I need help, brrrrrr

[Sellie]

I hope somebody can help me with my boiler problem. I have a very old Vaillant ThermoCompact boiler (1994) but no manual to refer to. Recently I heard a loud noise from the newly installed radiators so I decided to bleed two radiators after which my boiler turned itself off and can’t be turned on again. Having read quite a few articles on this site about bleeding radiators and lack of pressure, I came to the conclusion that trapped air in the boiler and no water pressure must be the reason for the boiler not working. Now we get to my problem…. I opened the boiler cover to find the pressure valves and could not find anything resembling a suitable valve or reset button (see photo

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• Sellie
• 24 Jan 2012
• 1

)


Could anybody please tell me what I need to turn or press to get my boiler working again.
Having just moved into the flat I am not keen on having to call an heating engineer and spend all that money on hopefully a simple task.

Please help me as it is freezing in my flat at the moment.

Cheers
Steph

 

[denso13]

Turn valve bottom right (white/blue handle) and see if pressure guage rises - top one. If so fill to 1 bar and try boiler again.

 

[Sellie]

yes I tried to open the large valve bottom right but nothing happened. It says OFF - PANDA on there, not sure if that helps.

 

[denso13]

yes I tried to open the large valve bottom right but nothing happened

Do you mean it wouldn't turn, or did turn but nothing happened? Can you see where the other end of the chrome flexi pipe goes to - maybe another valve?

 

[Sellie]

Cheers Denso13, your help is much appreciated... sorry I meant that I opened the valve and nothing happened. As the flexi chrome pipe disappears into the cupboard below I am not sure if there is another valve, but I would hope they did install this thing so that one can actually reach it As I was not sure if I turned the right valve I did not leave it open very long, so I might have to try again tonight and leave it open for a while perhaps that will kick-start something on the pressure side, what do you think.
There is another valve (smaller grey plastic valve, upper right hand side in the lower part) but I could definitely not open that. Could this be the valve we are looking for? I also tried to press the (reset ?) button on top of the black box next to the gas thing but nothing happen there.

 

[denso13]

You won't be able to reset it until the pressure is back up. Bottom right certainly looks like a filling loop hopefully you should find something at the other end of it

 

[Sellie]

Ok, I'll go digging tonight when I am back home.
Many thanks for your help and should you not see another desperate post from me be assured that you have solved my heating problem.
Fingers crossed
Cheers

 

[Jordon]

At worse do you have a friend that can help and a outside tap? If you do attach the hose to the drain point with a jubileeclip and open drain valve slowly then turn on outside tap to refill via the rads. Or call the chap that fitted your new rads and tell then the pressure has dropped on the boiler he may be able to tell you how he filled the system, but as above the bottom right is a filling loop handle.