disturbed dinner tonight over an ice plug

[roofman]

Just going to chow down on my dinner tonight and the door bell goes..neighbour from over the road wants to borrow my ladders to check his boiler flue outlet on the side of his gable. His boiler had gone out and would not re-light, I told him the 1st thing to check would be his condensate pipe out the wall as i bet its frozen and the boiler has drowned. Told the wife to put my dinner in the oven and after getting re-dressed in my day time gear nipped over there with my ladders, up the ladders on the gable and sure enough the end of the pipe going into the waste pipe hopper from bathroom was frozen solid. Kettle full of hot water poured onto the pipe and the ice plug dropped out followed by about 2L of water from his boiler, told him to press the boiler reset and see what happens. 30 seconds later she was chooching like a good one and all heat was resumed for himself and his young family...Back home and resumed eating my dinner like a hyena before anyone else knocks for help

 

[Blobber]

Good on you for helping someone out, I had one very similar on a Christmas day but managed to talk them through it on the phone, wasn't going out for anyone!

 

[roofman]

Good on you for helping someone out, I had one very similar on a Christmas day but managed to talk them through it on the phone, wasn't going out for anyone!

They are a good hard working young family with well mannered kids...in my books a perfect candidate for help anytime from me

 

[Scalarocco]

Not all super heroes wear capes.

 

[Melvyn Best]

Bit of a coincidence, our boiler stopped working Tuesday evening for the same reason, my BIL said to pour hot water over the condensate pipe and press the reset button. Bloody thing did the same this evening , going to lag it tomorrow

 

[DAPPH]

I've slipped some extra thick 15 mm foam insulation over the extended small copper drain pipe . Then put that inside a bit of plastic 3 " white drain pipe .
Cutting the bottom end back so the inner foam tube is a few inches longer than the bottom of the copper drain pipe. It's all be nicely solvent welded so it does does not look a mess , The bottom end is fitted into one of the cheapo plastic drain cover weighted down with a few bricks to stop leaf debris build up. Usually by the end of Nov each year I've removed the cover and use our Aqua Vac to remove anything that's got in the drains recess.

Pleased to say in the 17 years since I set it up like that , it's never frozen up again . Which is useful because the outlet pipe is in a venturi between the bungalow and the metre high wall next door which is to the east of us . Every time we got a frosty easterly hitting the end of the bungalow if froze solid .

 

[brightspark]

it wont happen on mine i plumbed the condensate pipe in to the soil stack inside the house under the floor

 

[doubleboost]

The wife shouted for help earlier tonight .
Utility room (end of my garage) .
Was flooded , water outlet pipe from washer was frozen up outside .
Easy fix it is not there now .
I will have to try and insulate it .

 

[Kayos]

My boiler stopped, assumed condensate froze so went in loft. Still has bucket under from last time I pulled the internal elbow off

 

[Shox Dr]

My boiler stopped, assumed condensate froze so went in loft. Still has bucket under from last time I pulled the internal elbow off

Plumbers eh

 

[roofman]

Plumbers eh

you got there before me

 

[Kayos]

Plumbers eh

I did reattach the elbow, but left the bucket ready

Also, hate working on my own house

 

[daleyd]

I popped round to see my elderly neighbour yesterday to see if she needed anything from the shops. She did, what stroke of luck - I gave her my shopping list to get mine for me as there was no point in both of us struggling on the icy pavements


An old one but still makes me chuckle

 

[Pete.]

Well done for helping out Roofman


British Gas must have got fed up with the calls, they sent me this yesterday:

 

[cheb]

Why aren't these pipe insulated as standard practice?

 

[Cobbler]

You couldn’t make it up could you, heating system won’t work in the cold! Bit like a solar powered torch, only work in the sunshine.

 

[outofthefire]

Why aren't these pipe insulated as standard practice?

They run them inside now (least they did when our boiler was replaced), why they didn't do it before that is anyone's guess.

 

[Kayos]

Why aren't these pipe insulated as standard practice?

They should be. Mine is run in 1.5", proper slope and has exterior grade insulation. Still froze. In my case I think it's the wind chill

 

[Melvyn Best]

Ours was frozen again this morning, the other half got up before me then came back whinging about it . She wasn’t too impressed when I told her how to get it working , well I was still in a nice warm bed

 

[mike os]

“Green” boilers … still suffering the same issues …