What Have You Fettled Today?

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Gillstay

Veteran
Day three with a frozen boiler condensate pipe and no heating. Failed fettle with hairdryer and boiling water. Seems like a design fault to me. Looks like I’ll have to let nature take its course over the weekend. No help from BritishGas whose first appointment is Christmas Eve.

Do you have insulating material over the pipe ?
 

geocycle

Legendary Member
Do you have insulating material over the pipe ?
Not yet. It was installed by British Gas four years ago. To be honest this is the first time I’ve given it any attention. It seems to have a flexible tube the diameter of a largish hosepipe from the boiler inside a 42 mm diameter plastic pipe. Hindsight suggests a more vertical drop and extra insulation are required, or it goes inside to a drain. I’ve heard of three cases locally in this cold weather, all newish condensing boilers.
 

C R

Guru
Location
Worcester
Not yet. It was installed by British Gas four years ago. To be honest this is the first time I’ve given it any attention. It seems to have a flexible tube the diameter of a largish hosepipe from the boiler inside a 42 mm diameter plastic pipe. Hindsight suggests a more vertical drop and extra insulation are required, or it goes inside to a drain. I’ve heard of three cases locally in this cold weather, all newish condensing boilers.

When we replaced our boiler with a condensing boiler about 10 years ago one of the things the plumber said was that the condensate drain must be inside. It is a well known issue and I can't believe that condensate drains are still being installed in a way that they are likely to freeze when you most need the boiler.
 

biggs682

Itching to get back on my bike's
Location
Northamptonshire
Today's fettling was making and baking our christmas cake



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si_c

Guru
Location
Wirral
Not yet. It was installed by British Gas four years ago. To be honest this is the first time I’ve given it any attention. It seems to have a flexible tube the diameter of a largish hosepipe from the boiler inside a 42 mm diameter plastic pipe. Hindsight suggests a more vertical drop and extra insulation are required, or it goes inside to a drain. I’ve heard of three cases locally in this cold weather, all newish condensing boilers.

When we had our new boiler fitted this year the installer lagged the condensate pipe all the way to the drain outside, I asked why and he said it was a requirement for a modern condensing boiler for this very reason. May well be that BG fumbled the installation.
 

Gunk

Guru
Location
Oxford
Boiler fired up this morning! Huge relief that the condensate pipe has thawed. Temperature indoor had gone down to below 10 degrees and it felt a bit thin. Heading off to Wickes for more pipe lagging.

Fortunately I don’t have that problem with our 37 year old Potterton (I can feel a new thread coming on “who has the oldest boiler”

image.jpg
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
When we had our new boiler fitted this year the installer lagged the condensate pipe all the way to the drain outside, I asked why and he said it was a requirement for a modern condensing boiler for this very reason. May well be that BG fumbled the installation.

MIL's house has a trace heater in their pipe after it froze. Ran from the wall, down to step level, under the door threshold, but above the step all the way to the rear grid. Too much pipe to freeze.
 
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si_c

Guru
Location
Wirral
Was trying to fit a set of 32mm tyres to the Kinesis the other week, realised the front wheel was too far out of true and had a high spot causing the tyre to bind on the mudguards, wouldn't move. I knew that I could fit 32s on there as my other wheelset with 32s set up tubeless (this may be important later) had just enough clearance.

To fix the problem I ordered a new rim and new spoke nipples (the old ones were showing signs of corrosion) and relaced the hub onto the new rim. Nice and true (less than 1/2mm from true, which is the best I can do by eye with a basic trueing stand) and also within 1mm of round.

Fitted new tyres, put on the bike, binding, not as bad as before but bad enough. Tried repositioning and "cold setting" the mudguard mounts but couldn't get it to fit with the tyre pumped to an appropriate (80psi) level. Works with tubeless at 70psi though. Not running that with tubes though.

Time to get some 30c tyres or go back to 28s.
 

Gillstay

Veteran
Not yet. It was installed by British Gas four years ago. To be honest this is the first time I’ve given it any attention. It seems to have a flexible tube the diameter of a largish hosepipe from the boiler inside a 42 mm diameter plastic pipe. Hindsight suggests a more vertical drop and extra insulation are required, or it goes inside to a drain. I’ve heard of three cases locally in this cold weather, all newish condensing boilers.

My plumber insisted I understood that you do not take the insulation off as many do as they don't like the look of it . Then he looked very quizzical when I insisted he under jetted the boiler as he realised I was not your average customer. Most amusing.
 
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