Had this at work today, went in and it was freezing and the residents complaining.
The blockage in the 32mm pipe was where it joined the drain and was fairly solid, I chiselled it away the ran a few kettles of hot water over the whole length of exposed pipe.
Ordered some lagging so hopefully it survives until Monday.
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For Worcester Bosch boiler owners, an option is the CondenseSure.
Condensate pipes freeze as the water dribbles from the boiler. This device holds an amount of condensate water in a small tank warmed by the CH feed pipe then dumps the lot in one go using a syphonic action. So far, never had a problem with an outside condensate pipe using this.
Last edited by J J Carter; 18th December 2022 at 15:53.
My Vaillant boiler has an internal siphon trap and and only discharges when full. Makes sense and assumed they were all like this TBH.Originally Posted by J J Carter
Last edited by Kingstepper; 17th December 2022 at 17:09.
Mine froze again last night so after clearing it again, I have now wrapped some foil insulation around the pipe as had some left over from insulating the garage doors earlier in the year.
Took a lot longer to defrost the ice blockage this time round!
That condense sure is a smart answer. Clips on to the flow pipe too so stays warm
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My boiler is working again today, with the slightly warmer weather. I am going to get it serviced and ask about the condense sure. I am not sure if there is room to fit under my boiler, as there is not much space.
Think my boiler (an Alpha) is about 9yrs old - and the drain from the heat-exchanger has a kind of weir which overflows to a 10mm drain stub.
The idea is that you connect the overflow with a small hose into a bucket in the room - so that the bucket only fills up if the normal drain is frozen. If the boiler is in a kitchen/utility room - easy enough to route that small-bore secondary drain to somewhere handy.
Well. Seems our boiler may be fooked.
Turned on the washing machine this morning. Then tuned on the heating. (Which came on through the night as the temp dropped so much in the house). Went upstairs came back down to find Niagara falls coming from all over the boiler.
Basically I have the washing machine waste and the condense pipe running into a 40mm pipe inside. Then the 40mm waste pipe goes outside a few metres to the soil pipe.
Washing machine has not been used since last week. So what's happened is that 40mm pipe has froze. The waste from the washing machine had no where to go and got pushed up into the boiler straight into the heat exchange.
Brilliant.
This happens when wastes get combined, the slow boiler water freezes at the outside elbow or junction, happened at mine sometimes and the overflow comes out the tundish for the cylinder, Tuesday im putting in the bucket bypass to make it bullet proof.
Boiler should be ok if PCB didnt get soaked.
So - the water has entered the flue/furnace area of the boiler. The electrics and electronics will probably had a soaking, but the boiler might not be a write-off.
That said - at this time of year, the ability to spend time on it might not be available.
I know a heating engineer who is coming out today. Straight away I had the hair dryer on the electrics straight after it happened but it didn't look that much if any water got into them.
From what I understand is there are some electrics inside the heat exchange so will have a look when he takes it apart today.
Fingers crossed for you, very poor timing for such a mishap.
My mate the heating engineer came out this afternoon. He took out the burner, fan etc. We took it to the sink to drain quite a bit of water out. Dried it some more with the hair dryer. Put back. Kept trying to fire but just wouldn't and was vibrating quite a bit. Took all back out again but also this time took the gas valve out. Another bit of water came out of that. Heated it with the hair dryer then more water came out. This went on quite a few times then put back in.
Tried it a few times still wouldn't fire then all of a sudden it fired. Heating came on. He packed up and went. Literally 2 mins after he went it vibrated again and shut off. Rang him and he came back.
About another five times we took the gas valve off and every time a little more water would come out.
After all this it's finally fired up. I'm going to leave it on all night now to give it a good going. Probably will take that long to get up to temp in this house anyway. Been 10c all weekend in the living room.
Last edited by sprite1275; 18th December 2022 at 22:15.
Result!
Absolutely.
My heating engineer was saying anything below 17 and you are sucking heat from the house structure. Will take a while for you to get it all warmed through. Fingers crossed you have it resolved.
