Wear And Tear Causing Leaks?

[Trevor Rix]

Is there such a thing as "wear and tear" causing joints in a new heating installation to leak within two years? As in infrequent heating and cooling of the water in the pipes causing expansion and contraction of joints?

 

[Scott_D]

What’s the rest of the story?

 

[Best]

No

 

[Ben-gee]

Sounds like op has leaks and is being fobbed off by whoever installed it....

 

[Trevor Rix]

The rest of the story is my long thread in here of October 2016 with the subject "Pressure drops when 650 litre buffer tank is filled with water but no drop with air".

Two years later the cause of this saga was found to be a leak in the plumbing. That leak only became obvious after around three major heating/cooling cycles when the biomass heating system was switched off each summer because central heating was not required during the warmest months of the year.

The plumber now claims that the leaks were to be expected due to "wear and tear". In my opinion the installation was not fit for purpose, in that it started leaking after only a relatively short period of time since new.

 

[Best]

Some photos of the leaking joints and rest of install would be good

 

[Trevor Rix]

Here is an photo of the main leak, in a cupboard which is not opened often. There are photos of the main part of the system 80 metres away in my thread "Pressure drops when 650 litre buffer tank is filled with water but no drop with air" of Ictober 2016.

 

[Rob Foster]

Here is an photo of the main leak, in a cupboard which is not opened often. There are photos of the main part of the system 80 metres away in my thread "Pressure drops when 650 litre buffer tank is filled with water but no drop with air" of Ictober 2016.

View attachment 38356

uck chking...but thats being growing for a long time, do you
never service that mag filter yourself ? its also brown rather than
black which means you have an on going leak in your system
the colour tells all...chking Tf1 is a good unit ...I designed part of it

 

[Best]

Here is an photo of the main leak, in a cupboard which is not opened often. There are photos of the main part of the system 80 metres away in my thread "Pressure drops when 650 litre buffer tank is filled with water but no drop with air" of Ictober 2016.

View attachment 38356

Well can’t argue about that being a bad leak!
The final joints on the valves to the filter body are rubber washers and shouldn’t leak if nuts are properly tightened. They are awkward on the Fernox filter and wouldn’t surprise me if the nuts weren’t fully tight

 

[Trevor Rix]

In my opinion the joint was not originally fully tight as you say.

 

[Riley]

But does beg the question why no service carried out as that would’ve been found a damnsite sooner

 

[Trevor Rix]

The system was serviced annually by the supplier/installer.

During the hundreds of hours spent trying to identify the original loss of pressure without success, this particular leak was not obvious.

 

[Riley]

That would’ve been brown after a year let alone a couple

 

[Trevor Rix]

I serviced that TF1 myself once and was found to be clean. It was also serviced annually by the supplier/installer/plumber.

The brown could be a result of the buffer tank being emptied filled heated emptied multiple times over serveral weeks, obviously having lost the inhibitor in the process. The inhibitor has been replenished twice since then as the saga unfolded.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

I serviced that TF1 myself once and was found to be clean. It was also serviced annually by the supplier/installer/plumber.

The brown could be a result of the buffer tank being emptied filled heated emptied multiple times over serveral weeks, obviously having lost the inhibitor in the process. The inhibitor has been replenished twice since then as the saga unfolded.

theres more than a few moths there i would say 2 years plus