Boiler pressure / tiny gas usage even when no heating/hot water on.

tifo

Olly_J said:

You likely don't need a plumber, just bleed the rads until you are back in the normal range. They just overfilled the circuit is all, so just keep an eye on it once done to ensure it stays around the same range.

Let some water out when you bleed a radiator, try the nearest one to the boiler if you can see the pressure needle too, it should be about half way in the green section. When you use the boiler it will go up but not to the red.

herebeme

Okay. I can’t find my bleed key, ordered a replacement. Six different neighbours did not have one either, most didn’t seem to know what it was…I’m pretty basic with home repairs but even I’ve bled a radiator before. 

I’ll have to pick this up after Boxing Day about to drive off for the long weekend. Will come back with an update once I’ve bled them, and done any other suggestions. 

macman

If it was at 2.5 bar when the RGI left, then you need to find one who is competent. There's simply no excuse for that, he could not possibly have missed it, and correcting it would take about one minute. 
If it gets to about 3 bar then the PRV will lift, and quite often they won't fully seat down again, and will need replacing, so it's not a trivial fault.

Lorian

Need to check that filling loop is fully off at the knob and isolator too.

herebeme

macman said:

If it was at 2.5 bar when the RGI left, then you need to find one who is competent. There's simply no excuse for that, he could not possibly have missed it, and correcting it would take about one minute. 
If it gets to about 3 bar then the PRV will lift, and quite often they won't fully seat down again, and will need replacing, so it's not a trivial fault.

My service was a week or so ago, I’d just not looked at the pressure until today. So, I actually called the company and asked for the RGI to come back out and reset it (for free!) after reading the initial comments in this thread. The customer rep on the phone called the RGI, apparently the RGI then said it “2.5 was fine and safe”. And the rep said I’d have to pay a call out charge again. I pointed out the previous RGI from the same company that I’d had a few years running had said the first time he came out a few year ago that mine was set too high (it was 2-something), had reset it at 1.3 and said that might help the old boiler survive extra years by reducing stress (on something something I don’t recall now). I then also pointed out to the rep I had an old boiler and did annual checks and they’d lose my business for good if they didn’t rectify (at some point after Xmas).  They said not coming out for free.

Maybe it’s unreasonable to expect a free fix, but I’m super !!!!!! off that he set it wrong, and if I have to pay to fix it it sure as hell isn’t going to be to the company that messed it up.

herebeme

Lorian said:

Need to check that filling loop is fully off at the knob and isolator too.

I googled that. And I can’t work out where that is on my system. As all the videos online have black or grey valves at either end of a flexible pipe.  

macman

You don't need to pay anyone to fix it. Just bleed the rad back to about 1.5 bar when cold. Takes 2 minutes.
There will be a filling loop with two valves on it under the boiler. Where the water supply pipe comes in. Repressurising is a customer fix, it doesn't need an RGI.

herebeme

macman said:

You don't need to pay anyone to fix it. Just bleed the rad back to about 1.5 bar when cold. Takes 2 minutes.
There will be a filling loop with two valves on it under the boiler. Where the water feed pipe comes in.

Ok. I am going to bleed as soon as I get a new key. 

I assume the filling loop is the thing with the white valve in the first photo in the set at the bottom of page 1? Would I need to turn that left or right to fully close. 

LoopySnooker

herebeme said:

macman said:

If it was at 2.5 bar when the RGI left, then you need to find one who is competent. There's simply no excuse for that, he could not possibly have missed it, and correcting it would take about one minute. 
If it gets to about 3 bar then the PRV will lift, and quite often they won't fully seat down again, and will need replacing, so it's not a trivial fault.

My service was a week or so ago, I’d just not looked at the pressure until today. So, I actually called the company and asked for the RGI to come back out and reset it (for free!) after reading the initial comments in this thread. The customer rep on the phone called the RGI, apparently the RGI then said it “2.5 was fine and safe”. And the rep said I’d have to pay a call out charge again. I pointed out the previous RGI from the same company that I’d had a few years running had said the first time he came out a few year ago that mine was set too high (it was 2-something), had reset it at 1.3 and said that might help the old boiler survive extra years by reducing stress (on something something I don’t recall now). I then also pointed out to the rep I had an old boiler and did annual checks and they’d lose my business for good if they didn’t rectify (at some point after Xmas).  They said not coming out for free.

Maybe it’s unreasonable to expect a free fix, but I’m super !!!!!! off that he set it wrong, and if I have to pay to fix it it sure as hell isn’t going to be to the company that messed it up.

If they are talking about charging you, ask them why their engineer did not follow MI (Manufacturer's Instructions) which states between 1 and 2 bar.

Link to User Manual:

https://www.vaillant.co.uk/downloads/z/ecotec/ecotec-user-instructions-2006-261451.pdf

Also, do any of the bleed valves have a 'slot' so you can use a flat head screwdriver instead ? I'd try and get it done ASAP for peace of mind.

herebeme

Thanks for the link to the manual. Turns out warm start mode was on, have turned that off as not necessary (I would swear it wasn’t on before this recent service, but not totally sure). And also reset the flow temperatures - early this year I had followed the ‘money saving boiler challenge’ and the blog on the valiant site to adjust the flow rates down. Seems the RGI turned them up, whilst telling me he turned them down! He also set the water temp way too high as Valiant say at the 12 o’clock position and no higher ideally for hard water areas. 

I’ve turned the heating off. And it won’t go back on until the bleed is done. I’ll do it after Xmas, I don’t want to risk a screwdriver and me doing it wrong just before everyone goes on holiday.