If you have a feeling that your central heating system might not be as efficient as it once was, then this could be a sign that your boiler needs to be re-pressurised. Even though you could well call in a heating engineer to do this for you, it is not entirely necessary, and it is possible to do this by yourself at home. However, not all homeowners may know how to do this. The reality is, there are certain things that you can do at home by yourselves without calling in a heating engineer and having to spend hundreds on a call out, so we have outlined a step-by-step guide to how to re-pressurise your boiler at your home.
Check your boiler pressure
Firstly, you'll need to open the front panel of your boiler and check the pressure gauge. If the meter reads below 1 then you know you need to re-pressurise your boiler to get it back to the safe level of between 1 and 1.5. The pressure in your heating system could drop due to many reasons, but it is likely that there may be a small hole in your system pipes. This is not a problem and re-pressuring your boiler will surely bring the efficiency back to normal.
Look at the boiler from underneath you will see two silver taps with black knobs and end caps at each end. You will need to unscrew both of these end caps.
Connect filling loop
You now need to connect the filling loop between the two taps and screw on the wing nut leaving it a little loose. After you do this, screw the second wing nut until hand tight and go back to the first one and tighten it as much as possible.
Locate pressure gauge
Open the first black tap or the one of the left fully. On the front of your boiler, you will need to pull down the front panel and locate the pressure gauge which is the round clock with ‘bar’ written on the front. You will need to slowly open the second tap and you will hear the sound of water running and the pressure gauge in the panel should begin to rise.
Close tap when the pressure reaches 1 bar
When you reach the 1 bar of pressure you will need to fully close the second tap and then fully close the second tap. Please note that if your boiler pressure is between 1 to 1.5 bar then all is fine. If you see a pressure in excess of 2.5 bar then you will need to contact one of our local heating engineers for an emergency visit by calling 020 8997 0614.
