Boiler leaking boiling hot water

[bedpicnic]

Hi

I hope someone can give me an idea what and why something is going in with the boiler. I'm going to contact a plumber immediately tomorrow but am trying to figure out what has happened as much as I can until I can contact them.

I was fortunate enough to go upstairs to the toilet and as I was walking up the stairs it sounded like one of my children had left the bathroom tap running. All taps were off, so I opened up the cupboard that holds the boiler and boiling hot was streaming out of the boiler. From the leak, it was only leaking for a couple of minutes - it's come through the kitchen ceiling, underneath where the boiler is, but not much. We immediately turned off the stop cock, which stopped the water leaking out. I've turned the taps off on the boiler that I think are for water and gas, and have obviously turned the boiler off from the wall.

Is this a very serious leak - potentially a new boiler? - or could it be a valve that has gone that needs replacing?
Why was the hot water boiling hot?
Just to add that that the water pressure remained stable whilst leaking and hasn't dropped from its normal place.

Thankyou for your help. If there's anything else I need to consider I'd really appreciate your input.

Haa the water gone through light fittings in the ceiling?
Can you call the emergency number for your house insurance?

The leak through the kitchen ceiling is about a metre away from any light fixtures. I assume this is a safe enough distance? But I've already told the children not to use that light switch until I can confirm that.

Our boilers been leaking for ages. Was supposed to be changed during lockdown but our LL is shite. We will be moving out as soon as we get the keys to our new place though so he can deal with the leak damage from his own laziness.

As for how serious... our boiler still works, been like this for 3 years. Only issue is anything left on that bench gets wet from the leak.

Our is downstairs in an extension though.

It wasn't dripping, it was absolutely streaming out. I think that's why I'm so concerned. It was also boiling hot water. If I hadn't gone up it would have caused serious flooding at the rate the water was coming out.

Was your heating running while this was happening?

According to boiler engineer DH, could be heat exchanger or diverter valve or burner assembly, or pump seals but obviously guesswork on something he hasn’t examined.
No error codes on the boiler?

How old is it?
A fixed price repair by the manufacturer is usually the best option for something quite major. Usually £300 ish and covers up to 3 parts.

Hi @Vaz66

Thanks so much for replying and asking your husband.

I don't think the heating was running when it happened, but not 100% sure.
There were no error codes on the boiler. However, it has been very noisy recently, like a noisy engine firing up. Also, the hot water tap from the shower - the hose is connected to the bath taps - has been running hot and cold whilst showering. It was on my 'get someone out to look at this' list, but I didn't think it was an emergency.
We moved here 3 years ago, guessing, I think the boiler is about 10 years old.

If the boiler wasn’t running, there shouldn’t have been hot water running through it? Is your boiler on comfort mode so water from your taps is hot straight away rather than needing to heat up?

Or is it a system boiler with a hot tank?

Water running hot and cold while showering ( with a combi) is normally a water pressure/ flow problem, it’s best not to have the hot tap on full so the water has chance to heat up in the boiler.

@Vaz66
We have a combi boiler. It doesn't have a 'comfort mode' option. We definitely had used the hot water tap in the kitchen just before it happened, I guess this would have fired up the boiler, but I'm unsure if this would be the cause of the leaking boiling hot water from the boiler?
I had actively never turned the hot water tap on full whilst showering, infact I'd turned it down low because of this and it was still running hot and cold.