Post by Robert on Nov 28, 2013 8:33:28 GMT -5
Afternoon
I have a flat in central Reading with a Powermax 550. A few months ago I noticed the hot water pressure had been getting gradually worse and worse, so I did some reading around and found some great advice on here.
I decided that the problem must be the blending valve - so I rushed out and bought a replacement. However, when I took the external copper pipework apart to swap the valves, I noticed that there was a substantial amount of scale inside the pipes.
So I gave the pipes and the valves a considerable clean overnight and managed to get rid of all the scale. I figured "Hey, the old valve probably works just fine after all, so I may as well just use the old again and try and sell the new one" - However, I put the boiler back together but noticed that now the old valve was leaking (likely as a result of the excessive de-scaling). So I hooked up the new valve and everything just seemed to work perfectly again. Hot, powerful showers, hallelujah.
However, about two weeks ago I noticed the pressure was dropping again, and in a very short space of time the pressure went from "Oh this isn't as good as it was" to "Ah, this is actually pretty rubbish" to "OK, there's practically nothing coming through the pipes".
I did wonder if the problem was the new valve, but I took it to pieces again I noticed that the valve seemed (to my total lack of expertise in these things) to be perfectly fine - which is what I would expect as it is basically brand new.
However, I thought I'd run a test on the Hot Water coming directly from the tank (I'm guessing this is the internal Heat Exchange?) by just disconnecting the blending valve altogether and letting the water run through the pipe and into a bowl and the pressure is a trickle at best. Which is the same as what I get from the taps / shower.
At this point I'd like to point out that this water is still extremely hot (the scald marks on my hands are proof of this) so the boiler "boiling" isn't a problem.
So my guess is that the problem I have is the inside of the boiler (Heat Exchange?) is furred up with scale, the same as the external pipes were before I cleared them out?
Does this make any logical sense to you and what do you think my options are?
Robert
I have a flat in central Reading with a Powermax 550. A few months ago I noticed the hot water pressure had been getting gradually worse and worse, so I did some reading around and found some great advice on here.
I decided that the problem must be the blending valve - so I rushed out and bought a replacement. However, when I took the external copper pipework apart to swap the valves, I noticed that there was a substantial amount of scale inside the pipes.
So I gave the pipes and the valves a considerable clean overnight and managed to get rid of all the scale. I figured "Hey, the old valve probably works just fine after all, so I may as well just use the old again and try and sell the new one" - However, I put the boiler back together but noticed that now the old valve was leaking (likely as a result of the excessive de-scaling). So I hooked up the new valve and everything just seemed to work perfectly again. Hot, powerful showers, hallelujah.
However, about two weeks ago I noticed the pressure was dropping again, and in a very short space of time the pressure went from "Oh this isn't as good as it was" to "Ah, this is actually pretty rubbish" to "OK, there's practically nothing coming through the pipes".
I did wonder if the problem was the new valve, but I took it to pieces again I noticed that the valve seemed (to my total lack of expertise in these things) to be perfectly fine - which is what I would expect as it is basically brand new.
However, I thought I'd run a test on the Hot Water coming directly from the tank (I'm guessing this is the internal Heat Exchange?) by just disconnecting the blending valve altogether and letting the water run through the pipe and into a bowl and the pressure is a trickle at best. Which is the same as what I get from the taps / shower.
At this point I'd like to point out that this water is still extremely hot (the scald marks on my hands are proof of this) so the boiler "boiling" isn't a problem.
So my guess is that the problem I have is the inside of the boiler (Heat Exchange?) is furred up with scale, the same as the external pipes were before I cleared them out?
Does this make any logical sense to you and what do you think my options are?
Robert
