut off valve, and the other to the shut off valve that connects to the fill loop. There is a very very slight seep (not drip) from the nut at the back of this but having spent hours on my knees with a torch I cannot see a leak anywhere.
Tonight I am going to turn the boiler off and then shut off the mains water at the stopcock to try and prove/disprove this.
Has anyone any ideas? Have I got so fixated on this that I missed something obvious? Does anyone agree or disagree, with my "assumptions"?
I had considered buying a new boiler but I don't think this is the fix.
Thanks in advance, and sorry about the length of this post.
By accident I forgot to put the power back on and got up next morning to find base was quite deep in water. Removed this with a Vax, checked pressure vessel was at 1 bar released pressure to check for water in it, no water re pressurised it and then refilled system. Since then it is still loosing a little pressure on the gauge but no more lock out or water in the base, until....
Yesterday we had a power cut for about 2 hours, when restored I notice the floor around the boiler was wet. On checking found the base almost overflowing and removed 3 Litres of water from it with the vax but, the system pressure was still at 1.2 bar.
I concluded that therefore this water was not coming from the heating part of the system and could have only come from a water mains fed section of the boiler and therefore leaving the power off I turned off the water mains feed into the hot water part of the boiler resulting in no water coming out of any hot tap. Since then I have removed about 8 plus Litres from inside the base since about 7pm last night.
As the on board holds about 8 litres I assumed that by now it would be almost empty so to prove a point turned the mains feed back on, I only heard a slight/short "whoosh" as it bought the system up to pressure, no prolonged filling and almost instantaneous, with no airlock, water to the hot taps. So again I assumed that the water in the base could not have come from the hot water storage tank.
I have put the boiler back on this morning and the base seems to be drying out and the pressure is holding.
Unless my brain is in a real muddle, logically I have to (again assume) that there is a mains water leak inside the boiler casing somewhere and when the boiler is hot it evaporates the leaking water before it gets into the base. The mains feed pipe comes up the back of the boiler on the outside, and then turns at 90 degrees into the top of the boiler, there it branches into two, one to feed the hot water system, via a shut off valve, and the other to the shut off valve that connects to the fill loop. There is a very very slight seep (not drip) from the nut at the back of this but having spent hours on my knees with a torch I cannot see a leak anywhere.
Tonight I am going to turn the boiler off and then shut off the mains water at the stopcock to try and prove/disprove this.
Has anyone any ideas? Have I got so fixated on this that I missed something obvious? Does anyone agree or disagree, with my "assumptions"?
I had considered buying a new boiler but I don't think this is the fix.
Thanks in advance, and sorry about the length of this post.
