Frozen condensate pipe

[tootyfruitypickle]

Help! Obviously I'm on to the installers, but I'm really cross this has happened and want to know what they should be doing to fix and prevent this happening again.

Boiler is in the loft. It's not cold in there. Condensate pipe goes out from behind boiler (I can't access) and is frozen and boiler is not working. I have tried resetting.

It's not even that cold right now at 1 degree.

This can't happen every cold snap!

Presumably right now they can climb a ladder and defrost. But what about future cold spells?

I'm really cross stressed and cold. Boiler is new and so is all the pipe work.

Any ideas ?

Not sure but following because mine did the same the other night and is also newish

Happened to me recently. Is the pipe insulated?

It’s really really common. Your boiler will have a valve which you can use to drain the fluid into a bucket or similar. I don’t know how it works because my dad fixed mine when it did the same and then he installed a little tap which means that when it gets cold I can switch it over so all the condensation drains straight into a bucket I have underneath so I don’t have to run back and forth every time it drains.

It’s not a fault with the boiler though it’s just an occupational hazzard - outlet freezes....

Insulate the pipe.

Sweet had this problem and the plumber changed the outlet for a wider pipe. Hasn't happened since.

Get a hairdryer on an extension lead on whatever you can reach of the outgoing pipe and then in due course get condenser pipe lagged or moved to be less exposed.

Yes, lag the outside pipe with cheap pipe lagging. You can pay to have a heater element put into the pipe to keep it defrosted too.

Ok thanks that's made me calmer! I can't reach it so will get the installers out and also ask re lagging. Thanks !

Reckon if they charge me it's ok then

Happened to us a few years ago. The installer used too narrow a pipe which runs nearly horizontally outside so the condensate liquid lies in the pipe and eventually freezes which cuts off the boiler. Changed it to a wider pipe; froze again. Lagged the pipe; froze again. In the end moved the pipework more or less inside (boiler also in the loft). I wouldn't have a boiler in the loft again as it's a pain to access. If it was downstairs I could just pour hot water over the offending pipe.

In the winter here in coldest Yorkshire we had this problem. Our boiler room has the pipe running along an inside, outside wall and through the wall to outside. Sometimes it is so cold, for so long that even lots of lagging does not work. Boiler engineer advised that during continuous deep cold weather we disconnect the pipe where it goes through the wall and put the pipe to run into a large container, which we empty as necessary. When the weather gets better we fix the end of the pipe back on and through the wall. It works.

We had this but ours was easier to access and the plumber told us that we should regularly pour a kettle of boiling water over it in very cold weather. Can you get up near it at all with a ladder? I think you'll have to get it insulated if not.