Condensing Boilers: Daily Mail Article

So all these frozen condensate drains were figments of the owners imagination?

Tim

Reply to
Tim Downie
Loading thread data ...

Daily Mail bolleaux.

Plumbing trade secrets; 1) water freezes at 0 degC and

2) shit flows downhill.

Is this too technical for the UK plumbing industry? Yes, apparently it is. What do they do in Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, USA, etc., where they use condensing boilers AND they have serious amounts of snow and ice in winters that last for months? Simple; run the condense pipe indoors OR lag it and trace heat it. Lagging alone will reduce the risk of freezing, but will not prevent it. The pipe has to be open to the atmosphere and the air inside will be freezing.

Reply to
Onetap

I said "many" not all, maybe all the ones that froze were condensing and wouldn't have frozen if the owner knew that they could wind the return temp up and avoid condensate going down the pipe? There you are just wind them up to be non condensing when they are using most gas, easy if somewhat expensive.

Reply to
dennis

Why does it have to be open? Inside ones are not always open so why external ones.

Reply to
dennis

Ah - the Bile Duct strikes again.

Reply to
Skipweasel

The statement under the photo:

"In cold weather, the pipe that takes waste water from the back of the condensing boiler - which isn?t there in a normal boiler - freezes solid, shutting down the system."

Inaccurate scaremongering bollocks. It's not the boiler manufacturers' fault if it is installed incompetently.

Reply to
Vortex10

So how did the condensate pipe manage to freeze then?

Reply to
ARWadsworth

But enough about Kevin Lunn.

Reply to
Steve Firth

It's popular because it allows comments. The bigots can rehearse their prejudices and the rest of us can show our superior intellect

Reply to
Tony Bryer

Not a lot. When I installed my first condensing boiler - sad choice, a Potterton Envoy - I was in a hurry to have it working so the condensate drain went into a bucket on the kitchen worktop. From memory I collected a bucket full every 3-4 days. The recovered energy is roughly equal to what it would take to boil this quantity of water away as steam.

Reply to
Tony Bryer

So does the Independent online.

Reply to
Tim Watts

Reply to
Bob Eager

'Illegal to fit any other kind' - exceptions apply I thought.

'£2000 for a better new boiler' - £1000 nearer the mark.

Most of the first half, and the final sentence, of the article refers to installation problems, not the boiler or its technology.

'No point replacing a functioning older boiler' - 2 points - scrappage, cheaper to run.

A number of points require technical knowledge - condensing temps, acidic water and corrosion. I see little point trusting that source, although from what little I know I do think the whole condensing boiler issue has been poorly thought through.

Rob

Reply to
Rob

Yes, I don't follow that, and as I posted, gallons of condensate has come out of my boiler in the past week or two.

Reply to
Rob

My plumber told me 1L p/hour at full tilt . . .

Rob

Reply to
Rob

  • the pluming presumably?? Would it be true that any water condensing outside( pluming) the boiler, or to be more precise the heat exchanger is a loss of energy. It follows that a condensing boiler that plumes a lot is less efficient than one that plumes a little? I can't quite get my head round that proposition, but it's an interesting one :-)

Don

Reply to
Donwill

There's a big difference between the plume from a condensing and non condensing boiler.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Which parts of this 'unnecessary complexity' do you think will fail? I know the PCBs on some badly designed boilers give trouble - but then so did those on some non condensing types.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Because those buying crappy boilers will use crappy installers. The latter sadly seems to be most.

I dunno about other boilers, but mine gives explicit instructions on how to install the drain. To prevent it freezing.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

In article , Rob writes

Hint for dennis: *warm* condensate.

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.