Rainwater entering boiler!

[sai_2]

Hi,

my boiler is leaking! Or so I thought..

A few weeks ago, I noticed water dripping out of the bottom of my boiler (a Suprima). It was raining quite hard at the time and after turning off the electricity and taking off the cover, I soon realised it was due to the rain coming INTO the boiler!!

I checked the roof, wall, etc around the boiler and it was all dry and I therefore assumed it was coming in through the external vent thing? Unless there is another way in?

I've circled in green on the pic where the water started pooling (it happened again tonight - heavy rains again) and I've circled in red where the exit pipe goes out to the outside (third floor flat, top).

Picture 2 shows a shot inside the boiler from where the water was pooling, before it fills the whole of the casing. Here I noticed that the black heat sink (?) is corroded.


Is this dangerous (first time it happened boiler went out. I mopped up/dried it with a hairdryer/let it air dry before turning it on again)?

Is the corrosion a problem? It could be that rain is coming in all the time, but only pooling when its very heavy rain.

Is there a way to prevent this - one-way exit type thing? A shield of some sort?

Picture 3 shows the outside view (there wasn't any water falling into it).

Any comments?!

Thanks!
Boiler

Inside boiler

Outside

 

[chrishutt]

It's difficult to tell from your photo (from which direction is terminal pic. taken?), but I would suspect that the flue/air duct is pointing slightly upwards towards the outside. It should slope very slightly down towards outside. Can you check this?

If this is the case, the flue/air duct will need to be refitted with the correct slope. Could be expensive. Do not attempt any modification or shielding yourself. You might inadvertently cause more serious problems with the flue.

PS. It looks from the top pic as if the boiler has a positive pressure casing (i.e. the fan draws air in to pressurise the inside of the boiler, this higher pressure then driving out flue gases via flue duct). This is potentially dangerous, and the casing cover should only be opened by a Corgi reg. person. Do not use the boiler unless casing cover is replaced by such a competent person.

 

[ChrisR]

the boiler has a positive pressure casing

Could that be because it's a Prima NOT a Suprima!!

Agree with chrisH - "Do Not Use , penalty £5000", label would be attached if I came across it.

 

[ollski]

profile / primas do suffer from condensation problems are you sure it might not be that and no rain?

 

[gstens baxi]

if the water only ingresses during heavy rain i would expect that the problem is not condensation. withe the boiler being positive pressure it will not allow boiler to light while case is off, but the appliance shield still only be worked on by a competant person.. the main point is no form of guard/ deflector can be put near enough to the flue outlet as it would not conform to gas safety regs. if you put it far enough away from flue to conform to regs it would probably not make any difference.