With the winter hopefully passed it’s now a good time to carry out some preventative maintenance for next years cold spell.

Over the winter months we have had a constant stream (excuse the pun) of clients with frozen or blocked condensate pipes. A common theme was the use of 22mm diameter pipe work hidden behind walls in a bid to make the waste pipework cheap and inconsequential. Unfortunately this just leads to blockages as it’s often linked to an Ideal Icos or Isar which is known for discharging aluminium oxide from the heat exchanger.

Poor maintenance of the condensate trap will produce a blockage which slows the whole waste passage down resulting in a reduction in the flushing effect of these types of system.

Once this is neatly built in behind a wall the whole problem is hidden from engineer and customer alike and doesn’t rear its ugly head until it backs up into the boiler and cause leaks and errors with the combustion process.

The best repair for this boiler is to take the condensate pipe outside using a 40mm plastic pipe which is insulated to prevent it freezing in winter.

As ever with our work, this will last the duration as the insulation is correctly attached with plastic ties and is UV resistant unlike the grey insulation which is sometimes used in error.