Are those fire boards inside combustion chamber? Is that a hole in pictures 2 and 3? It looks damp on refractory base. If the expansion vessel has lost its charge then you will slowly lose pressure out of PRV when heating at a constant drip. Like I said to check vessel charge it needs to be done when system is drained to get an accurate reading and of course a leak wont help. Every sealed boiler needs a low pressure switch installed and if there isn't one I don't know why
Not sure if it's a fire board or some sort of steel bar, but it looks to be part of the unit.
No, I think it must be a particular hot point that is showing a burn mark that looks like a hole. From eyeballing it, I don't believe it's a hole.
Ok, so maybe we're getting somewhere. I let the remaining air out of the expansion vessel with the heating switched off. The pressure gauge directly connected to the vessel read 0. I pumped the vessel up to 1.5 bar this time as per the spec, so both the reading on the pump gauge and the vessel gauge read 1.5 bar. I set a tray under the pressure relief discharge pipe (which goes directly to the floor under the vessel), then turned on the heating system and watched the gauge. I could hear this creaking sound, like a spring. Then low and behold, drips of water on to the tray from the pressure relief discharge pipe. I never noticed any water here before. I was expecting it to gush out for some reason. Does this mean the vessel is faulty? I'm starting to think I might have caused this. About a week after the boiler was installed, I bled all the rads. I made a bit of a balls of it to be honest. Once I bled them, I topped up the system using the filling loop. I never thought anything of it. I bled the rads a second time and made a much better job of it (in terms of heat from the rads). So maybe I did something incorrectly?
One thing I'm struggling to get my head around is the correlation between water and air in the system. When I use the filling loop, I am putting more water in the system I believe, so if there's no leak, where does it all go? When I pump up the vessel with a pump, the gauge moves up as expected, but I didn't add any more water to the system. This is what is confusing me the most. Thanks for all your help so far and I'm sorry for the noob questions!
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Your boiler expansion vessel should have air in it. Could be faulty - air valve leaking air or diaphragm inside it ruptured. Needs vessel air charge redone to test.
There is something blocking your burner inside the boiler and it should not be used without an oil engineer sorting it all. Burner could destroy itself as well as burn badly and sooting boiler.
Thanks
@Best I've just posted an update, suspecting there might be an issue with the vessel. Are you saying that the burner is being blocked by looking at the pictures or is this just a possibility? I believe you are local to me so if you want a bit of work if I can't get this fixed I would really appreciate it. Thanks!
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As Best has said and what I was getting at above. They look like fire boards inside the chamber, these will restrict burner operation, resulting in poor performance and more. The only reason I can think of them being there is to mask a problem. If the vessel diaphragm is ruptured it will fill with water, leaving no room for expansion, the pressure will easily rise to 3 bar and the PRV will discharge, if the valve on top is faulty as well then the same will happen
I'm going to call the manufacturer and find out what this bar thing is. I will let you know the outcome.
My pressure gauge did not move upwards at all. It stayed at 1.5 bar, then I heard the spring of the pressure relief discharge pipe and then noticed a few drops of water. I can see the pressure has dropped slightly in the past hour, so the issue is still there. Thanks.
