11/01/2024
Hi all firstly merry Christmas with this severe cold weather warning for the next week I thought it prudent to re-share our post from last year please feel free to share away.
Due to plummet in temperature we have experienced an unbelievable amount of phone calls mainly due to frozen condensate pipes on boilers.
If your boiler has a white or black pipe going outside from the underside and you have no heating or hot water with the boiler making a bubbling noise and displaying a fault code such as A01, EA, "Ionisation fault", L2, F4 or E133 there is a high chance that your condensate pipe has frozen.
To thaw the pipe out, heat up a kettle and pour warm NOT boiling water over the pipe, this can take several attempts to melt the ice inside the pipe. Once the ice has melted reset your boiler and it should work fine.
If you normally turn your heating off at night we would recommend leaving it on during these extreme temperatures with your thermostat set between 16-18 degrees.
If you have no water flowing out of your taps the likelihood is your pipes have frozen, if you have pipework in the loft try leaving the loft hatch open to encourage warm air flow we have even had fan heaters in loft spaces. If you know where pipework has frozen try heating the pipework using a hair dryer on low heat, If you dont know where the pipes have frozen then you will need to let the pipes thaw naturally make sure to leave taps open slightly to allow for expansion. Do not be fooled into thinking pipe lagging will prevent freezing as we have found this week even with well lagged pipework it has still froze.
If pipes have frozen there is a higher chance pipes can burst as the temperatures rise and the pipes thaw out naturally. It would be wise to know the location of your mains stop c**k in your house so that the water can be isolated in an emergency and also leave taps open to allow for expansion in pipework when the thaw hits.
Be cautious!!! Whilst you may be desperate for a company to call out in an emergency NEVER give any bank details or credit/debit card details over the phone as we have found out some poor customers have done this and had extortionate amounts of money taken out as “call out” charge.
Hope these small tips help you out of a squeeze.
