Vaillant condensate trap has rust in it

[Roddy Young]

Hello,

today I cleaned the condensate trap of our EcoTec Plus 618 which is 11 years old.

The plastic is discoloured orange and there was about 4mm of black rust granules at the bottom of it.

Does this mean the burner chamber (or whatever it is called) is rusting?

Does it indicate I need to get the burner chamber replaced?

I'm disappointed that such an important part could be failing already.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Roddy

 

[cross thread]

First point if you are not gas safe registered you s not be interfering with the boiler . They do discolour after time and sometimes become brittle.

 

[opps]

First point if you are not gas safe registered you s not be interfering with the boiler . They do discolour after time and sometimes become brittle.

When did cleaning a condensate trap become a "gas safe" issue. I often repaired my previous boiler, a crappy Ocean Alpha 240p. I didn't touch anything related to the gas side of things and had been advised by gas safe plumbers that I know that I was not breaking the law.

 

[Madrab]

When did cleaning a condensate trap become a "gas safe" issue

The internal condensate and trap is considered part of the flue.

 

[Roddy Young]

I was curious to know if the rust implies a serious fault.

There is no way I would "tinker" with the boiler beyond checking this trap - which was shown to me by a Vaillant repair chap.....

 

[ianmcd]

I was curious to know if the rust implies a serious fault.

It isnt rust

 

[ScottishGasMan]

I was curious to know if the rust implies a serious fault.

There is no way I would "tinker" with the boiler beyond checking this trap - which was shown to me by a Vaillant repair chap.....

If you removed the trap then you tinkered with it, if you dont know why that could be dangerous then you are not competent enough to be touching it in the first place.

and its not rust. Pay someone to service your boiler properly.

 

[opps]

The internal condensate and trap is considered part of the flue.

Fair play, I hadn't realised that (or that the trap is internal- I was thinking of something outside the boiler and inline with the condensate pipe).

My (poorly) worded post was a (failed) attempt to counter the suggestion that you are not allowed to do any work on boilers unless you are gas safe (my inference).

For the record the following page on the Viessmann website which discusses the condensate trap does explicitly state that the work should only be carried out by a Gas Safe engineer.

https://www.viessmann.co.uk/heating-advice/how-to-clean-boiler-condensate-trap

 

[Madrab]

to counter the suggestion that you are not allowed to do any work on boilers unless you are gas saf

Not at all ... and that's a long running discussion. As we all know DIY gas work is technically not illegal, it all comes down to whether it is safe or sensible and whether it's actually worth the risk to life and limb to save a few quid.

The condensate and trap is directly connected to the combustion chamber in the boiler and if any of that was compromised then CO could leak into the room. Not ideal.