One of the rather spooky Google Calendar Reminders I’ve received recently has been to tell me to get the boiler serviced. It’s oil-fired, and it’s good practice to get it serviced every year before the weather turns and I start to need my central heating. So I arranged to work from home this afternoon, and my usual chap turned up on time to disassemble the boiler, give it a thorough clean, and check that everything was working.
I knew that I had a problem with the pressurised hot water system, as the overflow pipe has been dripping gently outside the kitchen window whenever I’ve had the boiler on. When I had a plumber around recently to sort out the leaking pipe to the dishwasher, I asked him about it, and he said it sounded as though the pressure release valve was leaking and needed replacing when I had the boiler serviced. I thought the problem was minor, and left it until the routine service.
When the service engineer turned up today, I told him about it and asked him to take a look. He went up into the loft, and informed me that not only was the valve leaking into the overflow pipe, as designed, but it was also dripping onto an electrical junction box, and there was quite an extensive damp patch in my loft. And in fact, when I looked up I noticed suspicious stain on the hall ceiling where the damp has leaked through. I don’t think that’s been there for long, as I think I would have noticed it. So I suspect that the valve has been slowly getting worse.
Inevitably, he didn’t have the correct spare part with him, so there is now a tupperware box up in the loft to catch the drip and protect my electrics. I now have to wait for him to order a new part and find a time that suits us both to come back and fit it. And in the mean time I’m going to have to make regular trips up into the loft to empty the box. I just hope I don’t come across any mice when I’m up there…….
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Poor you – if it isn’t one thing it’s another! Would a bucket, or a washing up bowl, be better than a tupperware box, if there’s room for it? You wouldn’t have to go up there so often and risk the mice! Love what you’ve had done to the garden – brilliant. Keep on as you’re doing – you’re managing better than you think. Well done – Christopher would be proud of you. We’re going to spend Christmas with Peter (Hart) this year, and stay on for his 70th – looking forward to it. We think of you often, and I read your blog regularly, with interest.
Hello Julia. I tried a bucket, but it wouldn’t fit – too many pipes and cables in the way. I braved the loft this evening and replaced the (nearly full) tupperware box with the salad drawer from the fridge, which has much more capacity and should keep the drip contained until the replacement valve can be fitted – hopefully Friday…..