jondeau

In that case it sounds like you have a leak somewhere..........best of luck.      

It sounds as though the system needs topping up. When cold it should be about 1 bar........rising to about two bar when hot. Somewhere near the boiler there should be a mains water supply, from which you should top up the system when it is cold to one bar.

[quote user="allanb"][quote user="jondeau"]I know a chap and his wife who have lived in Charente Maritime for more than 14 years........never registered themselves or anything else including various cars as living in France.    Still living there now.[/quote]They must be in breach of several regulations, but leaving that aside, what do they do about health car [/quote]   Been away for a day or so.........my apologies. I know that this may well sound to to many like a total fiction.........but I can assure you it is not. I became involved with this family when I was living in France many years ago............I'm not going to go into all the details of this familys problems because this is not the place to do so, but I do feel a strong affinity to the younger members of this family who's meagre  inheritance provided the wherewithall to provide the French home  for their elderly penniless parents/step parents. The older (male) member of this family had a multiple heart by-pass operation in a french hospital  about three or four  or five years ago...........don't ask me how.......I don't know. I do know that they have lived, and availed themselves of french services for at least the last the 14 -18 years. Is it right ..  is it wrong........ What does it matter Surely we are all human.      

I know a chap and his wife who have lived in Charente Maritime for more than 14 years........never registered themselves or anything else including various cars as living in France. Still living there now. Why make life complicated.

[quote user="BIG MAC"] I watched one back syphon all over an antique persian carpet in a very twee residence in Hove.........I shouldn't have laghed but it was hilarious. 'Plumber' that was fitting a bathroom had ran pipework into the loft from the first floor ensuite then about 5 metres to a soil stack and bossed in about 6 feet above the level of the pan and on the other side of the house. We were running in heating and didn't take much to do with the antics of the bathroom and kitchen fitters but may have curled a few poos into said convenience when they weren't about. Dunno what they were doing but the screams of the guy with the discharge pipe in his hand, the macerator halfway across the room and a hose shooting poo into the bedroom..well...happy days. I wouldn't have one unless I had to and I would make sure that the discharge point was below the bowl if I could. [/quote]   Fantasy...........sheer fantasy.      

I have to wholeheartedly agree with the above sentiments. When I lived in France......I, like my neighbours, just got on with things.... Reading this forum, I am amazed at the desire of expats to obey 'the regulations'......... .........any regulations, please find me some.      

I know this will have everybody up in arms.......... but I used caustic soda on our heavily lime scaled toilet......came up like new and despite everything you've heard, had no affect whatsoever on the septic tank.

What a fantastic machine! I think they may have cracked the manoeuvrability problem.......the rear wheels appear to be steerable.        

Perhaps she felt he didn't come up to scratch........    

Perhaps she felt he didn't come up to scratch........      

Well yes, it would.......assuming of course you had a mains pressure of 3 bar or above. In the area I live in (South Devon) it's a good day if the mains pressure reaches 1.6 bar, I have no reason to believe the situation is any different in France. On top of that of course, many houses have pressure reducing valves fitted. As you know, the only way a system pressure can rise when it is cold is by the introduction of more water to it, given the French penchant for fitting a single stop valve between the heating system and the mains then the most logical thing is to check that before moving on to other components and spending money unnecessarily. Not of course that this is a big problem generally, I was thinking back today....and can only recall two occasions of having to change an expansion vessel in fifty years......     Meanwhile........the joys of the plumbing /heating business.....I went to a friends holiday cottage yesterday, it had been empty for a few weeks, the place was freezing and he had a burst pipe, just before the tap connector at the back of the bowl on a kitchen sink. There was an inch or so of water and grunge all over the kitchen floor for a plumber to lie in as he tried to get at the pipework....... I turned off the mains and organised somebody to come and repair it.......Ah the joys of being retired from the plumbing/heating business.

Thanks juswunderin, it is nice to get a bit of feedback........... Cheers, jd.

Unfortunately you authorised somebody to carry out a repair without enquiring as to the cost........ I have every sympathy with you.....nontheless, you are now stuck with the bill. It does seem very steep to me (as somebody who has worked in this field all his life) and I would not ever have charged that amount for such a job, but is it unreasonable? Only the courts could decide...........

