Piglet John are you here? If so can you help me with a Vailant Ecotec boiler query please?

[TwigTheWonderKid]

Our boiler started making a "funny noise" according to DH so he switched it off. He noticed the little gauge (in photo ) was well into the red zone. We've switched it back on and no noise and it's less in the red but we can't remember what we're supposed to do with the valves underneath to get it out of the red and Google isn't helping!

There are usually 2 valves underneath. On all the combi boilers I've had you turn the left and then the right valve until the pressure is back in the green. Between 1 and 2 bars. Then tighten them up again.

the pressure is too high.

You need to let some water out, not put it in.

You can do it by bleeding a radiator into a bucket, if you don't know where the drain cock is. About 1bar to 1.5bar is OK when cold.

When it heats up, if the pressure goes higher, nearing 2 bar, turn it off and bleed some more. Your pressure vessel probably needs pumping up with air, or possibly replacing, so call a mender.

The reason for overpressure might be that the filling valve(s) have been left attached or slightly open. There may be a valve at each end of the filling pipe, both need to be closed. Consult your instruction book, or look it up online.

p.s.

go outside and look at the wall where the boiler is. Has water been squirting or dripping down the wall?

Thanks so much both. Can't check wall as boiler is against an internal wall but will have a go at bleeding a radiator.

The pressure gauge on these are a bit rubbish. Press the button marked “I” followed by the minus button and the display will give you a digital read out of the pressure.

Between 1-1.5 is what you would be looking for when the heating is off.

2ish is fine when it’s hot.

Twig - I'm no expert but I'm guessing when pigletjohn said to look outside they meant to look at where the pipe/vent feeds out. Somewhere on your wall outside is a black pipe from which steam comes out when boiler running

there is an overpressure vent pipe, in case the pressure in the system goes too high. Usually the pipe goes through the wall behind the boiler, sometimes it may go into a sort of collecting dish nearby that is connected to a drain. The escape of water is intended to be visible, and you will probably hear it.

If you had, say, a fault causing water from the mains to leak in, the pressure would go up and the excess would be released. Due to expansion, the pressure increases when hot, so the escaping water may be very hot, and the pipes are arranged so that it will not squirt onto passers-by, it usually runs against the wall making an unsightly mark. The other common cause is failure of the expansion vessel that is intended to take up normal increases. This would cause the pressure to go up and down more dramatically than usual when hot and cold, which is why I suggested watching the gauge when you first start the boiler after releasing the excess.

Useful tip about the pressure display. Sounds like Itsoverpeople is familiar with this boiler.

It's possible that the "funny noise" was escaping water from the Pressure Relief Valve, so I would start by suspecting the filling valve has been left open. The cheapest problem to fix.

Thanks all for your help. Bleeding the radiators did help and then it happened again. New expansion vessel and we are now sorted :-)