This happened a few days before Christmas Day
I flipped on the shower, fetched my towel, jumped under the water and jumped straight back out again.
It was freezing.
When I got downstairs and checked the boiler it was in a state of suspended animation.
I did the ‘reset’ button-pushing thing and the boiler switched itself off.
It came back to life but instead of doing the click whoosh, the burner didn’t burn.
Click click click.
I did the ‘reset’ button-pushing thing again.
Off.
Click click click.
I called people and went to work. Showerless.
Two hours later I had an email.
Apparently condenser boilers are prone to switching themselves off when the weather gets chilly and by chilly I mean excessively cold and by excessively cold I mean lower than, say, -15c.
The temperature had got down to -19c in the night.
So us folk with condensing boilers have pieces of equipment that don’t work when it gets *really* chilly.
That’s good.
Isn’t it?
It’s posts like this that make this one of my favourite blogs.
Since we had the conservatory fitted so that the boiler is no longer on an outside wall it’s behaved far more sensibly. So clearly the solution is to spend thousands putting an expensive greenhouse on the end of your home. Job done.
First, Operational Risk Management – i.e., check water temperature before jumping into the shower.
Second, read this:
http://robertkyriakides.wordpress.com/2009/01/10/why-your-gas-condensing-boiler-may-stop-working-in-very-cold-weather/
If your condensate pipe is freezing, you may be able to use some heat tape to keep it flowing – essentially a thermal system enema.
I’ll bet you had a chilly willy right enough!
Minus 19! In Witney? Oh my god, that is bloody freezing. I can only try to imagine the horror of jumping into a shower with freezing water … it has even got to be worse than using a public toilet and finding that the seat is still warm.