Central Heating Problems and Solutions

[zacklaws]

Done a search for this subject, but could find nothing, so don't admonish me. Whatever admonish means, I don't know, but it sounds and looks right, perhaps I've spelt it wrong what I ment.

This morning woke up to find my central heating had packed in and making a hell of a gargling racket everytime I reset it, it would then go for a few minutes and switch off. Checked for frozen pipes, bleeding etc but found nothing. Only solution, ring the fitters to come and mend it, but I had a prior appointment so planned on doing it when I got back in. First person I met, told me what the problem was as most callouts are for the same problem at the moment. Frozen overflow from the condenser.

Got home, and found a large plastic pipe on the outside of the house I had overlooked, it was frozen the full length from water vapour that had come out of the condenser, thawed it out with my paint stripper, about a gallon of water flowed out and now central heating works perfectly. Probably saved me a fortune too by not having to get anyone out.

Anyway the idea of the thread is, anyone else with similar problems or related, solutions and tips at the present due to the inclement weather, post them up here so we can hopefully help each other out.

 

[Aperitif]

And you have now insulated it, to avoid a recurrence...

 

[zacklaws]

And you have now insulated it, to avoid a recurrence...

Yes, but whether this pipe lagging is any good outside during these low temperatures has yet to be seen. My min max thermometer hit -12 last night and that was in my green house.

A possible cause was probably due to a foot of snow burying the pipe at the bottom of the wall at the drain hole. In theory the vapour coming out the system should be hot, so therefore should not freeze in the pipe, but if it condenses back to water in the pipe if it has no where to go, then it will freeze and once its blocked up, any more vapour has nowhere to go, hence a pipe 2 meters long packed with ice

 

[Klaus]

When we got our new boiler installed about 5 years ago, the plumber actually lagged the pipe outside!!
I then painted it same colour as the trellis above it and now it blends in perfectly.

 

[dan_bo]

hot water but no heating- isolate the appliance, take the cover off, chin the diverter valve with the fat end of a good sized screwdriver, replace cover, switch boiler back on, enjoy warm rads.

 

[fossyant]

Condenser boiler - stupid design that pipe........... seems to happen to most people, and you'll find lots of fitters don't lag it.....FFS.

I've got an older standard little Baxi - does the job, the ignition can click a few times before the boiler lights, but usually fires straight up. Had a new gas valve fitted last winter.

 

[gbb]

Amazing..i was talking to my boss just this morning about this. He was saying he's got a mate who's a plumber...he's been called out loads for exactly this problem, exactly that solution.

 

[Globalti]

More recent condensors have a siphon so that they hold the condensate then release it in a rush rather than a slow trickle. Our does that and is also plumbed to a drain inside the house.

 

[GlasgowGaryH]

Cut the plastic condensing pipe inside house and let it drip into bucket or bowl, did this last year and had no further problems. I repaired the plastic pipe in springtime.

 

[CopperBrompton]

Speaking of CH problems, anyone know where the hell they hide the bleed valve on a slimline radiator? I have one in my bathroom that's got an air-lock and I'm damned if I can spot anything resembling a bleed valve anywhere.

 

[slowmotion]

Speaking of CH problems, anyone know where the hell they hide the bleed valve on a slimline radiator? I have one in my bathroom that's got an air-lock and I'm damned if I can spot anything resembling a bleed valve anywhere.

They are sometimes on the back of the radiator, top left or top right.

 

[ColinJ]

Speaking of crappy old CH boilers...

The houses at the end of the street next to mine are housing association properties and they all had the same type of (unreliable) boiler put in when the houses were done up about 25 years ago. These boilers all vent out of the walls of the properties about 7 feet above the pavement (it's like Coronation Street round here - cobbled backstreets and no gardens). I was walking down that pavement the other evening when everybody had their heating on full and the amount of heat coming out of those vents was ridiculous! Do modern boilers still waste heat like that?

 

[Canardly]

Modern boilers are up to 97/8% efficient.Old ones were around the 40% mark hence the condensation referred to above.

 

[ColinJ]

Modern boilers are up to 97/8% efficient.Old ones were around the 40% mark hence the condensation referred to above.

Ah, I see. Wow, that's some improvement!

 

[CopperBrompton]

They are sometimes on the back of the radiator, top left or top right.

Thanks. There is a very small nut on the reverse, which you can't even see properly because there's so little access (camera couldn't manage auto-focus on it either at night) and it's painted over. God knows what size spanner is supposed to fit as it feels like a completely random shape - I'll try to get a photo tomorrow and figure it out from that.