central heating que...
 

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[Closed] central heating question (any plumbers about)

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so in my house the kitchen is under the bathroom and on the kitchen ceiling there is a light fitting which previously had water in it from a leak, so i took a look under the bath (where most of the pipework is) and couldnt see any leak. But under the bathroom floor in the void is where all the central heating pipes for the upper level split and go there own way so i figured that as i was also suffering from a pressure drop in the sealed combi bolier it must be the heating

put in a can of fernox f4 and the leak stops!!

3 months later the leak is back but only in a very minor way (almost no pressure loss from heating now) the only thing that has changed is that in that time i have changed over 3 radiators this means isolating and draining away the water from that rad / branch

so my question is has me draining down 3 rads removed enough of the fernox to make the leak come back or wouldnt that affect it?


 
Posted : 23/01/2012 10:02 am
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so my question is has me draining down 3 rads removed enough of the fernox to make the leak come back or wouldnt that affect it?

Depends how many rads are in the system - but quite possibly.


 
Posted : 23/01/2012 10:05 am
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sorry should have said but 8 rads in system, and the ones that were drained were 800x600 so not the biggest but by no means the smallest

I was thinking that its not only draining out the 3 rads worth of fluid but introducing 3 rads worth of fresh that hasnt been treated??


 
Posted : 23/01/2012 10:18 am
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Its cheap and harmless enough to bung another half bottle in and see what happens.


 
Posted : 23/01/2012 10:20 am
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yes, but I hope you realise that you have a potential major fault there that could pop at any time. Or you could get lucky and never hear from it again!


 
Posted : 23/01/2012 10:47 am
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yeah i know that there is a fault but given that i have just re built the kitchen and bathroom i really dont fancy either ripping down the plaster ceiling in kitchen or ripping up the tiled floor in bathroom to find a leak

is there any way to source a leak without ripping down a ceiling or ripping up a floor? where can i hire a thermal camera?


 
Posted : 23/01/2012 11:19 am
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so you wont ruin your new decorating to fix the problem with minimal instrusion but youll allow it to possibly cause major havok and result in possibly ruining your kitchen/day/week and month ?


 
Posted : 23/01/2012 11:26 am
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well given that it was previously sorted im leaning towards trying the fernox again

but failing that then yes i will be lifting the tiles in the bathroom


 
Posted : 23/01/2012 11:40 am
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Actually, thinking about this a bit more, I'm not sure adding more Fernox is going to fix the issue. F4 works by sealing leaks where they occur, not increasing the viscosity of the water in the system. Assuming that the leak is in the same place as it was originally, you need to find out why it has reappeared. I suppose the new rads could have reduced resitance in the system and effectively increased pressure at the leak.


 
Posted : 23/01/2012 2:29 pm
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ceiling down.. cost is not an issue. your home insurance will cover the damage caused to repiar the damage not the leak. my next door nieghbour handed me a cheque for doing hers this morning..at the mo insurance co.s are mowed out and will prefer for you to get someone in yourself.. get two quotes email them reply same day cheque within 7


 
Posted : 23/01/2012 5:02 pm