Really silly question about pumping a Vaillant Boiler

[eb1251]

Hi everyone,

My Vaillant EcoTec boiler is an absolute menage. The pressure is super low (between 0.7 and 1.2) and has been dropping quite significantly over the last few weeks since I had to call in a professional to get it re-pressurised.

I have a (quite 70s-looking) Rothenburger pump - as I understand it, I just need to fill it up with water, attach to my filling loop and then start pumping!

But I am an idiot and I don't know how the valves work. Which way should they be? And where do I attach it? Do I have to close/open valves before detaching the hose or water will leak everywhere?

Sorry this is such a stupid question! I've attached a nifty image so you can all take a good ole gander at my filling loop (not even sure I know which one it is!)



Cheers,

Libby

 

[SilentMike]

Valves are in the open position at the moment (parallel with the pipe)
Horizontal is off. Do you have really bad mains pressure? Are you saying you fill your heating with a rothernburger pressure tester?

 

[Rckape]

Hi Libby,
I'm not sure what you've been told about using a pump. I can only guess you have extremely low mains water pressure.

The heating system is normally pressurised using the pressure in your water main.

Your filling loop is the silver braided hose immediately to the left of the vertical white plastic condensate pipe.

Both of the valves are currently in the open position (normally they should both be turned off and the silver hose disconnected), this leads me to think that you've not got very good mains pressure. If that's the case, you should definitely remove the silver hose as your central heating water could contaminate the water main.

If it's been fitted correctly, the valve furthest to the front should lead to your boiler so this is where you should attach the pump.

 

[eb1251]

Brilliant - thanks everyone!

SilentMike - we think we're meant to fill it with a rothenberger rp30. That's what the previous owner (now deceased) left us. we have heinous water pressure - on the 3rd floor of a purpose-built 1930s flat in south london. surely everyone has the same problem as us... someone upstairs has a pump of some sort but we're yet to investigate too much!

Rckape - I will do this tonight and feed back tomorrow! Really grateful for your help.

 

[eb1251]

Hi again everyone,

Just gave it a go with the heating turned off. Nothing happened so I turned it on. Then there was no drop in pressure (previously we've had an INSTANT drop meaning a leak) so that was good! But the radiators were making crazy banging noises. They got worse as we continued pumping so we got freaked out and stopped.

What do I do now?! My boiled is on 0.7, which is better than the 0.6 it was on before but it is still in a bad way. I really don't have £150 for a call out fee!!

 

[missplumb]

You'll need to keep pumping the water in with the boiler switched off. The pressure should be around 1bar on the gauge. Also make sure you close both the valves on the silver braided house to stop any thing coming back at you. Then start the boiler and try again, if I'd still making a racket then maybe someone on here local to you might be able to help

 

[Rckape]

You may have to bleed air from your radiators as you're pumping up the system. Fill the system to 1 bar. Then go round all the radiators in turn starting with the furthest from the boiler. When the air coming from the radiators slows off, pop the pressure back up to 1 bar and repeat until complete.

Turn the boiler on and let it run for a few minutes, re pump to 1 bar if needed then repeat the bleeding of the radiators.

If that doesn't work then I'm afraid it's time to be getting a plumber in. If you post a request in the looking for a plumber section of this forum I'm sure there'll be some who can come and help.

Good luck!