Worcester Boiler Condensing pipe blocked

[Newbee432]

Hi Guys,

Need some advice with a blockage in my condensing pipe for my Worcester 30CDi boiler. The boiler is around 5-6 years old and has been never serviced(my fault). 2 weeks back the EA error kept flashing and the gas engineer opened few pipes and I could see lot of junk most likely a compound of Aluminium. He told me that as the boiler was not serviced the junk entered the condensing pipe and blocked it. Now I am running the boiler with the condensing pipe in a bucket.

My question is is there a easy way to melt/clean the Aluminium junk in the plastic pipe, if I m not able to do it then I need to replace the condensing pipe for which I need to remove my laminate flooring.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Regards
Newbee432

 

[Aquaheat]

You need to get a proper RGI in that will perform a proper service and cure the underlying fault.

You shouldn't be using the boiler without it being looked at as it may well be unsafe as the condense pipework forms part of the flue and as such is classed as part of the combustion process.

So, to surmise, get someone in that knows how to leave it safe and working.

Jon

 

[simond]

It is perfectly OK to run a boiler with the condense going into a bucket, providing the trap is still attached inside the boiler.

In the olden days (eg: early 1980s), it was quite common for condensers to be fed into a bucket, or a 25 litre drum. Before the building regs worked out such things existed. Many commercials today have an open trap under the boiler.

 

[Aquaheat]

Hence why I said "may" be unsafe @simond as from behind a laptop I can't tell what has been left and how. I think that is perfectly acceptable advice considering neither of us know the exact circumstances of the OP.

Jon

 

[Aquaheat]

@simond From the 30CDi MI's note the never terminate into an open source.

Jon

 

[simond]

Yes, I think that the above is undoubtedly the right advice from Worcester Bosch - if the OP was installing a new boiler. But his is already installed, not working, due to the condense pipe being blocked.

The OP said he was running his condense pipe into a bucket. The only way you could connect a pipe to the Worcester 30CDi is via the internal trap, so ergo it must be in place.

Saying the 'the condense pipework forms part of the flue and as such is classed as part of the combustion process' is not correct. The fact is that if anyone cuts their condense pipe in two on a Worcester boiler and most other small domestics, no one is going to die and it is not classed as part of the combustion process.

If I cut the condense pipe on my 1981 designed Archie Kidd VHE it would be a different matter, but these were made long before boiler manufacturers decided to fit traps internally.

 

[ollski]

Very much doubt that the waste pipe is blocked with the oxide, it's heavy and stays in the trap. Regards to an open end on the condensate pipe, it is only the water in the trap stopping fumes from escaping the open end. If the water disappears (intermittent use / evaporation) it's possible for high levels of co to be discharged into the property until the trap refilled. Cut inside property - never, cut outside - pah.

 

[Agile]

I believe that Gas Safe consider a condensate pipe terminating in an indoor bucket as At Risk.

There is a sticky white jelly like compound often produced which easily blocks horizontal pipes. I think this is an aluminium hydroxide.

So it should be dissolvable with any acid which produces a soluble aluminium salt.

It would seem that it should dissolve in a weaker solution of hydrochloric acid.

Tony

 

[simond]

Not in my Unsafe Situations Procedure guide they don't. You made that up, didn't you, Tony?

Total fiction, declared as fact.


So, if I fit a condensate lifter under my Worcester 30CDi conndensate pipe, that is At Risk, is it?

Or if I terminate my condense pipe into a washing machine upstand, that is At Risk also?

And they say Wikipedia is full of nonsense. FFS, sometimes this forum really irritates me. I'm off.