Repressurising new Potterton combi boiler - do it myself? No filling loop

[Twitterqueen]

Advice appreciated please.

5-month old boiler showed E119 error message yesterday pm, which apparently means it needs repressurising.

I've looked on YouTube and it seems a fairly quick and easy job but I don't have the filling loop the workmen should have left.

Can I buy one, and is the process as quick and easy as it seems?

I contacted the installer as it's so new and his response was "ring the Potterton helpline. No I don't have the number", followed shortly after by "You are a stupid effing c**t. Don't ever ring me again you slag."

Nice.

I wouldn't recommend Heatcare South btw.

We have a similar boiler that has to be repressurised but the filling loop is just 2 little switches on different pipes below the boiler that you open until the level on the boiler tells you to stop. Have you got these on any pipes around your boiler?

at the customer service! I don't know about the filling loop, but I'd complain to the head of the company, and to any relevant regulatory body. Then I'd look for reviews of the company online and add mine. Facebook and Twitter? Isn't it still under warranty anyway? That said, I'm not sure I'd want such a twat back in my house anyway.

When you say no filling loop have you double checked all around? Mine was a relatively short length of metal woven hose stuff with two screw valves, didn't look very loop like! Needed re-pressurising about 3/4 weeks after installation and has been fine since but did take me a while to figure it out! Luckily my engineer was a lot nicer than yours.

Ditto the suggestion of complaining in writing and publicly about that shocking treatment. Google reviews are a good way to prevent others making the same mistake.

Thanks for the advice. I will have a look again at the boiler. I'm not sure whether they did leave a pipe and I've just put it away somewhere.

And yes, I'm on the case ref complaints and reviews.
An no ItsAll - I don't want him back in my house!

I don't know, but have you got the manufacturer's instructions? If not look on the maker's website and you can probably download them.

yes, the loop does usually look like a flexible hose with a braided stainless steel sheathing. You are supposed to turn off the tap at each end after filling, and/or disconnect it just in case there is a slight leak that can overpressurise your system.

Some makes use a strange plastic key to open the valve.

p.s.

I do hope lots of people get to hear about Heatcare South

They do seem to have an abnormally large number of "branches" so I wonder if it is a company with employees, or a marketing group that farms out the job to whoever's cheap.

Thanks Piglet. I know what i should be doing but I'm not clear about which screw covers to undo. It's all perfectly clear in the instructions and in the YouTube video but when I look at the boiler I just can't see which bit I'm supposed to be undoing.

I have someone coming round now - hopefully this pm. I don't want to mess with a boiler and at least I'll know what to do next time.

I am now suspicious about Heatcare South too - too late unfortunately. They have no industry body affiliations on any of their correspondence and I have only one contact email and telephone - the abusive one. I'm now just praying that they did actually fit my boiler correctly....

ask the person who looks at it (I trust he is Gas Safe registered and shows you his i.d. badge with photo) to look at whatever paperwork the installers left. They should have filled in an installation certificate.

If the installer was not gas safe registered and did not notify the installation, he has committed an offence.

All is now resolved and me and the teenage DDs are happy now that we have hot water. A very nice plumber (who I'd asked to quote for another job yesterday) came by today and fixed it in 2 minutes.

I believe though, that the reason I couldn't figure it out was because there appears to a permanent, fixed filling loop - all today's plumber did was turn 2 'tabs' til the pressure reached 1 bar. So there was no undoing of other end caps, attaching the filling loop and then removing it afterwards..

Potterton's HeatTeam were very good, as were trading standards. I will now also be reporting Heatcare South to Safe Gas too.

But now I'm wondering whether the boiler was attached correctly in the first place. Everything I've read says you shouldn't leave the filling loop attached. Maybe it doesn't matter?

We've had a boiler in a rented house exactly like this - flummoxed us when it lost pressure too but definitely no separate filling loop (and a plumber fixed it, like yours). It may have even been a potterton...

I have a Potterton Combi and it's rubbish. It had a serious fault after only 5 years and cost s £600 to fix - although I have a nagging feeling DH got ripped off for the repair.
The worst thing is plumbers don't usually know what they look like and one they work