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Why you should take care of your boiler condensate pipe
The average UK home owner is statistically not too technical and looks upon his boiler at home as they may do their car, their telephone or their home computer the same way. As long as it works, best to leave it alone.
While it's never a good idea to tamper with things that you don't know too much about, it does no harm to understand how these things are operated, and by doing so, if problems do arise, you can at least understand why.
One of the features of most modern boilers that most people don't know about id that they have something known as a condensate pipe. The role of the condensate pipe is to transport excess water away from the boiler, which if done will improve the boiler's efficiency, and fairly dramatically too. Through utilizing the condensate pipe, the boiler extracts maximum energy from the flue's gases. During the procedure, some of the gases cool and turn into a small amount of waste water which is acidic by nature. The pipe transports this steady flow of potentially corrosive water away from the boiler and into the drain.
That's why it is important for a home owner to identify if their boiler does have a condensate pipe, and to know where it is situated. The pipe will generally be situated underneath the boiler, as part of a cluster of pipes. The easiest way to identify the condensate pipe is that will be made of plastic or PVC, generally white in colour and around 3/4" in diameter. Once you have found the pipe, follow its path to the drain, so that you can easily retrace your steps when you need to.
Once you have ascertained that you are indeed the proud owner of a condensate pipe, whole new responsibilities open up before you. The first is to take a look every now and then to make sure that water is flowing from the pipe into the drain, and there are no blockages. In the winter, when the weather outside the house gets below freezing, there is a strong possibility that the acid water slowly flowing through the pipe will freeze. If this happens, modern boilers have been set up so that they will switch themselves off if water starts to back flow into the boiler, which you definitely don't want to happen.
Prevention is always better than cure so it's always a good idea to clad your condensate pipe for the winter. If you don't the chances are that it will freeze over with all the problems that it will bring? If it does, there are a few steps to be taken. It is not recommended to pour boiling water over the pipe as it may well burst, instead attempt to heat it using a hot water bottle or by pouring hot ( but not boiling) water over the pipe. If this fails to get the condensate water flowing and boiler running, then you should contact your local heating engineer who will know what needs to be done to get the heat back on.
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