On a side note I looked at my gas usage this month, scary to see the price. Especially as we spent 10 of this month abroad and was only keeping the house and cat warm!
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On the first day of the cold snap, we also suffered a frozen condensate pipe. The old lagging also fell apart with warm water poured on it... so I re-lagged it, thinking that we are renovating the kitchen and utility in the new year so will consider a better alternative for permanency...
It froze again the second night.
I tried to find a better "temp" solution. After a chat in the local plumbing merchant, I cut up one of those windscreen frost shield things i found in the garage, used a bit of tin foil underneath, on the jonts and bends and then re lagged over the top with some of B&Qs stuff. Not elegant but it has worked for the rest of the cold (so far).
P.S. there's a reason behind all the cable ties, it's designed to antagonise a mate with OCD.
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Last edited by Paddy!; 19th December 2022 at 09:08.
This. We had the plumber out (not from British Gas Homeserve* that the mrs signed us up to years ago, as they said they'd be along on the 30th of December- our call was ~9th Dec). Turns out we have the same period piping OP has, the new regs are a wider diameter. Even with lagging ours was made worse as not a vertical drop into the waste pipe so would freeze almost straight away once clear due to slow flow- he had to saw it off in the end, a little bodge to keep us going until comes back to put the pipe of right diameter and right place for permanent solution.
*Been trying to convince the Mrs to drop Homeserve, finally think she's got it!
This is why I'm clinging on to my state of the art non-condensing for as long as I can. I've never been sure the economics stack up.
A handful of people on here have a problem perhaps once in 5 years, sure most of our condensing boilers are fine.
Correct, the vast majority are fine. The vast majority aren’t sized and lagged correctly either.
These issues really only come to light with the extreme weather and for the minority.
That said, if they are run and lagged correctly in the first place it would definitely stop the majority freezing.
Thank you.
It's the boiler we move in to over 13 years ago, first time problem and I'd imagine has saved us more than the £70 for the call out over that period compared the "backboiler" from the dark ages it replaced. If you have a new one put in you already know what to do to avoid the main cause. I understand not wanting to rush out and replace it but if it goes then I wouldn't be worried about it. Out of interest what economics are you using?
Don't blame you. Our house before this one we had non condensing central heating, ten years, never had to touch it.
Our current house we've been in 22 years, my mother in law bought it in 1961 and had central heating put in in the seventies. Never a single problem for thirdy odd years until we had a condenser boiler fitted in the mid noughties for better "efficiency". We are now on the second £1500-2000 boiler, we had condensate pipe problems during the beast from the east (now sorted via a comprehensive and not very cheap re-route), and a bill every year for servicing. Must be well over 5k spent now and never as reliable.
Last edited by Ruggertech; 19th December 2022 at 15:59.
Usually when it's freezing cold and it's needed.
Any clue as to what he is actually saying/meaning? What is cooling the internal air to a lower temperature than the 'house structure' such that heat transfers from the house walls back into the room air?
That ought to do it! I’ve used similar foil stuff with duck tape - so doesn’t look as clean as yours, but in my defence I was doing it in the dark and cold! Will tidy it up shortly.On the first day of the cold snap, we also suffered a frozen condensate pipe. The old lagging also fell apart with warm water poured on it... so I re-lagged it, thinking that we are renovating the kitchen and utility in the new year so will consider a better alternative for permanency...
It froze again the second night.
I tried to find a better "temp" solution. After a chat in the local plumbing merchant, I cut up one of those windscreen frost shield things i found in the garage, used a bit of tin foil underneath, on the jonts and bends and then re lagged over the top with some of B&Qs stuff. Not elegant but it has worked for the rest of the cold (so far).
P.S. there's a reason behind all the cable ties, it's designed to antagonise a mate with OCD.
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Of course but I’m happy to take a chance.
Amazed that some folk sleep at night TBH.
I would be too, but when you have an 88 year old relative with associated health problems living in your house these things can take on a little bit more importance.
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