[quote user="Le Plombier"]   If it was a defective fill valve on the cold water supply side then the pressure would keep on rising regardless of the system being hot or cold until it reached mains water pressure or the safety valve discharged( 3bar) On the point raised by Jondeau it is law here in France that twin isolating valves are fitted on the make up supply, in between the two valves a air break valve must also be fitted to prevent contamination back in to the water main [/quote]     I do believe LP, that the poster did say that the pressure kept rising when the system was cold...... Quote.  'cold, it's gradually increased from the usual 1.0 until it's current 1.3ish Therefore I'll stick with my original diagnosis first.     It may well be the law in France LP.......and I will admit that I have only ever seen older systems.......but believe me it is rarely (if ever) adhered to on those. regards JD  

The answer to your questions is...........No and No......as to the third, it's not a difficult job. It sounds most likely that the stopcock that supplies water to top up the heating system is faulty......it may just need a new tap washer in it. Unfortunately many French heating systems only have one isolating valve between the heating system and the mains (in the UK it is always two valves) and this means that you would have to drain the heating system as well as shut off the mains to change the tap washer.  

[quote user="LesFlamands"][quote user="jondeau"] Charles........I should stick to discussing something you actually know about in future. [/quote] Thanks for your advice, I am actually a qualified engineer and have been a registered, insured plumber in France for the past 17 years - how about you? [/quote]   I am an apprentice trained gas fitter (North Eastern Gas) and recently retired after spending almost 45 years designing and installing heating/gas/and plumbing systems in the UK and several European countries.

I was refering to making the joints correctly.........the solder is irrelevent. Soft leaded solder for gas and heating systems, soft lead free solder for potable water supplies.......          

Errr.........JR, I did say correctly soldered joints........   Charles........I should stick to discussing something you actually know about in future.    

[quote user="Mutiara"] Well if my house was vacant and the mains stopcock was off, then with a mains pressured French system the most water I would have to deal with would be a few litres in the event of a burst pipe. With a loft based water storage tank, if there is a burst in one of the pipes coming out the tank then you are going to get 250litres plus (or more) of water damage - enough to bring down ceilings and do a lot more damage. I would also mention that if an English system is installed it is likely that Uk sourced copper pipe, and soft soldering has been used,- two combinatons that give a muc weaker joint in the event of a freeze.   [/quote] Mutiara old chap I really must take issue with you on this........... In my experience most (if not all) burst pipes occur in the middle of the pipe not on the joints......a correctly soldered joint is is probably stronger than the pipe itself........soft solder is a relative term, in a correctly soldered joint the (soft) solder actually penetrates the atomic structure of the copper and totally welds  the two surfaces together Soft solder is nowadays used widely in France. The French have lagged behind the rest of the world as far as plumbing goes for a great many years and many an old French plumber will drag out his old oxy-propane torch and make a great show of spending all morning  brazing a single joint whilst his his UK counterpart will have have installed a bathroom suite and kitchen sink and gone off for lunch.        

Sid, I was being a bit flippant there........ The rest of the question isn't though.  

I must admit I never had read Opel Fruits posting..........(it looked a bit tooooo long) But I wholeheartedly agree with his opinion on mixing valves. Total waste of time, so yes disconnect the mixing valve. All you need is to do is re-wire the pump, and room stat if you have one, and that will solve the problem. Do remember, that the control box controls all the boiler safety controls so do leave the rest of it as it is..            

I wonder...........are UK type systems not allowed in France ? True, simple pressurised systems are widely used in France  but I assumed that (as in the UK these days)  they are widely used because they are cheap and technically very simple to instal.......   Consider for a moment a medium sized tourist hotel........200 beds....... and of course......200 bathrooms! Do they run a 500mm water main to the building ? you'd need some pretty gigantic water mains in tourist towns ......or do they store water?  

When the cry of the frog pierces the fog on a freezing cold winters night, Then you can be sure that next summers weather will be nice and sunny and bright William Shakespeare (sonnets)          

[quote user="Cathy"]  and the laboratoire is between 100 and 200 euros,   [/quote]   Good grief........thats gone up a bit then, a few years back I had a blood test in the lab in Surgeres and it only cost 50 Francs......      

You could change the control box to another make.........but you would have to be very certain that you had the right type, I am not familiar with this boiler but generally speaking the control box controls all the safety controls on the boiler as well as the selection of functions. I assume that the boiler works ok when it is heating water ? If so then the simplest and cheapest solution is to disconnect the heating pump from the control box and fit a seperate time switch to run the pump/heating system. This may require some re-jigging of the other controls/wireing but this is a very simple method that I'm sure your heating engineer can manage quite easily.....