Central heating pressure gauge

BUDFORCE

BUDFORCE

BUDFORCE

Soldato
Joined
3 May 2012
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Hi guys, firstly I know nothing about plumbing or central heating really.

It's an oil fired closed loop system. There are two pressure gauges, one in the garage near the boiler which is fine.

The other upstairs in the cupboard near the hot water tank which is faulty - confirmed by a heating engineer years ago and was told not to bother replacing it and just to read off the other.

However it has now started slowly leeking so want to replace it.

If I de-pressurise the system (as a pose to completely draining it) reckon it'll be an easy unscrew/screw on new one?

Things that can go wrong?

Call in an expert?
 
Even when your central heating is de-pressurised you'll find it still has a way of pouring out :)

When it comes to draining you only need to drain until the point that there's no water above where you're removing.

Gauging that can be hard however so you're best draining more than you think. Loosening the fitting to see if anything comes out with the intention of being able to do it back up quickly to stem the flow while you drain some more will be enough.

Of course, simply putting a bucket under it also works fine IF you have the room! :)

I'd replaced a couple of radiators myself. In the first instance it's scary, but experience has taught me that even the worse leak in the world is repairable. Even if it means replacing an entire ceiling.

Having the right tools is a must though, a pair of good snappers and a good set of grips.

If it's old pipe you might have to get special compression olives for old 3/4 inch pipe (slightly different from newer 22mm). Get some PTFE tape and know how to use it.


Problems you might find are then when you remove the old gauge:
1) You can't reuse the existing nut that's stuck on the pipe because the connection itself or threads don't match the new one
2) This in turn means you might have to cut the pipes
3) Cutting the pipe might not leave you enough pipe to connect up the new gauge.
4) This might mean you either need to cut the pipe short to make it easy to fit in a new bit of pipe to make the length correct OR take it back to one of the existing joins and replace that.

Be prepared to deal with leaks after the fact, but without any mistakes how can you learn! :D
 
Ok thanks, it's a bottom fed screw in gauge, I will look to see if it has a part number and try and buy a like for like replacement, in theory avoiding any pipe work.

I think you are right about getting a decent set of grips.
 
BUDFORCE said:
Ok thanks, it's a bottom fed screw in gauge, I will look to see if it has a part number and try and buy a like for like replacement, in theory avoiding any pipe work.

I think you are right about getting a decent set of grips.
Click to expand...

Aye, so, last problem you might face is that it's the connections you can't remove without cutting the pipe that are the source of the leak, and thus you need to do pipe work... good luck though! :D
 
If your just replacing like for like you'll need some PTFE tape most likely. We use loctite 55 when we have to replace gauge's. Buit more expensive but lasts ages
 
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