Icicles stopped our boiler from working.

[FiveOrangePips]

I just thought I would share this in case anyone has the same problem. I woke up to no heating this morning, our boiler wasn't working because the icicles outside had blocked the air flow vent completely.

We got a heating engineer out and he spotted the problem straight away - I just wanted to share in case anyone else might have the same problem (it has been very cold here, -16 last night).

I am not sure how obvious this should be, as I am new to this gch system.

We've had the same sort of problem.

We have a condensing boiler - the condensate pipe comes out through the wall and into an outside drain.

Our boiler stopped working this morning, and kept coming up with flame failure.

Tried getting through to British Gas( we have homecare cover) but was on hold for ages.

Had a look online and found the condensate pipes can freeze , and the boiler stops working to stop it being damaged.

A few kettles of hot, but not boiling water later, the pipes defrosted and boilers working again.

I now have a warm toasty house and hot water again.

Again it's a common problem so thought I'd share in case other people have the same problem.

Had that issue at work today Moonmother. Have now added some lagging to the outlet pipe to help avoid it in future, time will tell if that works.

Worcester Bosch Greenstar Si Combi Boiler
Condensation outlet pipe can freeze, heat by pouring hot water on the plastic pipe.

Air flow vent has large icicle, not a blocking issue yet but will keep that in mind should the boiler stop again.

We have the pipe outside lagged, and it still froze.

Apparently when the temps fall into sub zero temp for a few days, it will freeze and there's nothing you can do, apart from defrost it .