boiler losing pressure - ch pipes not leaking.

[darriusdax]

Hi guys, My client has a leak on this system. It is a big house with 21 radiators all fed by this condensing Remeha condensing boiler. He has had the Remeha approved installers out to diagnose the boiler, they say that there is no leak outwith the pipes, so we isolated the pipe work and put tracer gas in - we got no significant readings any where in the house, and more telling, the gas pressure did not drop over the 2 hrs we had it up at 2.5 bars. ( the client has been losing 1.2 bar per day.) - gas particles are smaller and should leak more easily.
So if there is no leak in the pipes, is there anything that the remeha techs could have missed, and what are the different causes of pressure loss in a condensing boiler system.

Thanks in advance of your advice guys.

 

[darriusdax]

Pump some food colouring in the heating system via the filling loop if its shows up in the hotwater then bingo flush out do repairs . cheers kop

cheers kop. done it... but we are pressure testing the ch loop till wednesday, so if no drop from 2bar we will open up the flow and return and run the system... hope to see yellow hot water
I take it that if the engineer had the boiler open and tested it cold he would not see if the heat exchanger is faulty ???

 

[king of pipes]

Just a proccess of elimination bud all the best finding it cheers kop

 

[dan_the_plumber]

Pump some food colouring in the heating system via the filling loop if its shows up in the hotwater then bingo flush out do repairs . cheers kop

Good idea...Thanks King

 

[SavageW]

Can you loose pressure through an unvented coil from a sealed CH system? I always thought the pressure on the main side of the cylinder being 3bar would if anything over pressurise the CH system an discharge via the PRV as the CH system pressure would only be around 1-1.5 as opposed the 3-3.5 in the cylinder? I'm genuinely curious as I would like to know if I'm wrong no discredit to other people's suggestions

 

[Chuck]

Can you loose pressure through an unvented coil from a sealed CH system? I always thought the pressure on the main side of the cylinder being 3bar would if anything over pressurise the CH system an discharge via the PRV as the CH system pressure would only be around 1-1.5 as opposed the 3-3.5 in the cylinder? I'm genuinely curious as I would like to know if I'm wrong no discredit to other people's suggestions

Your reasoning is correct.

However, it wasn't clear from the original post whether the system was vented or unvented and it's easy to miss such details when they are buried in a thread of more than 30 posts.

 

[dan_the_plumber]

Can you loose pressure through an unvented coil from a sealed CH system? I always thought the pressure on the main side of the cylinder being 3bar would if anything over pressurise the CH system an discharge via the PRV as the CH system pressure would only be around 1-1.5 as opposed the 3-3.5 in the cylinder? I'm genuinely curious as I would like to know if I'm wrong no discredit to other people's suggestions

Yeah it's a fair shout. But what your talking about there is static pressure. As soon as you open a tap now you've dynamic pressure, which is less by about half.
So when you open a hot tap you may see the boiler pressure (heating circuit) fall and then when the hot tap is closed you may see the boiler pressure rise

 

[SavageW]

Your reasoning is correct.

However, it wasn't clear from the original post whether the system was vented or unvented and it's easy to miss such details when they are buried in a thread of more than 30 posts.

I weren't meaning to sound rude,I was more worried I didn't know something that more experienced guys did. It was the OP's pic with the cylinder an the potable water expansion vessel with the PRV terminating into some sort of plant pot that made me assume it was unvented.

 

[SavageW]

Yeah it's a fair shout. But what your talking about there is static pressure. As soon as you open a tap now you've dynamic pressure, which is less by about half.
So when you open a hot tap you may see the boiler pressure (heating circuit) fall and then when the hot tap is closed you may see the boiler pressure rise

cheers Dan, I wouldn't of even thought of that. I'm new to this an still gaining experience but thanks for explaining