Worcester Greenstar losing pressure

[terryplumb]

Yes, I've already tried that. See about 6 posts back.
I take your point about an internal pipe leak check and will report back next week.
Have a great weekend.

Sorry ,I forgot I had asked ,and you had answered already...it's an age thing

 

[muggo]

Hi Terry.
I'm now having to repressurise every 5 or 6 hours to keep my heating working.
I've just gone up some steps where the condensate drain goes into a gutter. Tapping the pipe produces about 8 or 10 drips of water.
I've pressurised the boiler to 1.8 bar, left it 10 minutes and it again produces 8 or 10 drips of water when tapped & the boiler pressure has dropped to 1.7 bar already.
The boiler is stone cold, hasn't been on for 5 hours & is still dripping (slowly) from the condensate pipe.
What do you recommend I do, please? I don't want to be cold over Christmas.

 

[terryplumb]

Your boilers heat exchanger is perforated ,not cheap to replace and you would need a GSR engineer to do it.
Is it still under warranty,it should be if only 2 years old ?

 

[muggo]

Your boilers heat exchanger is perforated ,not cheap to replace and you would need a GSR engineer to do it.
Is it still under warranty,it should be if only 2 years old ?

It was commissioned on 21 Oct 22 and serviced on 9 Feb 24. Losing pressure since winter 23 and i can get a GSR to confirm. Slightly over the service schedule, so are they going to play nice, in your experience?

 

[terryplumb]

Only one way to find out. Who fitted the boiler ?

 

[muggo]

Only one way to find out. Who fitted the boiler ?

It was a BOXT installation and I have his details. Is that the place to start?

 

[terryplumb]

Yes ,if they supplied and fitted the boiler they would be your first port of call.

 

[muggo]

Yes ,if they supplied and fitted the boiler they would be your first port of call.

Worcester Bosch are sending an engineer out. I’ll keep you posted.

 

[terryplumb]

Yes ,please do.

 

[muggo]

The WB engineer replaced the heat exchanger, but didn’t find evidence of a leak from it. I’m not sure if the expansion vessel was replaced.
Anyway, it’s still losing pressure, although a little slower. I’ll ring them tomorrow and see what they say, after I’ve checked for leaking from the condensate pipe.

 

[muggo]

Hi Terry,
Happy New Year to you.
Another Bosch Worcester engineer has just visited, pressurised to 2 bar, isolated the boiler via inlet & outlet valves, left it 50 minutes & it hadn't lost pressure. When he opened the valve, I saw the pressure drop considerably, thus proving the leak has been on my system side all along. I can't fault the logic of this approach.
I guess now I need to contact a leak tracing company to find where it's coming from (under my concrete floor somewhere).
My home insurance policy has an excess of £500 for leak tracing, a maximum payout of £1,000 & won't pay for the repair unless it's caused by freezing. Really not worth claiming.
Before I contact someone, I'd appreciate your input.
Cheers
Paul

 

[terryplumb]

Happy New Year Paul,thanks for the update. Seems like you have been unlucky enough to have had a leak on the heat exchanger as well as on the system. In my experience leak detection companies are expensive ,offer no guarantees that they will find ALL leaks ,and still expect to get paid if their investigations prove fruitless or inconclusive.
Do you know how many pipes are buried / what upheaval would be caused by re routing pipework above ground ?

 

[muggo]

Thanks Terry.
I have 6 downstairs radiators fed by micro bore copper pipe running in plastic pipes under concrete. It’s quite a large house and converting to 15mm above ground would be very messy and expensive. Built 40 years ago.
I’ve just checked the chamber where the 2 manifolds are sited and have another couple of small leaks to add to the 2 leaks that were repaired last winter. I was planning on getting the manifolds replaced rather than fixing leaking connections as they occurred, but when the plumber arrived to do this a few weeks ago, nothing was leaking and it was bone dry so he went away. Now he’s reluctant to come back. Easier work available and he likes to be in the pub for 4pm.
As I’m topping up the pressure every 6 hours, I imagine I’ve added many many litres of water, but the chamber has half a litre in it as a guess. Where has all the rest gone? No wet carpets or visible leaks. 3 bottles of leak sealer would probably temporarily fix it, but I’ve been down this road before…
I’m stumped.

 

[terryplumb]

Is the water that you see at the manifold/s being lost from there , or coming out the plastic pipes that the copper microbore is in ?
Pictures would be interesting, particularly of the copper pipes where they enter/exit the plastic pipes they are in.

 

[muggo]

Is the water that you see at the manifold/s being lost from there , or coming out the plastic pipes that the copper microbore is in ?
Pictures would be interesting, particularly of the copper pipes where they enter/exit the plastic pipes they are in.

Leaks are from the olive/nut interface to the manifold. Nothing from the copper/plastic piping. I’ll take a photo tomorrow as it’s POETS day and old habits die hard!