Help, potterton suprima 50 leaking water all over my kitchen

[AL]

As it says really, woke up this morning to a cold house. Go downstairs and boiler reset light is flashing and a large puddle of water under hte boiler. Anyways, I was running late for work and didn't have chance to have a propper look so for now i have isolated the mains supply to the boiler.

So can anyone tell me what the likely suspect is? I am guessing the heat exchanger but i'm no expert, kinda hoping it's just a compression joint that's come undone - wishful thinking. I suppose I'm going to need a plumber

 

[Agile]

It could be a joint above the boiler.

If its the c.i. HE then its questionable that the boiler is worth repairing. If it has failed then its usually due to dirt in the system and that needs to be addressed.

I think you need a boiler engineer rather than a plumber!

Tony Glazier

 

[AL]

cheers matey,

I've got this afternoon off so i'll take the thing to bits and see if i can see where the leak is. Failing that i suppose i'll have to get a boiler engineer give him my left arm and leg for him to tell me it's all knackered and I need a new boiler

Just damn annoying as it's less than 5 years old and this is the second time it's broke on me, first time i had the pcb problem now a leak.

 

[AL]

Oh my god, you ain't going to believe this sh*t!

I've gone home and switched into colombo mode (minus the cigar).

Some things just occurred to me:

* It rained a lot last night
* a guy at work infact said it was almost horizontal rain
* The water in my kitchen was clear, not the black gunky stuff that comes out of my heating system, more like rain water you might say?
* The boiler was very wet on the inside, including on top of the heat exchanger but yet no pipework was leaking.......
* I removed the pipe from the fan (temporarily) and a load of clear water ****ed out.

In conclusion I have deduced that the flooding in my kitchen is in fact rain water damage, not a leaking boiler as such. Because of the location of the boiler (on the outside wall) and the flu goes straight out, I reckon the rain water has gone in the flu, flooded the boiler and leaked out of it! look at the photos below: Is there some kind of cap i can put over the flu exit to stop this happening again?

Although I do still have to prove my theory but I'm pretty certain this is what happened. I should get my own TV show

 

[gstens baxi]

From your pictures the flue has not been installed correctly as it is supposed to protrude more.

 

[AL]

You are probably right. I guess this is what happens when you pay the extra to get the so called professionals to do a job.

And by the way, it was a 'reputable' company that carried out the work and they were corgi registered, for what it's worth.

I guess it would also have been better if they had installed the flue so that it sloped downward towards the ground upon exit rather than slightly up?

I guess it's true what they say, if you want something doing right, do it yourself!

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

The bricks in the 'splash zone' of the canopy look darker to me! Is there a leaking gutter joint above it? That could account for the sudden concentration of water

 

[Agile]

The outer of the flue should protrude about 50-80 mm from the wall.

The flue should slope downwards about 3 degrees to prevent water entering the boiler.

The hole around the flue should be sealed with cement.

Tony

 

[keego]

I had the same thing on my boiler last year, turned out it was the overflow from the toilet cistern which was directly above the flue & only leaked during the night, it happened a couple of times before the penny dropped.