Worcester Condenser Boiler

heatherw_01

Mine has been freezing up regulary lately with this cold weather. The condensate pipe runs outside and even though I have put lagging on it, it keeps freezing up.

tangit

Hi, i just wanted to share my story. I actually sorted it before coming across this forum

I have a WB boiler thats nearly 3 years old. Never had an issue and have it serviced according to schedule.

The other night the boiler packed in and upon looking at it i saw a code of EA looked it up and thought it was condensate pipe. I climbed onto garage roof and guess what the thing had frozen solid.. Our condensate pipe has never ever frozen before, it comes out of the wall drops 3ft verticle then slopes to the gutter. No lagging but its a 32mm pipe.

I unfroze the pipe but couldnt take it apart as its the glue type system. I then went out and bought some armourflex lagging i think its called and lagged all the pipe. I went to check it tonight to be proactive and guess what i noticed a frozen waterfall where the end of the pipe is and then worked out the pipe had frozen back 14ft to the vertical drop despite the lagging and the 32mm pipe. We had temperatures of -10 last night and its been no warmer than -3.5 all day. Our systems are not designed for this.

Anyway i couldnt unfreeze the pipe tonight i tried everything (kettle, hot water bottles, heat gun whacking it etc lol) but it was too far back up the pipe. As i couldnt undo the pipe i decided sod it and snapped the pipe back the verticle covered it up as best i could and then in the morning im going to redo the pipe work with push fit so i can take it apart if needed to. Im also goign to add a point where i will be able to insert boiling water into the pipe via a kinda intersection bit if i need to defrost again in the future and as my plmber didnt do it im going to drill a hole into my rainwater down spout and insert the end of the condensate pipe into there so its not exposed as before. Im sure that should have been done when the boiler was installed.

bamblolo

Hi everyone my Worcester greenstar 28i was working ok but then noticed it hadnt turned itself off. Got up out of bed to make sure i had switched it off which i had but still gurgling away. Anyway my boiler is upstairs and when i went to have a look blue light was flashing tried to get boiler to switch off but still going. managed to turn it off can't remember how but next morning boiler didnt come on. Tried increasing pressure as it had gone below 1 bar and resetting really pleased to get it going but then noticed water dripping from underneath actual boiler!! Also sounded like it was filling up too scared to leave it on so had to switch it off. No hot water or heating for two days now still waiting for an engineer. I am by myself with two young kids any one know if it woul be safe to try it again and what would the water be dripping down from boiler. Boiler is in an upstairs cupboard and condensate pipe comes out from under bedroom floorboards to kitchen wall.

derekn

Hi all,

We have Worcester R29 HE condensing boiler - which until last night was working fine.

It seems to fire up (the red ign light comes on) - then there is a banging sound from within the boiler followed by hissing from the top accompanied with some steam or vapour. Then nothing? The boiler feels warm to touch though none of my radiators do? The display shows '99', but this counts down to around 70 when the boiler attempts to fire up again? The dials were set by the installer in 2004 and we have not touched them. The boiler was serviced late 2008 or early last year.

I have tried to re-set it but all I get is the code (FD) telling me I've hit the re-set button by mistake. I am sometimes getting a display that looks like two lower case letter 't's back to back? But I am not getting any other error codes?

I have checked and am satisfied that the condensate pipe is not frozen.

I've switched it all off now as I am concerned that the constant cycle of banging and hissing is not healthy?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Derek

capita_guy

derekn wrote: »

Hi all,

We have Worcester R29 HE condensing boiler - which until last night was working fine.

It seems to fire up (the red ign light comes on) - then there is a banging sound from within the boiler followed by hissing from the top accompanied with some steam or vapour. Then nothing? The boiler feels warm to touch though none of my radiators do? The display shows '99', but this counts down to around 70 when the boiler attempts to fire up again? The dials were set by the installer in 2004 and we have not touched them. The boiler was serviced late 2008 or early last year.

I have tried to re-set it but all I get is the code (FD) telling me I've hit the re-set button by mistake. I am sometimes getting a display that looks like two lower case letter 't's back to back? But I am not getting any other error codes?

I have checked and am satisfied that the condensate pipe is not frozen.

I've switched it all off now as I am concerned that the constant cycle of banging and hissing is not healthy?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Derek

Disconnect condensate pipe below boiler but have a bowl ready. Drain off water and leave bowl under the pipe. Try boiler once again. Symbols will stay for a while but then they should go.
Good Luck!

Canucklehead

derekn wrote: »

Hi all,

We have Worcester R29 HE condensing boiler - which until last night was working fine.

It seems to fire up (the red ign light comes on) - then there is a banging sound from within the boiler followed by hissing from the top accompanied with some steam or vapour. Then nothing? The boiler feels warm to touch though none of my radiators do? The display shows '99', but this counts down to around 70 when the boiler attempts to fire up again? The dials were set by the installer in 2004 and we have not touched them. The boiler was serviced late 2008 or early last year.

I have tried to re-set it but all I get is the code (FD) telling me I've hit the re-set button by mistake. I am sometimes getting a display that looks like two lower case letter 't's back to back? But I am not getting any other error codes?

I have checked and am satisfied that the condensate pipe is not frozen.

I've switched it all off now as I am concerned that the constant cycle of banging and hissing is not healthy?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Derek

Hi

Sounds more like not enough water in the system or pump failure.

What's the pressure gauge saying?


GSR

t4mof

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone on this thread.

Got home from work on Friday to find the heating hadn't come on. The boiler just failed to fire up no matter what we tried.

Thanks to this thread I learnt all about the frozen condensate pipe last night. Followed the advice and we've had heating and hot water all day today and the boiler has fired up when programmed to do so. :j

Saved me an expensive repair bill so thank you to you all. :T

derekn

Hi All,
It was the external pump in the end. New one fitted today.
Thanks
Derek

dundledots

Hi all,

Been having problems with my Greenstar 18/25 too.

The condensate trap keeps leaking and the boiler shuts down.

Do I need this trap thing or can I just by-pass it?

If I do need it can someone confirm if Manufacturers Code87161132780 is the right part and post a pic?

Regards
Steve

delg

Can any plumbers out there help me with a bit of research. What percentage of your calls (or how many) are due to boilers failing due to frozen/blocked condensate pipes?
Thanks