Worcester 28i Greenstar boiler fault

[wayne71]

Hi, 2 days ago I noticed my pressure was low on the boiler so topped it up to 1.5 bar, at the same time I noticed it making a a 'gurgling' noise, not sure how long its been like this as its located in the garage, however the boiler was still working and the blue light was not flashing.

I did some googling and found that the cause was a frozen condensate pipe (its located outside and only 22mm with no lagging), anyway I defrosted it and insulated it which stopped the gurgling noise and on the face of it the boiler appears to be working.

However I noticed that a constant drip now appears to be coming from the condensate pipe so before leaving for work at 0600 today I placed a jug under the pipe, I've just got home and found almost a pint of water has been lost although the pressure on the boiler remains at around 1.5 bar.

I emailed worcester and they suggested it could be a faulty heat exchanger but then went onto say it shouldnt fail on a 4 year old boiler?

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[Agile]

Even worcester should know that when the boiler is operating it produces 1-2 litres of condensate water per hour !

Tony

 

[wayne71]

So you're saying thats a normal amount of water from the condensate pipe?

Sorry for sounding thick but where does all this water come from if I only top it up once in a blue moon?

 

[Agile]

The condensate is produced by burning the gas!

CH4 and 2O² = 2H²O + CO² etc !

Tony

 

[wayne71]

Thanks

 

[davetommo66]

Hi my name is Anna and this is the first time i have used a forum, i must say it's fantastic....saved us a heap of money and trouble, and has gained us some experience we can pass on. Yesterday morning(07.01.10 )we awoke to find no hot water and no heating, our boiler being a worcester 28i greenstar junior, installed about 3 years ago had flashing lights and reset's etc.Before leaving for work....(which is a task on it's own in this weather) we tried to re-start the boiler, to no avail as it was gurgling and banging, when we arrived home from work still no heating....we have a gas fire and under floor heating so by no means were we freezing. How ever, we were still angry at having such a "young boiler" go wrong, my husband then started googling and low and behold a forum relating to 28i juniors....we had the same description of faults as a couple of people and their advice was exceptional....one person (and a massive thanks) suggested that hot water poured over the "over flow" pipe which is situated outside would poss solve the problem, as it was possibly frozen due to the extreme temp -12 , we tried the hot water thing and although it didnt work fully, the boiler wasn't as noisy as it had been previously when it tried to fire up, (which was a good sign i thought)later we had an electric radiator placed under the boiler which was high up on the wall thinking the inside of the boiler was frozen...this was actually correct...after much heating of elec radiator and heating of the over flow pipe the boiler sprung to life.what a wonderful noise that was!! Please people out there defrost the over flow pipe,our's is 22mm copper, we used a cheap blow torch from the local Wickes. ( use outside only on copper pipes) or if you can use a hairdryer..especially if the over flow pipe is plastic. If you think about it the overflow pipe is in the sub zero temps and the water will freeze and gradually creep up into the boiler where the water is....(think about it !!) the boiler needs air and needs an over flow if either of them are blocked they will not work, war and peace i know but i had to tell people our story.thanks for all the advice. (we have joined British Gas home care/sure just incase) and yes our boiler is still working!!! yaaaaaaay yep yep yep !!!