How to Unfreeze your Boilers Condensate Pipe

Now that the weather is getting colder, the temperature regularly going into the minus’s, we are seeing an increasing amount of people realising that their boiler isn’t working after months of avoiding turning on the heating in fear of the high gas prices.
 

At Harry Charles, we know the importance of keeping your homes warm this winter, however, many of our boiler breakdown reports have turned out to simply be a frozen condensate pipe, which is a very easy DIY fix that will leave you with working heating / hot water and a toasty house in no time at all! 
 

A condensate pipe is a pipe that transfers the wastewater from your boiler to the outside of your home, considering it is outside and the local temperature is currently reaching lows of -1°, it is not a shock that the water inside is often freezing. When this happens, your boiler will usually come up with an “Error” flashing on the screen. Other signs can include a gurgling noise coming from your boiler/piping and the boiler being locked out from its standard use. 

To fix this problem, simply boil the kettle, allow it to cool for 5 minutes and gently pour it over the condensate pipe a couple times. We recommend you make sure the water has time to cool before you pour, so you don’t crack the pipe from the sudden temperature change). Or if the pipe is inside, you can even get a hairdryer on it! Anything that will effectively increase the temperature of the ice inside and encourage it to melt, then voila! You have a warm house and warm water. 

If after a couple attempts this method has still not solved anything and the issue persists, then it may be due to a deeper-rooted cause, which is when you should call our office if you have a managed property on 01923 731313 where we will do our best to solve the issue with haste. 

The Harry Charles Property Management team are here to answer all of your property questions so please feel free to call us when you have an issue.