A small rise in pressure is totally normal in your heater, however, sometimes a system can become over pressurised.
As your boiler heats the water for your radiators and taps, the water expands.
This is why you’ll see that your boiler pressure is different when the heating is off compared to when it is on.
A pressure safety valve can control this jump by releasing the additional pressure from the system automatically.
Boiler pressure is managed by the expansion vessel, the balance of air versus water in your central heating system.
Insufficient air in your expansion vessel as well as the pressure might end up being too high. resulting in the water coming out of your pressure relief valve.
Excessive air can lead to an over pressurised system, this can also lead to water coming out from the pressure relief valve.
This is why the installer should work out the cause of your central heating boiler’s high pressure
What pressure should my boiler be?
Your central heating boiler should have a pressure of roughly 0.5 to 1 bar when the home heating is off, and 1 to 1.5 bar when the heating is on.
For this reason, you should constantly inspect your central heating boiler pressure when the heating is on to get a precise reading.
Why is my central heating boiler pressure so high?
There could be a couple of reasons for the high pressure in your central heating boiler system.
Below, we’ve noted a few of the most likely causes.
If you have actually just recently repressurised your boiler because the pressure was too low, you might have overestimated just how much water the system needed.
This is a really common error.
The pressure will naturally raise when the boiler gets on so if you’re adding water to the system while the heating is off, don’t add too much.
When repressurising your boiler, it is very important to watch on the pressure gauge so that you know when you have actually added the right amount of water.
If you do not believe there’s excessive water in the system, boiler pressure could be down to certain system parts not functioning correctly.
The pressure safety valve (PRV) releases water when the pressure in the system ends up being too high.
Sometimes, the PRV can have a leak or the valve might not close correctly, this might progressively reduce your central heating boiler’s pressure.
Alternatively, a filling up loop (which is opened to enable water in when your boiler’s pressure is too low) might have been left slightly open, meaning that new water is constantly entering the system. This could be a reason for the increased pressure.
What takes place if boiler pressure is too high?
High central heating boiler pressure isn’t unsafe, even if it’s showing as three bar on the pressure gauge.
In many cases, the central heating boiler will turn itself off if the pressure deals with a certain level and a functioning PRV ought to efficiently control the pressure, preventing it from getting too high.
Nevertheless, you should not just leave the central heating boiler, a qualified home heating engineer will certainly be able to recommend you.
How to decrease boiler pressure.
Prior to the boiler pressure is decreased, you need to find the root cause of the problem.
Start by checking that the filling loop is closed and isn’t allowing any water to enter the system.
Your heating engineer may also wish to make sure that the PRV isn’t stuck.
You can quickly reduce your boiler pressure by bleeding the radiators.
Radiators are generally bled to get rid of any type of excess air from the system.
This air can trigger cold spots in your radiators and could make your heating system much less efficient.
However, when you’re bleeding a radiator to reduce the pressure in the system, you’ll need to remove this air as well as some water.
Therefore, you’ll require a dry cloth or towel as well as a bucket or container to catch the water.
Prior to trying to bleed your radiators you should guarantee that the boiler is off entirely and has cooled.
Otherwise, the water that comes out of the radiators will certainly be extremely hot and you might scald yourself.
Once you have actually released a small amount of water, you should return to the boiler unit to check the pressure.
If you think that you require to remove even more water, do so and then inspect the gauge again.
Repeat this step until you’re happy that your central heating boiler’s pressure is at the right level.
Over the following days or weeks, you should keep an eye on the pressure.
If it continues to creep up and you’re unsure why you may need to call a Gas Safe registered engineer that could look at your central heating boiler in more depth to identify the cause of the problem.
Contact New Boiler Quote on 0800 799 9012 or complete our online quote form below and have your energy efficient new boiler fitted tomorrow.
