Wednesbury boiler stopped on a freezing day? The condensate pipe may have frozen. How to check it, thaw it with warm water and keep it working through winter.
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If your boiler has stopped on a freezing day, there is a good chance the condensate pipe has iced up. This plastic pipe takes the small amount of water a condensing boiler makes and drains it outside. Frozen, it blocks, and the boiler shuts down and shows a fault.
Wednesbury has a lot of terraced and council-built housing around Friar Park, Wood Green and Kings Hill where the boiler has been upgraded and the condensate pipe added afterwards, usually along the outside wall to a drain. Thin, exposed pipes like that freeze within a night of hard frost.
Thawing it with warm water and resetting the boiler sorts it in most homes. If yours freezes regularly, a better pipe arrangement will save you the trouble every winter.
Follow the plastic pipe from the boiler wall to the drain. Check bends and the open end for ice.
Warm water from a cooled kettle, or a hot water bottle. Never boiling water.
Press reset as your manual says, and allow a few minutes.
Many boilers show a code when the condensate blocks. Note it down for us if you ring.
Lagging, a wider pipe or rerouting stops it freezing again.
Most often a frozen condensate pipe. Thaw it and reset the boiler.
Yes, with warm water on the outside pipe, keeping the boiler closed. A gas smell is different from a fault code. If you notice one, step outside, avoid switches and ring 0800 111 999, the gas emergency line.
If a reset after thawing does not help, ring us to find the real fault.
Yes, quickly, with lagging, a larger pipe or a new route.
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