IMPORTANT COLD WEATHER ADVICE.

We have been inundated with phone calls – mainly due to frozen condensate pipes on boilers.

If you are experiencing any of the following:-

Your boiler has a white or black pipe going outside and –

You have no heating or hot water
The boiler is making a bubbling noise and displaying a fault code such as A01, EA, “Ionisation fault”, L2, F4 or E13, then chances are this pipe has frozen.

To thaw the pipe out, heat up a kettle and pour warm but not boiling water over the pipe, this may take a few attempts to melt the ice inside the pipe. Once the ice has melted reset your boiler and it should fire up.

If you normally turn your heating off at night we would recommend leaving it on during these extreme temperatures with your thermostat set at around 16 or 18 degrees.

If you have no water coming out of your taps then the pipes have frozen. If you know where it has frozen then try heating the pipework using a hair dryer on low heat. If you don’t know where the pipes have frozen then you will need to let the pipes thaw naturally.

If pipes have frozen then there is a higher chance pipes can burst as the temperatures rise as the pipes thaw out naturally. We recommend you know the location of your mains stop cock in your house so that the water can be turned off in an emergency.

Good luck and stay safe!