Leaky boiler, about to go on holiday - help please

[BlessedKingfisher]

TL;DR boiler is leaky and we’re about to go on a 2 week holiday, plumber might not be able to help until January (when we’re away). Help please?

I’ve posted about our heating system before:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/property/4663866-help-me-understand-our-heating-system

To sum up: we moved in recently, we have a Glow-worm Flexicom system boiler with a HWC. We’re in a top floor flat.

The boiler was serviced shortly after moving in, the plumber/gas safe engineer guy said it looked like it was never serviced before that (in 10 years or so..). He quoted for the parts that needed changing and they’ve done the work since, all looked good.

Then last Friday we woke up to a small puddle under the boiler. It’s coming down the pipe on the attached picture, I think it’s the condensate pipe? It’s only dripping but it’s enough to soak the muslins placed underneath overnight. The dripping stops once the boiler fires up and runs for a little while, then stays dry for a few hours after. Pressure also keeps dropping, from 1.2 to 0.8 when not working since last Friday.
I called the plumber back straightaway and he came on Monday, he said a part needs changing but he didn’t have it in stock, he ordered it there and then but said he’s not sure he’d receive it before Christmas. Now they’ve been in touch to say the earliest they can do the repair is the 29th provided the part gets here.
Problem is, we are going away on holiday on the 29th for 2 weeks… and I don’t want to leave a leaky boiler here to soak the floors and cause a problem for the downstairs neighbours (and us!) while we’re gone.

So my question is: is there anything I can do to avoid this, and also avoid cancelling the holidays, without paying £300 to Glow-worm to send out their own engineers on Boxing Day? We’ll do that if we have to but if it’s just a screw that needs tightening, or boiler needs switching off etc then we’d rather do that…

@PigletJohn and @Droven as I’ve seen you around on another thread… if you can help that would be greatly appreciated!

I think it is the condensate pipe leaking. Turn off the boiler on its knob, and the switch on the wall.

The yellow valve you can just see is the gas valve. Turn this off as well

If the boiler is not burning, it will not produce condensate, so the leak should stop.

However

It is possible that there is some other fault causing a leak inside the boiler, which happens to be collecting and coming out there.

So look for the water valve under the boiler, similar to the gas valve but might be blue, and turn it off as well. Write what you have done on a large piece of paper and stick it to the front of the boiler. Check that the leak has stopped before you leave the house.

Condensate is acidic so protect any surfaces that you put absorbent material on.

Oooops....

Should have read more carefully

"The dripping stops once the boiler fires up and runs for a little while, then stays dry for a few hours after. Pressure also keeps dropping, from 1.2 to 0.8 when not working since last Friday."

So yes, you have got a leak. Turn off the water. Do not repressurise the boiler. It will carry on coming out until the pressure drops to zero.

The reason the drip seems to stop when the boiler is hot might be that the water is being boiled away by the burner.

What @PigletJohn said…

if you want to isolate the water carrying part of the boiler you need a 2.5mm Allen key in the brass valve in your picture. The one next to the condensate pipe.

There will be another valve identical to that on the other side of the boiler. Turn the Allen key so that the slot is perpendicular to the valve. It’s a 90 degree turn to close it and it’s only possible to move it one way. You won’t break it pushing the wrong way as these valves are very robust.

this will have the effect of limiting water leakage to the water already contained within the boiler rather than the entire heating system.

I think IKEA furniture comes with 2.5mm alllen keys so I’d bet you have about 50 tucked away somewhere.

Can you get an emergency plumber to come sooner? I thought you should leave heating on low when you are away - or are you going to drain the radiators and turn the water off?

Thank you all, that’s very helpful!

I think we’ll have to bite the bullet then and call out the engineer, it would probably take another week or longer to have the pressure drop to 0 and we can’t leave it dripping for more than half a day, it would just soak everything underneath. But it’s good to know we can isolate the water supply if this happens again.

@Salome61 I asked the plumber when he was here but he said as it’s a new build top floor flat we don’t have to worry about the pipes freezing as that’s more of a concern at ground level. Happy to reconsider though if others think it’s an issue.

The boiler will only house a certain amount of water. Use a large washing up bowl or even something like a big plastic container ( like for loft storage ) and if it doesn’t quite catch the leak fashion a Shute with plastic sheet or whatever into the container.

The problem is, the drip is coming down the side of the pipe as well, not just the bottom of the boiler… if it was the latter then that would make sense but I’m not sure what I can use to direct the drops on the pipe into a container? I can tie a muslin around it but that will get soaked 😐unless there’s something blindingly obvious and I’m just being stupid 😅

You can release the pressure by opening a radiator bleed valve and letting it squirt into a bucket. Once it stops squirting the pressure is gone.

Or use the drain cock if you can find it.

What is this liquid actually like ?

If it is relatively clear/pure water it is probably condensate, even though it is not dripping down the pipe. Maybe the condensate pipe is blocked, or there is a leak in the condensate circuit inside the boiler - causing condensate to build up inside the boiler and to leak out.

If it is dirty/black or smells of chemicals its probably from the heating circuit. Because that water normally has a load of inhibitor put in it, and gets discolored as it corrodes the inside of the radiators over time.

If it is condensate you can probably stop it by just not burning gas.

OP says

"The dripping stops once the boiler fires up and runs for a little while, then stays dry for a few hours after. Pressure also keeps dropping, from 1.2 to 0.8 when not working since last Friday."

Yep it’s clear liquid, plumber agreed it was a leak and needed fixing, he just didn’t have the part at hand.
Anyway we ended up calling the Glowworm service out, as now they only had the 28th as the next available appointment and I didn’t want to put it off for too long (we don’t have a radiator key and might not be able to pick it up until after Christmas).
But if for some reason if they can’t fix it we’ll have the above as a backup plan. Thanks all!

Tie a long piece of absorbant cloth around the pipe and put the end of the cloth in a bowl beneath.

The theory is that the water will go into the cloth and soak down into the bowl without dripping down the pipe.

Well the engineer has just been and said the boiler was beyond economical repair 😬 excellent news just after Christmas & before a 2 week holiday… he also said it was at risk but agreed not to turn it off as who knows when we’ll be able to get someone out to install a new one? He said for now the readings were fine.
Anyway, he repressurized the boiler and we don’t have a radiator key at hand so I’ll probably try and create a chute as was suggested before and just leave a massive container under it to catch the stuff (as he couldn’t fix the leak - yay) Or I might send the other half out to get a key. I just wish we never bothered with this flat tbh…

E110 message on boiler and hot water not coming out of tap
ideas been away for a week

@Christophert01 you need to start a new thread .

it will take you seconds to look that code up on google