Folks, My wife owns a house that is let out. It's 100 miles away There is a small issue with the heating... A small drip on a radiator valve is the basic problem... It is not major and I attended myself shortly before the lockdown to attend to several minor jobs around the house, including tightening up the valve, which seemed to have done the job. Tenant had reported it a couple of weeks before my attending, but said it was only small, and not constant, so she wasn't too worried about it. However, it seems to still be leaking. Tenant reports that she can manage with it as it is at the moment... She says she can "control" the drip with towels etc, as it's really not a big drip, and has suggested she is happy wait until the lockdown is over if getting someone in to fix it is going to be an issue. However, the pressure is low, presumably as a result of the drip. Gauge is showing approx 0.5 bar. The boiler is a Greenstar 24i Junior, (or maybe 28i Junior, one or the other!) installed 5 years ago. My question is, with the heating off, (so the boiler is only being used for hot water), is this low pressure something to be immediately concerned about, or does the pressure need to be correct for the hot water to function correctly? (I am resending tenant instruction on how to re-pressurise) Thanks in advance for any advice, Regards, Cando
It will need to be topped up at some point ,but as long as boiler is running it's nowt to worry about. Continually dripping at the rad will eventually drop the pressure to a point where boiler Will not work.
When the pressure gets to around 0.3bar, the boiler won't even make hot water - regardless of whether the central heating is on or off. It would be good practice to talk the tenant through topping up the pressure with the filling loop. It's easy enough to do, and once the tenant knows how to do it, he/she should be able to keep it at around 1bar for the foreseeable future.
Thanks Terry, Understand that... but, hypothetically, would the hot water work still even if the pressurised side of the system was drained down, or does the hot water side need the pressure? I assume it doesn't. Cando
Most Worcester boilers won’t cut off even when the pressure fully drops. This could lead to the pump failing. Keep it topped up.
The system needs to be pressurised to get hot water but the heating side could be isolated from the boiler to prevent the leak for now.