Topic: Did your central heating break down in the big freeze? Here's why...

[Clive]

LINK

[Simon]

So says the Daily Mail.   Mine was fine. 

[Clive]

Mine too but I know many who suffered problems with that pipe freezing up. 

[Simon]

The manufacturers must have been taken in by this global warming tripe, and not expected them to have to work in temperatures this low. 

[Rik]

Actually, for once it's a well-written piece. I've been told by independents and E.ON that I should hang on to my old boiler as long as it's working. It's reliable, has an 80% efficiency and had already outlasted about 5 condensing boilers. The cost of manufacture and service for the new boilers offsets the carbon saving, and the cost of installation and servicing offsets the fuel savings.

[Clive]

They should be lagged but it seems most people don't bother to do so.  The lagging can be purchased in any hardware store such as Homebase or B&Q, costs very little and is very easy to fit providing the pipe is accessible.  It's a very good investment even if you have boiler breakdown insurance because they won't fix it for you if it freezes up!  

[Rik]

A larger pipe also helps, Clive, or best of all, put it into an internal drain.

[GillE]

Our condensate pipe froze and the condensation ended up dripping from the boiler.  We never knew that pipe needed to be lagged - it's something we shall attend to.

[Rik]

You can also get special collecting tanks, which pump out when full, Gill. The problem with the condensate is that it drips out, and that can freeze far more easily than a steady flow.

[Baz]

did you read some of the posts on that site, a good tip in one of them was if the pipe freezes up to just undo it  from the bottom of the boiler and place a bowl or similar underneath to catch the water, big thaw comes and put the pipe back on.I think it was a plumber who posted that.

[Rik]

And it works...

[Den]

My Son in Law rang up over the holiday asking for advice, a friend who's wife was 9 months pregnant called the heating firm who installed his boiler to come out as it had cut out. They said they were only going out to bursts and not to heating that had failed. I advised him to cut the pipe and let it drip into a bucket (check the bucket on a regular time scale). He phoned me back the next day saying that the wife in question had given birth to a baby girl and that they were very warm and happy thanks to the advice I had given.   

[Simon]

Great news, Den!  Did you charge them a consultation fee?   

[Clive]

Well done Den.  It only goes to show how worthless the boiler insurance is!