Like many thousands of people I have been suffering this freezing and locking out the boiler - 3rd time this spell as well as at the beginning of the year.
Its a shocking installation by BG as far as I am concerned - the condensate pipe comes out of the wall then immediately 90deg turn down, couple of inches down then 90 deg turn right and runs horizontally about 6 inches and into a hole drilled into the side of the gutter drainpipe and sealed with silicone.
When it gets to about -8C this freezes and its fairly easy to remedy with hot water but I wonder if there is a way of preventing it. I could probably get some foam around some of the pipe but as it sticks into the drainpipe I guess it could still freeze in there? (in fact when we have a lot of snow on the roof and it melts/refreezes the whole drainpipe can turn into a solid cylinder of ice!). How about running the condensate pipe externally down the side of the drainpipe or is that still going to freeze with it being about 2.5m high? There isnt really a way of routing it inside the house without a lot of messing.
Its a shocking installation by BG as far as I am concerned - the condensate pipe comes out of the wall then immediately 90deg turn down, couple of inches down then 90 deg turn right and runs horizontally about 6 inches and into a hole drilled into the side of the gutter drainpipe and sealed with silicone.
When it gets to about -8C this freezes and its fairly easy to remedy with hot water but I wonder if there is a way of preventing it. I could probably get some foam around some of the pipe but as it sticks into the drainpipe I guess it could still freeze in there? (in fact when we have a lot of snow on the roof and it melts/refreezes the whole drainpipe can turn into a solid cylinder of ice!). How about running the condensate pipe externally down the side of the drainpipe or is that still going to freeze with it being about 2.5m high? There isnt really a way of routing it inside the house without a lot of messing.
