Keep ya boiler on overnight!

Had a problem with out boiler last night, decided to turn it off over night, and after turning on in the morning, we had a leak. Turns out the condensation outlet pipe was blocked (iced) up. Had to do a little magic on the pipes with hot air and hot water to get it working again.

Apparently, a lot of plumbers are advising not to turn off your boiler off over night. Makes sense! You don't want pipes freezing up and your boiler breaks down, just when you need it most!

Lag the pipe with some pipe foam and make sure the tube can drain easily... that solved our problems.

In praise of the British Gas fitter who fitted ours some years ago ,he explained this potential problem to me when he fitted a pre insulated pipe and said it must be fitted sloping down from the boiler so that water did not get trapped.

Had a problem with out boiler last night, decided to turn it off over night, and after turning on in the morning, we had a leak. Turns out the condensation outlet pipe was blocked (iced) up. Had to do a little magic on the pipes with hot air and hot water to get it working again.

 

Apparently, a lot of plumbers are advising not to turn off your boiler off over night. Makes sense! You don't want pipes freezing up and your boiler breaks down, just when you need it most!

Just heard on the news that loads of folks are complaining about this same problem with condenser boilers that are now not working. Ours is an old style boiler and we never switch it off at night, just have the thermostat on a timer. Also has a frost stat so that it automatically over-rides thermostat and switches on when down to a certain temperature - which it has done last few nights. Obviously going to cost us but been very acceptable.

Mine is not a combi boiler but is a condensing boiler. Had a few issues especially back in 2010 with it locking out, apparently the water had frozen in the pipe going to the drain. The engineer said the 40mm pipe was that large so that it shouldn't freeze, since then I boxed the pipe in for the top 4 foot as it was right at the top where it froze.

Mine is a condenser combi but the outlet pipe is internally plumbed into the sink waste pipe so no chance of freezing up.

Mines been on constantly all week, still froze, never known it that bad before

I'm not sure that I follow the logic of leaving the boiler on to prevent freezing. If the boiler is off then there is no condensate being produced and therefore nothing to freeze, or am I missing some thing?

I'm not sure that I follow the logic of leaving the boiler on to prevent freezing. If the boiler is off then there is no condensate being produced and therefore nothing to freeze, or am I missing some thing?

pipes under floor boards will get cold and freeze up, suppose having it on very low will stop this, i guess he isnt just talking about the condensate pipe

Well looks like I tempted fate there, boiler was making funny noises so been out took the boxing off and pulled the bottom pipe off and could hear the ice going down the bottom pipe. Poured hot water over the pipe tapped it and the water came out the pipe and poured some hot water down the bottom pipe now the boiler is back to normal.

pipes under floor boards will get cold and freeze up, suppose having it on very low will stop this, i guess he isnt just talking about the condensate pipe

Yep, I'm totally not a plumber, but if boiler is off, nothing should be coming out of the condensation outlet pipe; so that's not an issue. I'm thinking it's other parts of your heating system that could freeze up, that's the concern.

Had a ideal, pro combi boiler fitted by a great company, Hallamshire Energy 5 years ago and yesterday, error code L2 kept showing, turns out it's the condensate pipe, that goes from the bottom of the boiler, to the outside drain. It was frozen, one quick call to Hallamshire and all up n running again. Hot water on pipe and emptied pipe.

The frozen pipe is a v common problem in freezing weather. Am going to lag mine and box it in