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Hello!
I've been a reader of this forum on and off for some time now and find the information very helpful... although a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing!!!
A few weeks ago I noticed that water was dripping out of my overflow pipe into my back yard. Feeling confident I would be able to sort this problem I paid my boiler a visit and discovered that one of the valves on the copper pipes below the boiler was also dripping- both from the nut fitting below it and also from the actual valve itself. The valves are the standard sort ( I Think!) with a small cicrcular valve that can be turned with a small flat head screwdriver. The valve part seemed to be protruding slightly and I wondered why. With inquisitve fingers I pressed the offending part and was rewarded by water now flying out of the gap between the valve and its fitting
Armed with spanners and PTFE putty I set about draining the system, removing the damaged valve fitting and replacing it. Unfortunately in doing so I obviously jarred the copper piping because now there was a leak at the nut where the pipe went into the boiler.
To cut this long story short I was chasing leaks ever further into my boiler and decided to fetch in professional help. This in itself was no mean feat but that is an entirely different story!!
The bottom line is he didn't really fix the problem, merely slowed down the drips! In addition I discovered that after he left I had a problem with the boiler not coming on to warm the hot water. BY reading around the forum I have ascertained that it was a problem with the divertor valve not hitting the microswitches and with very little effort remedied the problem.
Anyway!!!! My two questions/ problems are this:
1) What can I do to limit/ stop the dripping from the seals around my valves. I have used PTFE putty before tightening the nuts and sealed around the outside with yet more but still water is very slowly forcing its way through.
2) My pressure gauge has read 1.3 bar for as long as I remember and only upon draining my system did I realise that it is in fact stuck there. It doesn't move up or down regardless of the state of the system. Is the gauge itself likely to be broken or could it be a build up of something around the pressure sensor (assuming such a thing exists!)
Thanks for helping this hopeless DIY unenthusiast out!!!
I've been a reader of this forum on and off for some time now and find the information very helpful... although a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing!!!
A few weeks ago I noticed that water was dripping out of my overflow pipe into my back yard. Feeling confident I would be able to sort this problem I paid my boiler a visit and discovered that one of the valves on the copper pipes below the boiler was also dripping- both from the nut fitting below it and also from the actual valve itself. The valves are the standard sort ( I Think!) with a small cicrcular valve that can be turned with a small flat head screwdriver. The valve part seemed to be protruding slightly and I wondered why. With inquisitve fingers I pressed the offending part and was rewarded by water now flying out of the gap between the valve and its fitting
Armed with spanners and PTFE putty I set about draining the system, removing the damaged valve fitting and replacing it. Unfortunately in doing so I obviously jarred the copper piping because now there was a leak at the nut where the pipe went into the boiler.
To cut this long story short I was chasing leaks ever further into my boiler and decided to fetch in professional help. This in itself was no mean feat but that is an entirely different story!!
The bottom line is he didn't really fix the problem, merely slowed down the drips! In addition I discovered that after he left I had a problem with the boiler not coming on to warm the hot water. BY reading around the forum I have ascertained that it was a problem with the divertor valve not hitting the microswitches and with very little effort remedied the problem.
Anyway!!!! My two questions/ problems are this:
1) What can I do to limit/ stop the dripping from the seals around my valves. I have used PTFE putty before tightening the nuts and sealed around the outside with yet more but still water is very slowly forcing its way through.
2) My pressure gauge has read 1.3 bar for as long as I remember and only upon draining my system did I realise that it is in fact stuck there. It doesn't move up or down regardless of the state of the system. Is the gauge itself likely to be broken or could it be a build up of something around the pressure sensor (assuming such a thing exists!)
Thanks for helping this hopeless DIY unenthusiast out!!!
