pressure drop/no hw or ch

[iago]

Ok, hope someone can help. Have a Vokera 80 SP, worked fine till now. Turned on heater in downstairs bathroom (required some force), and some water spluttered out from the top. I shut the valve from which the water was flowing, and the heater rapidly heated up. Later in the day, can\\\'t say exactly when, I found the boiler has no pressure, hot water works but only minimally (i.e. it\\\'s luke-warm and only for about 2 minutes) and heating doesn\\\'t work. Also, the flame in the boiler doesn\\\'t seem to \\\'fire up\\\'. Any suggestions?

 

[ChrisR]

I haven't much idea what you're talking about, sorry! What heater, what valve??

 

[iago]

The boiler itself is upstairs. I fiddled with a heater downstairs that was shut off, to open it, and some water came out of the top-right corner of the radiator. I screwed that part in and water stopped coming out.

 

[ChrisR]

Oh right, by "heater" you mean radiator - of some sort. By bleeding air out you've reduced the pressure in the system. You need to find your Flling Loop to let water in up to a pressure of 1 bar. That's a silver braided hose near the boiler somewhere, usually underneath. It'll have a tap at one end which you turn 1/4 of a turn. May need a screwdriver to turn it. Turn it back off when pressure gets to 1 bar.

Those filling loops are supposed to be left disconnected, but seldom are.

The minimal heat you've been getting is from the pilot!

 

[iago]

Can't thank you enough (yes of course I meant radiator-sorry bout that) going to try that now

 

[iago]

Hi, thanks for your help, but I've turned it as you said, and water pressure is not increasing. As you said, it may be detached, but at a glance (which is all I can offer) it seems connected. Do you suggest I wait?

 

[ChrisR]

If it were detached you'd have drowned by now, There might be a second tap at the other end of the braided hose. (Ignore the small hex nut which is usually in the middle of a solid part about 75mm long).

The "loop"'s are pretty awful quality, I've had a couple where the taps didn't work.

If you turn the tap yo found off, undo the connection at the boiler end (should be quite easy but you might need pliers or similar to grip it) then open the tap very slowly water should start to squirt out (put a towel over it first). If not, theremight be another stop cock or similar, but the pipe the loop's connected to is usually the cold supply to the combi (ie the stuff which comes out of the hot tap)

 

[CharityA]

Hey, ChrisR - a big thank you. I came accross this forum topic when I was searching the net looking for information on why the pressure in the boiler had dropped and what we could do about it - you instructions were spot-on and we now have heating that works.

Thanks again - you saved us from having a cold weekend & a big bill from the plumber!

 

[ClareW]

Hi ChrisR

I am experiencing identical system pressure problems to Iago with my Potterton 80e, so was delighted to find this advice on this site. However when I released the tap as described the pressure fell further!

There is only 1 tap on the pipe (apart from the hexagonal one you say to ignore) - so could it have been installed incorrectly? (NB it hasn't been installed while I've been living here - 1 year - and have never had any problems to date)

Thanks

 

[bengasman]

If it was installed in the past year, you should get the installer back to repair the fault and ask for his corgi card whilst you are at it. any qualified installer who does a decent job will come back to verify his work.

 

[chrishutt]

ClareW, you should start a new thread, otherwise we all get confused looking at the previous details. I don't think ChrisR will be able to reply for some time, he's currently unwell.