Drips coming from Boiler!!

[foodluva]

Our condensing combi boiler has been dripping water for the best part of a week. British Gas attended and said that the pipe that carries the condensed water (which is on our outside wall) was freezing up which was causing back flow of the condensed water hence it coming out via the bolier itself. He advised that we lag the pipe asap although he admitted that it may not help due to the extreme weather conditions (apparently he had been attending to similar problems all morning even for people who's pipes are lagged.) Anyway, my problem is that I am due to go away on holiday next saturday and am concerned that the problem will still be there. Obviously this would mean me having to ask someone to come into my house 2/3 times a day to empty the container underneath the boiler. This is not really practical because of the distance we would be asking others to travel (asking my neighbours is not an option).

We are going to lag the pipe tomorrow but we were wondering if pouring boiling water down the pipe would help or make matters worse? ANY advice would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks x

[madmaggot]

Probably not as boiled water freezes more quickly.
Is there any way you could put a container below the boiler to catch the water and ask a neighbour to empty it regularly?

[foodluva]

As my post stated, there is already the biggest container I can fit under the boiler and asking my neighbour is not an option.

[jackthehat]

I'm not being facetious, but could you increase the size of the container underneath the boiler ? It may mean being inventive with empty fizzy-drink bottles, scissors and sticky-tape etc., but then your neighbour may only have to come in once a day..............

[jackthehat]

Sorry for the cross-posting........
Approximately, how much water are you losing ?
Could you not rig up a funnel, a length of hose and a large bucket to cope with the 'drippage' whilst you are away ?

[boxtops]

I had dripping indoors from my condensing boiler when it was first installed, and it was similar to this, it was diagnosed that the pipe to the outside wall was slightly at the wrong angle, so they came back and retilted the pipe downwards outside- so now any liquid runs outside. I've not had any problem with freezing this year although the outlet is on a north wall, so the problem's not the same as yours, but I thought this might be worth considering for looking at once the thaw sets in.

[foodluva]

Thanks for everyone's replies. I only have one neighbour who is elderly and to be honest there is a burglar alarm to negotiate and I think it would be unfair to ask her when she'd need to risk slipping on ice and working an alarm!!! Jackthehat, your idea re-the funnel is a good one so this could definitely be an option for us! Thank you!! Box Tops I will certainly say to the other half about the angle. However, it's quite a deeply sloping pipe so I doubt that is the problem! But you never know......

[society]

jackthehat, i use that rigged-up-hose solution for the ac, and it works perfect.

[Hymie]

Surely the solution to your problem is to switch the boiler off while you are on holiday – no water will condense (problem solved). However, should the frost thermostat kick-in and switch the boiler on, the problem will re-occur, but at a much reduced rate such that your container should be able to cope.

[foodluva]

Hymie, I'm scared that switching the boiler off will freeze my pipes. I live in Scotland and the temperatures have been really low here. Does the frost thermostat guarantee my pipes will not freeze or will that be another thing that should work but doesn't because of the low temps?

[jackthehat]

The last thing you want whilst you are away is to be fretting about your pipes freezing........set your boiler as low as you can, but making sure there is a regular 'cycle' to prevent water sitting in any one position for too long (I wish I knew quite how long it takes water to freeze in central heating copper tubing !)......get your funnel and bucket prepared, set your burglar alarm and then go away.............and relax ! :o)

[Hymie]

There is no reason to believe that your frost thermostat should fail, any more than any other component in your boiler. Providing you have electrical power & gas supplied to the boiler, should the frost thermostat fall below around 4ºC, then the boiler will switch on, warming the system.

If you don’t want to trust the frost thermostat – then as others have said, set the central heating to as low a temperature as possible, and make the container catching the drips as large as possible.

[gucciman]

worcester-bosch were the first boiler maker to flag this problem up, if you go to their website they offer advice on solving the problem.

basically you could use a larger diameter condensate pipe and keep the length of the pipe as short as possible,and also lag it but you really need water-proof lagging which is proving difficult to source.

my own idea although ive not tried it yet is to put a larger diameter plastic pipe over the top of the condensate pipe and try to seal the ends so the air gap in between insulates the condensate.

[foodluva]

Thank you everyone for your replies. Today we removed the pipe and defrosted it. It has also now been lagged so we will see how this goes!