Central Heating Failure

[lord peter haylor]

Hi All.
During the resent cold spell several of my neighbours have been without heating on their condensing boilers, most turned out to be that a vent pipe froze up but other the main PCB failed. Doesn't anyone know what fails so much on the PCB?
The vent pipe problem is unusual because my vent pipe is on a north facing wall but is a straight drop to the drain while others go through a series of bends before reaching the drain, in each case the Council workers have cut through the pipe to free it and shortening the length of the pipe.
Any ideas to prevent future problems?

[cactikid]

ahh ha ha i had the same problem with my vent freezing as my pipe runs over a flat roof and started dripping inside on to carpet,i was told to replace pipe a year ago as an acid drip off is harmful and may go through felt roof so maybe i will go up a grade/size of pipe and then if no lagging was available get a bigger bore pipe slid over them to help from freezing.
i can see it happening again and again,even bathwater from bath froze in the pipe

[DW190]

My neighbour had her soil pipe freeze and flood the bathroom.

The balltap in the modern toilet was not sealing properly and a slight trickle continued to fill the cistern eventally causing it to overflow. Modern toilets overflow straight into the bowl and the trickle slowly travels rounfd the bend and into the soil stack which is cast iron thus before it get round the last bend before the straight drop it freezes and eventually the ice builds up and blocks the whole of the pipe.

It was an easy fix of just emptying the bowl and filling with hot salted water at the same time as pouring hot water on the outside bend area.

[JoK]

Hi All.
During the resent cold spell several of my neighbours have been without heating on their condensing boilers, most turned out to be that a vent pipe froze up but other the main PCB failed. Doesn't anyone know what fails so much on the PCB?
The vent pipe problem is unusual because my vent pipe is on a north facing wall but is a straight drop to the drain while others go through a series of bends before reaching the drain, in each case the Council workers have cut through the pipe to free it and shortening the length of the pipe.
Any ideas to prevent future problems?

I've had same problem with condensing pipe freezing, mine is a 22mm plastic pipe with a straight drop to drain, about 1 metre in length and it literally froze the hole length of the pipe.

After reading on net and talking to a plumber, advice given is to go up to 32mm pipe, so were 22mm pipe comes out of wall them put it into 32mm pipe, the size thats used for sink waste, this will help but the plimber I spoke to has even seen these freeze too

I'm thinking of re-routing mine so that it is on inside of house and then puttin it into the 32mm waste that used to be used for the washing machine before it was moved, why the plumber that fitted the boiler never thought to do that, well who knows, must of been a reason he done it that way.

With regards the PCB failure

1) There was no PCB failure (blocked condensing tube) and plumber has been on one of these workers from hell programmes.

2) The condensing pipe had frozen and the back up of acidic water had got onto board.

JoK

[cactikid]

health and safety instructions may say you have to run it outside so no option,
Pipe Insulation, Lagging, Foam, Armaflex, Commercial, Industrial, UK - Pipe Insulation, Lagging, Foam, Armaflex, Commercial, Industrial, UK

[reddevil157]

Hi All.
During the resent cold spell several of my neighbours have been without heating on their condensing boilers, most turned out to be that a vent pipe froze up but other the main PCB failed. Doesn't anyone know what fails so much on the PCB?
The vent pipe problem is unusual because my vent pipe is on a north facing wall but is a straight drop to the drain while others go through a series of bends before reaching the drain, in each case the Council workers have cut through the pipe to free it and shortening the length of the pipe.
Any ideas to prevent future problems?

what make/brand boilers are they ?

[chucklor]

On a property I rent out I used to get the 2A fuse blowing in the PCB on several occasions, when I metered out the components it turned out to be a faulty pump which was cauing it, I think the usual thing to go on a PCB is one of the resistors and if you go on ebay or google there are several companies who will do a repair or repaired exchange for a fraction ot the cost of buying a new one...

[cactikid]

i had the wrong one diagnosed by gas company and when they came to fit it wrong connections ,lucky i googled the name on boiler and found out they had a service van with all parts on board,3 days later came out and checked,it was a hidden board at back that went not the front one as gas company said.
even a service i am going to ring him as all parts carried if needed.

[Meat-Head]

, this will help but the plimber I spoke to has even seen these freeze too

JoK

what's a 'plimmer'
here in M-C two buildings with internal overflows on toilets froze the 4" pipe - same estate, differant locations

Makes you wounder why pouring anti-freeze down drains is illegal

[alladdin]

what make/brand boilers are they ?

valiant ? by any chance?

several of these here with this issue.