Worchester Greenstar 24i Junior

[The Medway Handyman]

My youngest daughter lives in a rented house & about 6 months ago the landlord replaced the old boiler with the above.

She was away on hols at the time and I'm now beginning to suspect the landlord fitted it himself. He is a bit of a cowboy - for example, fitting laminate flooring upstairs over the existing carpets - and generally a useless git, so I tend to sort small stuff out for her..

Anywho, the house has been cold in the recent weather so I went round & bled the rads - all of which badly needed doing. One rad in particular (prolly the last one on the circuit) took nearly 10 mins to bleed.

As a result, I've overcooked topping up the system and the gauge on the boiler now reads around 2.5 bar.

The boiler is mounted above a kitchen worktop and it now transpires that it 'overflows' regularly to the point that she keeps a bowl below it to capture the water.

I can't see a separate pressure vessel anywhere, nor can I see a separate pressure relief valve.

Would these be built into the boiler itself? I don't know this make or model at all. Its clearly a combi so I can't think of any other source for the water.

Any idea on the correct setting for the PRV?

Second point, if this hasn't been installed by a CORGI guy then I clearly need to contact the landlord on her behalf & get it sorted. Would CORGI tell me?

[<me9]

[snip]

If it's a rented house she should have a current gas safety certificate. They are valid for a year.

[The Medway Handyman]

Good point, hadn't thought of that. Cheers.

[ARWadsworth]

Download the manuals from

PRV is set at 3 bar is not adjustable and it will direct hot water and steam from a boiler that is over pressured (>3bar) out of the house through a copper pipe and this pipe should be positioned to prevent the disharge from hitting people.

Saunier Duval are the only boilers that have a release valve that discharges into the house (called low pressure release valves and they are totally different to PRVs)

Adam

[YAPH]

Condensate? Translucent plastic trap at the left hand side under the boiler. Should be connected to waste system. If not could be 'overflow' she's referrring to, in which case clearly cowboy - CORGI might well be interested as clearly unregistered installer.

The pressure vessel is a fat pancake mounted on the back frame of the boiler (which is hung on the wall first) so it's between the guts of the boiler and the wall. There's a braided flexible hose from the expansion vessel which plugs into part of the boiler's internal pipework. A total bloody cowboy might even forget to connect this.

The PRD comes out under the bottom right hand side of the boiler, behind (closer to wall) than the Big-5 (Flow, DHW out, gas, CW in, Return) pipes. Brass compression fitting but you can't do a compression nut & olive[1] up on it because it twists and there's practically no way of holding the boiler-side part steady while you do up the pipe-side part. I generally fit a Speedfit plastic 1/2" tap connector to it as you can do those hand tight. If you look up inside the boiler you'll see a translucent nylon sort of cup arrangement with a downward-facing lug where the threaded part of the PRD coupling just mentioned, which is mounted on the back frame, connects to the actual PRD valve which is on the main part of the boiler which is hung onto the backframe after that's up. A real cowboy would not only *not* connect a PRD pipe, but wouldn't even push the frame-mounted cup up to engage with the PRD valve proper. In fact they'd probably mount the boiler so the two don't even line up.

System pressure, as for any system boiler, 1 bar + depending on height of installation above boiler (e.g. if boiler's at bottom of house with some rads 30' above it then you could go up to 2bar).

It should have been notified. CORGI might be able to tell you if it

*had* been notified through them. Building Control might also be able to tell you, and might be more interested if it hadn't. [1] the sort you get from PMs not greengrocers ;-)

[geoff]

In message , The Medway Handyman writes

It has to have an annual safety check together with a certificate

Its the law

He has to be able to produce one when asked

This is more important than whether its been fitted by a CORGI, although whether fitting a boiler in a rented premises (i.e. not your own personal) comes under CORGI rules, I don't know

The pressure vessel sits behind the boiler itself - it's part of the backplate IIRC

The pressure relief outlet will be wherever it's plumbed to be STS - the pressure relief valve will vbe the front end of it

I can check and see where it comes out of the boiler, but if it really is more a question of where the pipe ends up

[Lobster]

A certificate (if indeed there is one) wouldn't of course confirm that the landlord or some other non-CORGI hadn't installed the boiler himself, but at least the inspection should pick up most of the obvious safety issues. Not foolproof though - eg consider an soldered fitting which by mistake has never actually been soldered; as people here have reported, the flux could potentially seal the joint well enough to prevent gas leaking - for now - and fool the tester.

David

[Lobster]

Moreover, on this boiler the condensate trap works on a syphon basis, ie, the condensate doesn't just dribble out, it fills the trap and then empties itself in one go (about half a cup full?) (intended to avoid pipes freezing up due to trickling). The 'overflowing' sounds like it's happening occasionally - does that reflect what's going on; ie a missing or leaking drainpipe from the trap?

There's a white plastic plate across the base of the boiler which unclips and slides forward which ISTR needs removing to eyeball the drain pipework.

David

[Fred]

What's to say a CORGI installer would make the same mistake? Or are they exempt?