Leak below wall mounted boiler

[Dave West]

A Bosh boiler 'Greenstar Ri' was installed on the wall in our kitchen a couple of years ago. Just below the boiler in a deep cupboard-corner (that we hardly ever look into ). This plastic pipe runs into the drain pipe from the kitchen sink.

Yesterday we discovered that a saucepan in the cupboard that was directly under this plastic pipe had completely filled up with water.

See this photo on picture hosting site:

carefully from when the boiler was on from yesterday evening to a couple of hours into this morning, a teaspoon of water has dripped off it.

We have 'not' noticed this happening before, so we are not sure whether this might be a recent thing happening due to the snowy weather that we have had here in North London ?

The water seems to be dripping off the joint nearest to the camera in this photograph.

I'm guessing there is no pressure in this pipe. So is there a glue I could buy that I could just wipe around the joint to again seal it successfully? Or even some kind of sealing tape that would suffice?

[Andrew Gabriel]

Check the outside hasn't frozen, and caused a backup.

Solvent weld adhesive will glue the pipe. It might be that the top part of the joins were not glued and rely on gravity, and no backup.

[Dave West]

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Thanks. The pipe does not pass to the outside of the house. It drops down from the boiler which is on the inside on a kitchen wall and goes down through the work top to the sink drain pipe.

Would this solvent weld adhesive be alright to just smear around the outside of the joint ?

[Mr Pounder]

Condense drain pipe. If the joint will come off: ? Stop the flow of water: Take the joint off: Clean the inside, dry it and stuff a bit of silicone up there: Put it back together:

[newshound]

I've also cured leaks on things like cistern overflow joints and cistern to loo pan pipe simply by wrapping a bit of white pvc electrical tape firmly around the offending area. You can often do this without any dismantling. Crude but it works. Secret is to apply the tape while stretching it.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Not worth the risk - things need to be clean to get decent results.

It sounds like it's the condensate drain and simply pushed together, so should be easy to pull apart - at least far enough to clean up a bit.

[snot]

Those joints should have been glued together with solvent. If they are leaking then no/insufficient solvent has been used. Get some pipe gluing solvent, pull them apart and glue them properly. You might get away with applying solvent to the outside of the joint. Must be dry to adhere properly. Or, replace the fittings/pipe with push-on seal types. Dave

[Dave West]

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Thanks to all. I cannot pull the joints apart, as they have been glued. So I thought I would try smearing adhesive around the joint and then adding some plastic electricians's pvc tape wrapped around as suggested.

I dont have the Pukka solvent weld adhesive, would it worth trying some Evo-Stik impact adhesive that I have already ?

[Phil L]

In the absence of solvent weld, silicone sealant would be better, but dry the joint with tissue first.

Also, the condensate you found in your pan is mildly acidic, as is the spoonful that came out yesterday, try not to get it on a cut

[Fredxx]

I have used solvent weld adhesive as a means of building up plastic, so I see no reason why painting it on the outside of a dry pipe won't give a good seal.

[Fredxx]

Its not the same stuff and I'm not sure if will partly "dissolve" the plastic forming a true weld?

For the sake of a few ££ I would go and get the proper stuff. It's useful to have around and over time have repaired quite a few things with the stuff.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It certainly is. PVC doesn't glue that well, whereas the solvent weld makes a joint just about as strong as the original.

[John Stumbles]

can see in the picture or from higher up and running down the vertical section of pipe and just dropping off at the low point formed by the bottom leg of the angle joint? It could be a bad joint higher up or even within the boiler itself.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Some solvent welds contain dissolved plastic to form a filler, but that restricts the plastics they are suitable for use on. Others contain just the solvent, and can be used on more types of plastic.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Oil based gloss paint top coat (of the type no longer made) also works as a PVC solvent weld, although it won't be as good as the right stuff, it might work better as a 'paint on afterwards' method.

[Dave West]

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i wrapped cloth around it higher up to see if it was travelling down and was then able to locate the offending joint.

I put some evostik impact adhesive around the joint plus electricians tape. two days and so far no leaks. thanks to all

[Dave Plowman (News)]

No need to thanks anyone here as you didn't follow the advice given. ;-)