Anyone got an external boiler?

manda1205

Has anybody on here got an external boiler? We've had ours fitted for 3 years now, but have just noticed that where it enters our house (big metal tube with lots of smallers pipes coming out of it) seems to be condensating up. So much that in the morning the front door is covered in condensation. This has never happened before and the only difference we can see is that, where the big tube coming into the house is had moved after install and there was a gap around it and a draft, we used to smell a fumey sort of smell sometimes, so when we had a service last month, the bloke said he'd re-seal around it to stop the smell.
Do you think this is why its now condensating up as now theres no draft? After wiping all the pipes and then sitting and waiting it does seem to be the cold water pipe that is condensating up, so could it be its got colder and thats why. Trouble is what do we do about it, we can't leave it like it, it's going to get so damp in there. (It enters into a small porch area about 2mx1.5m with no window).
Any ideas?

C_Mababejive

Can u post a pic as im struggling to visualise this situation??

manda1205

Inside that tube, the top left pipe is cold water and its that one thats condensating up, I've also now noticed that the big silver circle thing is also condensating up (has the round paper thing stuck on it), although could it be that the condensation is running down onto that from the top cold pipe? As they're connected.

Jaynne

Surely its simply the case that you've got hot pipes warming the air and its condensing on the cold pipe. Get some foam pipe lagging and fit it to all the pipes which will reduce the air warming significantly and not give you any cold pipes to condense onto.

manda1205

Jaynne - This is what we're thinking, as that pipe is very cold to touch, as is the silver round thing. We've only recently had the heating on an hour or so a day and this is when its started. Trouble is why has this never happened before, only just started now? Seems odd.

Jaynne

Perhaps higher humidity? If you've sealed a pipe since the last time you had the heating on that might have previously been giving some ventilation that would have kept the humidity around the pipes lower..

Condensation is usually pretty easy to tell compared to a leak since its all over the pipe work so I'd try out the lagging - it should only cost a few pounds. If you're really worried its a fault then call your heating engineer out I guess.

manda1205

Yes, you're confirming what we thought, which makes me feel better, thank you. Just wanted a bit of confirmation before we thought of ringing heating man. It is all over the pipe, rather than a drip, the same with the silver thing. Will try to see if we can get some lagging tomorrow to try. Thanks again.

southcoastrgi

i'm interested to see the boiler can you post some pics of that ?

manda1205

southcoastrgi wrote: »

i'm interested to see the boiler can you post some pics of that ?

What pics do you want of it? From the outside all you can see is a big green box with a flue out the back. I can't really take any of where it joins the house as theres just a few inches between house and boiler and that big tube just comes out straight through our wall.

manda1205

Well we've now found out a pipe inside the boiler is leaking. I noticed drips round the bottom of the boiler, so hubby opened up casing and as you look inside, to the top left a pipe is dripping. Id just put the heating on, is this ok? Will be ringing the serivce engineer in the morning(as I take it this wont be covered under worcester guarantee) but does anyone know are we ok to have the heating on? Theres quite a bit of water sitting in the bottom of the boiler too.

southcoastrgi

it really depends which pipe is leaking & how badly & where it's dripping onto, if it's near any electrics or the pcb then water & electrics don't match & you could end up with more than the leak to fix