Have you ever got the feeling that your central heating at home isn't as good as it once was, but you can't seem to figure out why this might be? Exhausted all avenues to try and make it more efficient but hitting a brick wall? Well, your problem could be that your boiler's pressure is too low, or high. This means that your boiler needs to be re-pressurised. Even though you could well call in one of Bog Standard Plumbing and Heating's expert heating engineers to do this for you we believe that with the correct instructions, it is possible to do this by yourself at home.
How to check your boiler's pressure
The first step in checking your boiler's pressure is to open the front panel of your boiler and check the pressure gauge reading. If the meter reads below 1 then this means that you will need to re-pressurise your boiler to get it back to the safe level of between 1 and 1.5.
The pressure of your boiler has the potential to fall below 1 for a number of different reasons, but the most common reason tends to be a small hole that has shown up in the piping that connects your central heating system. Once your pressure is put back to normal, this problem should not persist and should be fixed, however, if you notice a pressure drop below 1 in the next week, then we recommend that you call one of our engineers for an emergency boiler repair.
If you take a look at the boiler from underneath, you will see two silver taps with black knobs and end caps at each end. You will need to unscrew both of these end caps.
Connect filling loop
All you now need to do is to connect the filling loop between the two taps and screw on the wing nut leaving it a little loose. After you do this, screw the second wing nut until hand tight and go back to the first one and tighten it as much as possible.
Find the pressure gauge
You then need to open the first black tap or the one on the left fully. On the front of your boiler, you will need to pull down the front panel and locate the pressure gauge. The pressure gauge usually looks like a round clock which commonly has the word ‘bar’ written on the front of it. You will need to slowly release the second tap and you should hear the sound of water running. This means that the boiler pressure will begin to rise.
Close tap when the pressure reaches 1 bar
When you reach 1 bar of pressure you will need to fully close the second tap. Make sure you have tightly closed it and it is not closed loosely! Please note that if your boiler pressure is between 1 to 1.5 bar then this is a good level of boiler pressure. If you see a pressure in excess of 2.5 bar then you will need to contact one of our local heating engineers based in Stourbridge an emergency visit by calling us on 0330 1132 248.