pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

My boiler seems to be losing pressure.. the little dial on the front keeps dropping to just above the Min (red line) when cold..

I move it back by adding water using the tap under the boiler to about 2 .. which is half way between the min and max ..( when cold )

Does anyone know if I'm doing something wrong, what the bar pressure should be when cold and how to check for leaks ?? Nothing showing around the actual boiler...

scooby L

you have a leak somewhere... not much of one if you've not spotted any damp patches..

Are you getitng air in your rads?

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

er ... I dunno .. they seem to be hot all over .. how would I know ?

Where would I look for a leak ..??

renny

iTrader: (2)

I THINK that when cold it should be around 1-1.5 bar and when running it should be around 2 bar.

There is some sort of diaphragm inside the boiler that may be causing a leak of some sort. You should have an external pipe somewhere that you may find water coming out of if this is the case.

I know **** all about boilers but this is something that i discussed with a plumber a while back.

PeteBrant

We had this a few years ago in a place we used to live in. It was rented so we weren't going to fix it ourselves, and kept on at the landlord to sort it out.

We basically spent 4 years topping up the boiler with no ill effects, and no obvious leak. Not saying that you shouldn't have it checked out mind.

gingerboy

Are you topping it up then bleeding all the rads and then re-topping up afterwards???

If you're not then you will always have air trapped inside and the gauge reading will differ once you heat the water up........ it's a real ball ache but to do it properly you will have to top up, bleed, top up and then turn your thermostat up.

The pressure should not alter that much once hot so long as you have no air in the system. It sounds like a very small leak somewhere though which could be a real pain to trace. How old is the system i.e. rads, valves on the rads etc etc

Could be something really simple like one valve that has a small leank or a rad that has seen better days.

Regards

GB

p.s. I'm not a plumber but have a good friend who is and has shown me some of the basics.

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

I'd say its a good few years old.. was here when we moved in and we had it checked over. That was a year ago .. I've been around the rads and not spotted any leaks .. if its leaking to outside surely thats not really an issue just a pain topping up ??

renny

iTrader: (2)

No it it probably won't be an issue short term but it's worth checking to see if you can see where the pipe is so you can check it sometime. If there is no water coming from the pipe then you must have a very small leak elsewhere.

Graz

One of my jobs for this weekend, got a radiator leaking where the valve screws into it, only a few drips but seems to be causing pressure loss.

The main problem with continuously topping it up it that you are diluting the inhibitor (a cocktail of chemicals added to the water to stop sluge and rust build up inside the radiators). So you should add a fresh dose of inhibitor to the system every couple of years, maybe annually.