Using sealant to fix a leak in a gas central heating system.

Dinarius

We have a leak in our central heating system.

There is staining on the kitchen ceiling suggesting the problem is the pipework into the bathroom radiator. (There is no staining on the floor around the radiator, suggesting it's the pipework under the floor.)

We appear to have three options:

1. Try putting sealant into the system to see if that solves the problem.

2. Take up bathroom tiles and floor boards around the radiator.

3. Access the pipework via the kitchen ceiling. 

When the system is pressurized, it loses pressure in a couple of hours. Is this too quick to make using sealant worthwhile.

Also, to go the sealant route, I was quoted €680. Seems excessive.

Any feedback appreciated.

Thanks.

D.

The Continental Op

This is a deliberately cheap example but

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sentinel-Leak-Sealer-1-Ltr/dp/B00SWTQKDW/

+

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Central-Heating-Dosing-Radiator-Funnel/dp/B0BR894VMW

plus some common sense and a couple of spanners and you've saved yourself €600

Maybe worth a try but honestly I think your grasping at straws. Get it done right, find and fix the leak.

JamBur

We had a similar issue years ago. I used some leak sealer (Repa-R 2000, bit more expensive, but had excellent reviews)

Initially it was good, but it turned out to be a plaster on a knife wound. The sealant gave us a few years, but then suddenly failed. It turned out to be a leak under our tiled kitchen floor. Various investigations, and 3 small digs couldn't pinpoint it. We ended up repiping our downstairs central heating.

TLDR: It works, but maybe not permanently. Results may vary

JamBur

Just read that its upstairs. Thats easy to find so, Lift a floorboard and check. If its tiled, maybe a board on your landing outside the bathroom. Worst case, cut a square in your ceiling plasterboard to check from underneath.

Lenar3556

I have had good success with the Plumb7 sealer from TEC7. A loss of pressure in two hours points to a considerable leak though and this may be beyond its capacity. €680 to add it is too expensive. The product is about €30 and shouldn’t take any more than a couple of hours at most.

No sealer will be as good as repairing a leak properly. In this case opening and reinstating the ceiling will be much easier than attacking the floor.

I would skip the sealer and go for a proper repair.

Calahonda52

Ceiling access for this one, fix it and then review the pressure loss as I think you have more than one

Tippbhoy1

I wouldn’t touch the sealer(that price seems mad though so maybe that’s a different offering)

Remember where the stain shows up may not be where the leak is. Id lift a few floorboards in the vicinity assuming you’ve carpet and see how you get on. If still no success, and assuming you want to keep the tile floor, I’d cut into the ceiling. Relatively easy to fix up then after, assuming you are lucky enough to get the spot where the leak is.