boiler being cheeky.....?

[nad]

I have got a Baxi Bahama 100 combi boiler -- not exactly a brilliant boiler (it was already there in the flat when I moved to the flat!).

The pressure gauge is always 0 and according to the instructions it says that the "normal" pressure is 1-2.5 -- what should I do? Is this such a big problem or should I be concerned or....? Hot water is available.

Btw, the boiler guy had a look a few times but usually a few weeks later, the pressure goes back down to 0.

A couple of weeks ago, my flatmate and I decided to central heating on (UK weather you know!) but no heating came on at all. Is there something wrong with the tempature dial thing or the themostate control panel?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[IanDB]

You need to repressurise the system to the correct pressure in order for it to work properly. Check the forum for the many posts on how to do this.

You will probably find the CH works when the pressure is right as there is an interlock on low pressure.

Next, you need to find out where you are losing water!! The fact that you lose pressure indicates a leak of some description.

 

[nad]

You need to repressurise the system to the correct pressure in order for it to work properly. Check the forum for the many posts on how to do this.

You will probably find the CH works when the pressure is right as there is an interlock on low pressure.

Next, you need to find out where you are losing water!! The fact that you lose pressure indicates a leak of some description.

thanks mate for your quick response! When you say "leak" -- it is a leak of water? Sounds pretty serious! How would I be able to find where the leak is? As you can tell I am a newbie when it comes to boilers....

 

[nad]

ok, I have tried to repressurise the system (the silver pipe thing with a black flip switch) but nothing happened. The pressure arrow did not move at all and there was no noise or anything.

any help or pointers would be great.

 

[ChrisR]

If there was no noise of water flowing, you didn't actually do anything! It can be confusing as to which bit to turn. and sometimes the "handle" turns without the shaft it's screwed to, so you need a smallspanner on the shaft direct. Have another look. If there isn't an obvious handle, it'll be a screwdriver slot. "Open" is when the slot is in line withthe fitting its on. There may be one each end of the flexy.

 

[nad]

hi chris, i just had another look.... and i can't really see anything.

I took a few digital photographs so will have a look tomorrow and if no success, I will upload the pics here.

also, is it a bad thing to press the Reset button all the time to get hot water? Last week, I had to press reset every morning to get the hot water running in the shower but at the moment it is doing ok -- any idea why it happened in the first place?

 

[ChrisR]

any idea why it happened in the first place?

It's a Bahama

 

[nad]

any idea why it happened in the first place?

It's a Bahama

It sure is a crap boiler compared to my parents' ever-effective 30+ year old "proper" boiler!

As promised, I checked out the pics but can't see anything obvious -- can you help pinpoint where the handle is? To see larger versions, just click on the image.

The boiler


The silver pipe with black handle which I actually turned anticlockwise about 90 degrees (but as mentioned earlier nothing happened):


Silver pipe leading to the boiler:


Underneath the boiler:


Any help/ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks in advance

 

[kevplumb]

like chris r posted try taking the black handle off and turn the shaft with a spanner
sometimes the shaft sticks and the handle still turns

 

[nad]

like chris r posted try taking the black handle off and turn the shaft with a spanner
sometimes the shaft sticks and the handle still turns

i see now -- cheers for the advice. I will give that a try... turn anti-clockwise right?