New boiler and condensate pipe

dan2104

Hi all,
I've just bought a new flat and need a new boiler as the old one's had it.

Had an engineer round to survey it and he's telling me I'll have to have an internal condensate pipe installed, running from the boiler to the waste water pipe in the kitchen. The problem is, this is going to mean making a lot of holes and having a rather obvious pipe running along a lot of walls.

Is this my only option? Can I not have an external condensate pipe?!

Thanks!

Owain_Moneysaver

Possibly not, in a flat.

External condensate pipes have an unfortunate tendency to freeze in winter, rendering the boiler inoperational when you need it most.

Ectophile

If you get an external pipe, you'll regret it when we have another big freeze like we had a couple of weeks ago.

If you don't go out and tip hot water over the pipe every few hours, it freezes up and the boiler shuts down - just when you need the heating the most.

missile

We have an external condensate pipe in our flat and no problem.

If your boiler is working properly you should have no more than the occasional drip.

Davesnave

missile wrote: »

We have an external condensate pipe in our flat and no problem.

If your boiler is working properly you should have no more than the occasional drip.

Every installation is going to have different constraints. If the 'drip' happens to be onto someone else's property, or at a height, it maybe isn't going to be acceptable, or compliant, or both.

tacpot12

If your boiler is working properly you should have no more than the occasional drip.

Er, no. A correctly working condensing boiler will produce 1 to 2 litres of condensate per hour of operation. The amount is linked to the amount of hydrogen in the gas supply, and whether the boiler can operate in condensing mode. If the temperature of the returning water in the heating system is too high, the boiler will not operate in condensing mode and you will just get a 'drip' of condensate. If you are only getting a drip of condensate, then the boiler is not operating efficiently.

If the flat is on the ground floor or first floor, and external condensate drain will be relatively easy to fit, but you will have problems with freezing in the winter. Any higher, and the price to fit an external drain will have to include scaffolding which will easily cost more than fitting the drain internally in a concealed manner.

I would go for an internal condensate, but tell the plumber exactly where you are prepared to see pipe and where you are not. The pipe should really drop from the boiler (assuming it is wall mounted) through the worktop and then run behind the kitchen cabinets to the sink waste. If the plumber wants to run it at high level (which he will, because this is much easier) just say "No, if you want the job, you have to hide the pipe. He may want to remove the kitchen cabinets to do so (plumbers aren't magicians so this is reasonable). If so, I'd suggest that you hire a kitchen fitter to remove the units, change the backs on them so that you can access any concealed pipe work from inside the cabinets and refit them.

Doing the job neatly will take time and money, but you will regret not insisting that the pipes are concealed. It will affect the value and saleability of the flat, so it is worth doing right.

Good luck

bris

As above, a well balanced boiler should be condensing most of the time it's running, this is a lot of condensate.


Ideally the best place for the pipe is internal but running along a living room wall(for example) is a no, no.


Ask them to investigate where the soil stack is and see if they can run it under the floors into that. The kitchen isn't the only place it can terminate internally.


As a last resort I would take it out externally.

missile

My boiler has a large vent and a small copper condensate discharge pipe. There is little more that a drip from the copper pipe from all of the other properties in this and several other developments where this system has been installed.

I find it very hard to believe all of these boilers have been incorrectly installed and

If you are only getting a drip of condensate, then the boiler is not operating efficiently.

Alex1983

Are you sure its the condense, if it is the condense has probably rotted through the copper and leaking out else where. Condense needs to be in plastic. How much it condenses does depend on the boiler some boilers hardly leak anything, ideal isar/Icos is a prime example.

Owain_Moneysaver

missile wrote: »

My boiler has a large vent and a small copper condensate discharge pipe. There is little more that a drip from the copper pipe

That is a pressure relief outlet not a condensate drain. Condensate cannot be piped in copper as it's corrosive.

And if your pressure relief outlet is dripping there is a fault on the pressure relief valve.

missile

Whatever, my point was and is there are many many properties like mine where there is a large outlet which does discharge vapour and a smaller discharge pipe which occasionally drips.

Despite what you would suggest, IMHO :
This is a very common and perfectly acceptable method for installing a boiler in a flat.
An occasional drip seems very common and no cause for concern.