The Real Reason Your Boiler is Losing Pressure [New Bathroom]

Have you recently had a new bathroom fitted and now you’re wondering why your boiler is losing pressure?

You’d be surprised how common this problem is. We get calls from customers for so many reasons, and pressure loss has to be one of the big five. Trust me, in over 20 years working as a heating engineer and accredited installer in the Edinburgh area, I’ve seen it all.

Yet, people are still surprised that something they’ve done to improve their home could have this effect.

Don’t worry, I’m going to reveal all, below.

The real reason your boiler is losing pressure

Okay, I’m going to break away from convention this time, and tell you the reason in the form of a story. It was maybe four years ago when one customer got us out to install their new boiler. It was a Vaillant, and everything went smoothly. A year later, the customer called us back out to move a radiator.

So, we moved it from one side of the room to the other. Our bill was £250, which surprised him. However, we explained we were charging for our expertise, and were well-versed on lifting carpets, floorboards etc. He paid the bill, but he was grumpy.

A few months later, he came back to us, explaining his boiler was losing pressure. He’d called Vaillant out, who had checked over the boiler and found there was no inhibitor in the system. This voided his guarantee. We came over and checked everything – we were there for a good few hours and couldn’t find the problem.

It was only when one of us went down to use the loo that we discovered the problem. He’d had an entirely new bathroom fitted, with a new chrome towel rail!

You know how you get chrome pipes that you can’t solder? The fittings had been tightened with a spanner, and then the valves tightened up above in the opposite way – loosening the ones under the floor and causing a leak. Yet this hadn’t been spotted and the floor had been tiled up.

A small leak like this can cause the pressure to go down over a week or even a month. So, you may not even notice right away. This can be a very costly mistake!

Advice from an experienced engineer

It may be incredibly exciting to get a new bathroom, and you want to be able to use it right away. I totally understand. But, always triple-check that there are no problems before laying the flooring on your new bathroom.

Got an issue with boiler pressure? My advice is to always be honest and upfront with your engineer. If your boiler is losing pressure, tell them what’s changed recently.

I had another job a little while ago where the cupboard under the stairs had changed into a WC. I was there for quite a while trying to figure out the problem, and it was only when I looked at the cupboard that I discovered it. I’d never have known to look there.

Being upfront and telling your engineer what’s been going on helps get to the problem much faster. It also wastes less time!

Conclusion

Well, there you have it. Getting a new bathroom with a chrome towel rail can seem like a great idea. However, not everyone’s aware of the trouble this can cause when you’re fitting the pipes. It could lead to a tiny leak that you don’t notice straight away, and once you’ve tiled up your floor, it’ll be too late!

Never jump straight in with the tiling or flooring. Always triple check there are no problems before you do. Otherwise, it could be very upsetting to get your lovely new floor lifted just to fix a leak and stop your boiler pressure going down!

Not to mention, always tell your engineers what you’ve been up to.

Got any questions about your boiler pressure going down? Let me know in the comments. I’m happy to help!