Water Leaked from boiler in torrential rain - advice

[shooey]

Hi,

In yesterdays torrential rain, quite a bit of water started dripping from the bottom of my boiler but stopped once the rain stopped. This has never happened before as far as I know.

The Boiler is a Glow Worm Ultimate 40 BF (non-combi) about 10-12 years old, and you can hopefully see this in my album. Now I am going to get a plumber out to check the flue and check the boiler for damage, and obviously not use the central heating until that's been done. But as this might not be for a few days, I was looking for a bit of advice, as I panicked a little, and may have done some things I shouldn't of...

1) To try an let it all dry out, I lifted the top front cover (the one with the little window to view the pilot light), by unscrewing a couple of wing nuts, but have since put it back. Was that a bad idea? Is this meant to be air tight and will have to be resealed by the plumber?

2) I also covered the flue with plastic to stop any further rain entering, but tried to leave plenty of ventilation in the plastic. But then I decided to turn the gas of to be on the safe side. So, would it be OK to turn the gas back on and leave the plastic where it is? And should I relight the pilot light?

Many thanks for any help....

 

[DP]

Remove the plastic now as it will interfere with safe operation of boiler. There should be no restriction to free movement of air/ exhaust as stated in the manual. You will find most clearance are in order of 600mm or more

 

[Agile]

To avoid damage when water enters a boiler the electricity should be turned off immediately and kept off until an engineer has checked it.

Its better to keep the pilot light on as this produces heat which will help to dry out the boiler.

Tony

 

[shooey]

Hi,

Thanks for both replies.

I've now removed the plastic around the flue, have turned the gas back on, and have re-lit the pilot light.

My only concern now is the front cover (the one with the little window to view the pilot light) that I opened. Is this supposed to be air tight and does it have to be sealed by a professional? Does the fact that I opened it pose any problem in terms of leaving the boiler going with the pilot light lit (NOT using it for water/heating)?

Thanks

 

[Agile]

As long as it appears to be in place it should not pose any danger.

After all you run a cooker burner openly in your kitchen!

Tony