boiler losing pressure

Lit_Up

My worcester boiler is losing pressure - have to top it up once a week or something. This is now having an effect on the shower temperature and in winter this is not good. Radiators are still achieving usual warmth.

A plumber told me that there was a "leak in the system" but that he didn't know where, and couldn't find out without special equipment which he didn't have. How do I find out where the leak in the system is? What kind of equipment is he talking about which can identify a leak in the system? For him to make a new pipe or whatever for the boiler seems a little unnecessary if the leak can be plugged somewhere.

thanks

Aaron

NVRAM

Well you need to find the leak if you just want it plugged!
It could literally be anywhere you have piping.

We had one after our recent refit, luckily we hadn't fixed boards and stuff back down. Was a copper end stop not soldered on fully, drip by drip it dropped the pressure.

keystone

Lit_Up wrote: »

My worcester boiler is losing pressure - have to top it up once a week or something. This is now having an effect on the shower temperature and in winter this is not good. Radiators are still achieving usual warmth.

The pressure shown on your boiler is for the heating circuit. Its totally independent of the DHW circuit. There are many reasons why the shower temp might fall but a very minor drop in the CH pressure isn't one of them. So thats a different subject.

It could be the Pressure Relief Valve passing. Check as suggested by the alky! Has your system been overpressurised at all? If the pressure goes over 2.5 - 3 bar the PRV lifts to let some out. They don't then reseat properly due to carp in the system with the result that water constantly leaks out.

The second possibility is that your expansion vessel needs repressurising or replacing. Check out other posts about this.

Neither of the above requires "special equipment".

The third possibility is that you do actually have a leak in your pipework but check the first two out first.

Cheers

System

when ours kept dropping it turned out to be some safety valve had failed £100 later it was sorted:eek:

Lit_Up

NVRAM wrote: »

Well you need to find the leak if you just want it plugged!
It could literally be anywhere you have piping.

The plumber said that some people have special hi-tech equipment which can identify where the leak is.

gas4you

Think you need to re-read keystones post, points 1 & 2 first, before assuming there is a leak.

These points are cheap and easy to check.