Help- new boiler fitted pressure went to over 3 and blew the fittings off

If it is a new install, then the installer should be picking up the cost of early failure and not you.

Make sure you are there when the plumber checks it out and take pictures of any fixings that have failed. I don't have the actual figures to hand but plastic fittings are rated well over 3 bar, so for a failure it must have been high.

 

I have put new underfloor heating pipes in my conservatory. it was screeded the other day and the circuit needed to be pressurised at 6 bar this is with plastic fittings. It ahas been like this for nearly a week now, so they are able to take pressure higher than a boiler circuit.

 

Hi Foxy.

Are you saying that a pipe fitting was cleanly blown off? And yet the boiler still shows a 3 bar pressure reading?

That doesn't make sense; once the fitting was blown open, the pressure should have fallen to zero.

Ok, systems. They should be able to cope with up to 10 bar, give or take. That's pipes, fittings, radiators, boilers, everything.

This is a large safety margin, as the highest pressure the system should reach - even in fault conditions - is 3 bar. At 3 bar, a Pressure Release Valve should open and dump the excess pressure. So, I don't understand how the guy says it reached 3.8bar, or how he even knows. How could it still be at that pressure if a fitting has been blown open?

Yes, filling loops should be isolated at both ends and/or the actual hose detached. This seemingly didn't happen here - but we don't know yet if that was the cause of this excess pressure (it could have been an internal issue inside the boiler's exchanger, for instance).

Also you say that fittingS have blown off? More than one? Wow - that's something. How on earth could that have happened - I mean, as soon as one popped off, the pressure should have fallen instantly away.

I'm confused by this in many ways.

Anyhoo, the 6 bar pressure test carried out on Malcy's UF heating is different - his pipes are going to be screeded in so simply cannot be allowed to have any faults or leaks in them. Normal wet systems are often not tested beyond them being fired up and a visual inspection made.

Anyhoo, let the guy come back and listen carefully to what he has to say - see what he points out as being the cause.

 

Might not have used inserts in the pipes.

Can't beat copper & a soldered joint.

 

Sounds like the filling loop wasn't properly turned off.
The pressure rose, water started coming out of the PRV.
PRV pipework wasn't properly connected so has leaked......

You said that the builder fitted the boiler - assume you mean plumber.....who is GSR etc?

 

If a fitting has failed (blown off) you would have a flood rather than a few watermarks on the ceiling.
Sounds like the filling loop is passing and a fitting has a leak.
If the boiler pressure really was showing 3.8 bar, then I would get the prv checked also. Most open around the 2.5-3 bar mark.

 

Soz, Foxy - I have chust re-read your first post, and you weren't saying that fittings had blown off, but only that it was your assumption.

As Longs and others have suggested, it is unlikely that actual joints have blown open.

I guess it's possible that the PRV didn't open properly until 3.8bar, so that would explain why it still read that pressure when your plumber looked at it. In which case the PRV was allowing the excess pressure to escape over and above 3.8 bar, and for some reason this discharged water was causing your mess as Longs suggests.

But all this is theory.

Chust pay close attention to what the plumber checks, and where the actual leak is found - that should tell us everything.

GSR is Gas Safe Registered, I'm guessing - ie the only type of plumber who should be doing this work as it involves a gas boiler.

As to whether the fault is down to the new plumber or not, that depends on where the leak is. If it's on the old rad system, then there isn't much he could have down about this (except not leave the filling loop open!). But if it's on the new parts, then - yes - he's fully liable.

(Mind you, leaving the filling loop refilling shouldn't have caused a leak in any case.)

 

I would get someone whom is definitely a registered Gas engineer to look at what happened before anyone tampers with it further. if you had been standing in the vicinity when it blew you could have been severely injured by the water and if the boiler had blown completely you and some of the neighbours could be dead.

The penalties for unqualified builders doing this sort of work are quite rightly very severe
http://press.hse.gov.uk/2016/builde...-community-service-following-unsafe-gas-work/

 

From what I gather i don't think the builder had any involvement on the gas side of things. Looks like he did the donkey work and a gsr connected everything up.

Incidentally, a few weeks ago I was sorting out the mess that a builder had left a new heating and boiler install in.
Leaking prv valve housing on the boiler he'd supplied and fitted. Gas leak from the supply pipe to an old gas fire that he'd removed and isolated.
2×9500, 1×7000, 1×4000 and 1×1700 'btu' radiators all supplied through a single 15mm speedfit pipe.

Persuaded the cust to phone gas safe, and what do you know....

He's a fully paid up member.

No benchmark commissioning form filled in and no inhibitor or flushing of the system carried out.

 

15mm

 

Yep, 15mm speedfit, so what's that? 10-11mm bore?
Only one of the rad's was actually on the the wall when I first looked at the job, as the 'builder' did have the contract to fully plaster the house as well, although bizarrely he'd fitted the rad brackets before plastering. . The guy sacked him after he'd done a couple of the rooms which were so bad they needed re-skimming.

 

He probably did one of those quick cert courses, no real aptitude just someone having a career change thinking they can make some easy money

 

Have things changed in the last few years?
When I was thinking of becoming gsr, I was looking at about £6-7g and six months of largely unpaid time.
I couldn't afford that.

 

Seen a lot of people do that down here in South Wales, people taking redundancy money going in to the gas business because there was a shortage. It went from people doing it themselves because there wasn't enough qualified people (I had to wait 11 weeks for a boiler install!), to now that the market is flooded with jobbers, established firms are giving up because they are being undercut.

In the county where I live unregulated and unregistered work is rife, there are very few registered electricians or firms in the area and talking to the head of building control last week they get very few requests for them to inspect work. He knows that all sorts of unregulated work is going on but has barely enough staff to tackle things they are notified about let alone anything else.