You flick on the news and there it is, “Beast from the east” “temperatures to plunge across the UK” so you crank up the central heating in preparation knowing in the coming days you’re going to need it more than ever. Just when you’re sitting there all cosy and warm all of a sudden……disaster strikes, the boilers BROKE!
WHY US, WHY NOW!
….I here you ask, well there’s a good chance that you’ve been hit with the curse of the frozen condensate pipe! If you have a modern style boiler that’s been installed in the last 10 years or so there’s a very good chance that its a condensing boiler.
What this means is that congratulations you have an efficient, economical, hard working boiler…so why is it broke!? These appliances are so efficient that as a by product of burning gas they produce condensation, this condensation has to be drained away safely and correctly which boiler manufacturers will advise how to do this when the boiler is installed.
Ideally it will terminate inside the property to a drain meaning its protected from outside conditions but every now and then it has to be run externally and this is where issues can occur. We get a few days of minus temperatures and the condensate travelling down the pipe freezes causing the condensation to back up into the boiler thus causing the boiler to lockout and stop working.
ENOUGH OF THE BORING STUFF HELP ME GET IT BACK ON!
Ok ok, I hear ya. So if you think this has happened to you then there’s a couple of things you can try to sort the problem yourself before calling an engineer.
Firstly check the boiler and make a note of any fault codes lets make sure that its locked out due to an ignition fault which is usually what will happen when the condensate pipe has frozen
Attempt to warm the condensate pipe to melt the ice inside it, now this bit is important ONLY DO THIS IF YOU FEEL IT IS SAFE TO DO SO. I’ve attached a video below that outlines what to do in this scenario as I feel showing it to you visually is better.
If you’ve followed the steps above then hopefully you’re back up and running, then its just a case of monitoring it while the bad weather is here and until it passes. Best of luck and as always if you feel like you need some help get in touch with us today.
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