Stuck butterfly valve!!!

[magicmanalex]

Hi Folks,

I've got my central heating drained and the boiler taken apart. (I'm swapping out the expansion vessel).

The manual says to turn three water isolation valves off.

Two of them are butterfly valves like this (photo) but I've tried *gently* to turn it towards me and it's not moving. I don't want to turn too hard in case I damage it. The other one seems to be stuck too.

You don't have to undo the nut (or bolt) in the centre of the butterfly, do you? Is it just stiff? (It probably hasn't been open for years).

Cheers.

Alex

 

[Madrab]

1st thing, no the nut doesn't have to be loosened and it's probably just stiff.

2nd thing, if the EV is within the boiler casing, are you actually meant to be stripping your boiler down? Are you in an area that only a gas safe registered engineer should be?

3rdly... why, if the system is already drained, do you now have to turn off 3 water valves? Why and what manual tells you that you need to do that?

 

[Phill Peck]

I'd add to that with all due respect if u can't turn off a butterfly valve leave your boiler well alone

 

[muggles]

Time to call a pro in before you kill someone

 

[magicmanalex]

Thanks for your comments, Gentlemen.

Sorry - didn't want to make the post too lengthy but the reason I drained the CH because I had a couple of leaks (one from the bottom of a TRV) and one bleed nipple valve. They've now been repaired. I also wanted to run some Fernox through the system for a week before flushing and then adding inhibitor. Seemed a good time to add it if the system was being drained and refilled.

I wanted the butterfly valves turned off because I was just following the manual procedure to the letter, rather than 2nd guess it because the system was already drained.

I corresponded with a couple of professional plumbers regarding my EV problem and they said it was OK to do the EV swap out. (I didn't swap it out in the end - I just pumped it up to 1.0 bar whilst the system was empty and the rad bleed nipple valves were off). I did chuck some Fernox F3 into the system though.

I worked slowly, was very careful and didn't touch any gas components.

All seems fine now. Rads are nice and warm, no leaks and pressure now seems a lot more stable. I'm still booking a Potterton engineer to come and do a service in a few days.

Here are a couple of pictures of the 'professional' installation. The kink is what I found behind a rad that was not working. We've only been in the house about a year and a half. I realise the service is overdue and will book it in tomorrow.

Anyway - thanks again for your input. Comments noted and appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[Phill Peck]

Please tell me that's not a powermax??

 

[muggles]

Please tell me that's not a powermax??

Good shout, I was trying to work out what it was!

 

[Dan Robinson]

A great boiler for the suicidal. Sorry, uninitiated to be dismantling and a7sing about with

 

[Nozzle]

(P.S it's a ball valve)

Lots of love, Nozzle

 

[Agile]

This is a difficult boiler even for professionals. British Gas were working on one and the occupied died.

Its really a boiler that no DIYer should ever be touching!

The flue is another area where there are potential problems.

Its a pity that house surveyors are not trained to alert potential purchasers to the hazards they can cause.

Tony

 

[Phill Peck]

This is a difficult boiler even for professionals. British Gas were working on one and the occupied died.

That's a brave statement.
Can u back that up

 

[Dan Robinson]

Especially as it was a different boiler IIRC.

 

[Dan Robinson]

GS85, can you tell of that has had the updated part from the pic?

 

[magicmanalex]

Thanks again, Gents.

It's a Potterton PowerMax HE 150. I've taken everyone's comments on board and won't touch it again.

Just to reiterate - at this point all I have done is drain all the radiators, repair the leaking radiator valves, pump up the existing expansion vessel to 1.0 bar (whilst system empty) and refill it via the filling loop and added 1 litre of Fernox F3 via one of the radiators (and bled them).

I ran it for an hour last night and again this morning and it seems a lot better. The pressure is a lot more stable, the radiators are all working and no longer leaking.

I've signed up for an annual service plan with Baxi this morning. They won't be able to come out until March though, which is a good month away.

We put in a CO detector on the landing a couple of weeks ago, a couple of metres from the boiler cupboard.

I'll try and get a local gas safe plumber to come and look at it in the meantime.

Cheers.

 

[magicmanalex]

The boiler was manufactured in 2007. There was a safety recall on models manufactured between 2001 and 2005. I called Potterton a couple of weeks ago and gave them the serial number of mine and they confirmed it was not one of the affected units.