How to find a leak in central heating?

[Odell63]

Hi

I think I may have a leak in my central heating system. I have been losing pressure in the boiler for a while and have to top it up to maintain pressure every couple of days, I am assuming that water must be escaping from it somewhere?

I don't think it is upstairs, a water leak would have revealed itself by now. So it is likely to be downstairs, unfortunately, I have solid floors and laminate flooring which means trying to locate a potential leak very difficult.

Any advice on how I might resolve this? By I of course I mean a qualified plumber!

David

 

[gasmanstu72]

if you have solid floors, are the pipes buried in the concrete or do you have a drop fed system where the radiators are fed from pipes coming from above,
if they are buried in the floor a leak would've shown up buy now in the form of loose concrete and warped flooring.

it could also be that the water is leaking via the safety blow off pipe that is outside, check to see if it's dripping

 

[Odell63]

The pipes are buried in the floor.

I can see no water from the boiler overflow but neither are the floors warped so its a mystery.

 

[ianmcd]

what boiler do you have make and model please ? some boilers can leak without showing signs anywhere

 

[Odell63]

It's a Vokera Mynute 20se

Probably installed when the house was built in 1999.

 

[ianmcd]

it is possible that the heat exchanger on your Mynute is pinholed usually on the weld, you cant check this yourself unfortunately but you can get a gas safe registered engineer to check this , if it is this it will be immediately visable to him /her. basically when it leaks here when the burner comes on the heat causes the leaking water to evaporate and exit through the flue so you dont always notice the leak inside the boiler, but its something that will only get worse if that is what your problem is.