The Boiler Says NO.

posted by Jaitu at 17:58

As the alarm went off at damn-it's-early o'clock this morning my pregnant wife got up and I stretched out across the bed to enjoy my twenty minutes of morning comfort while she showered. Moments later she called to me that there was no hot water. Even as I walked, bleary-eyed, to the boiler cupboard my senses were telling me it was colder than normal in the house. The recent cold snap has caused our boiler to throw a strop. The most likely reason is that the condensate pipe that runs out through the side of the house had frozen and the safety features on the boiler had shut it down. I attempted to reset it but the ignition sequence failed again.
So Nim and I washed using a pan of boiled water and got ready for work. As we were leaving the house an hour later I thought I'd give it one more go and the damn thing fired up.
I'd noticed that the system pressure gauge was also on the low side - another reason the boiler might protest. So when I walked into the disappointingly cold house tonight I went straight to it and worked through the refilling procedure to get the pressure back up. Sadly the boiler still would not ignite leaving me in little doubt that it is the condensate pipe. With temperatures forcast to stay in single figures for the rest of the week and the exterior pipe being in twenty four hour shadow things are not looking good for a quick thaw.