new prv still leaking

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burgrzNfries

New Member
Feb 25, 2016
1
nh
Okay. This is my second winter in this house and this problem just started about four weeks ago. My pressure relief valve is leaking water out of the extension pipe. I replaced the expansion tank and installed a new prv. I am still having the same problem. Sometimes the water drips, sometimes a trickle sometimes nothing. I did not have this problem last winter. Pressure in my Burnham furnace is 30 and temp is 180 but sometimes when it is firing,pressuret goes up to 40. That is when it leaks the hardest. I am wasting about a gallon of water an hour.

Could pressure be to high in system? If so, why did I not have this problem last year?
How do I reduce the pressure?
 
Is there an automatic water supply valve you can adjust? I'm no expert, but I think you could easily drop it by 10.
 
Pressure is definitely too high - if those numbers are accurate. The PRV is doing what it's supposed to be doing. You are likely beyond the pressure rating of the boiler & pushing your luck.

Did you check the precharge psi in the new tank before you hooked it up?

It sounds like your fill valve/pressure regulator have a problem. They can get cruddy inside, causing water to leak in when it shouldn't. You could valve that off & see what happens - assuming there is an isolation valve there.
 
If it helps, my 30 lb PRV will drip before it gets to 30 psi. I thought that was normal. Adjustments were made so the pressure rarely gets above 22.
I adjusted the pressure tank precharge. I let water out. I don't have a fill valve.

Like others have said, I think you have a fill valve problem. The fill valve always on is good for cooling down in an emergency, like a power outage overheat situation. But there other options that allow you to have no new water source.

Is that a 40 PSI PRV you have?
 
did you'd any piping or volume to the system? The PRV will only lift when the pressure increases.

pressure increases do to lack of expansion tank volume, or water is being added to the system.

Do you have an indirect tank, or tankless coil that could be leaking pressure into the boiler?
 
Is there any chance that you replaced a pressure relief valve with a pressure/temperature relief valve?
To this old serviceman a PRV is a Pressure Reducing Valve, not a pressure relief valve.
If you do not have enough expansion room, a relief valve can open as your system heats up. If it is a PT Relief valve it can open when the temperature goes above a certain point,( often about 190F)
 
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