Stopping condensate waste freezing

[Welder]

Condensate outflow is for building regulations etc. considered as a flue and as such only gsr fitters should work on this area and all components and modifications be approved
Rob Foster aka centralheatking

Wow. Never knew that. Thank you Rob.

 

[king of pipes]

Easy way to stop freezing is fit a trace heating kit and lag up the pipework . Kop

 

[Rob Foster]

Condensermate ....coming to a merchants near you soon, just got to find a manufacturer first.
I am building up a brand....Top Up Mate, Condensermate, combimate..(not mine) centralheatking

 

[Rob Foster]

There is a trap on the waste before it goes outside so the open tee wouldn't be a problem.

Wrong, the trap must be inside or immediately at boiler in order to be safe, condensate is considered as a flue so thats like saying the internal section of a flue does not matter until it gets outside. Rob Foster aka centralheatking

 

[Rob Foster]

Easy way to stop freezing is fit a trace heating kit and lag up the pipework . Kop

View attachment 36491

Teddington Systems do a belting one. Rob Foster aka centralheatking

 

[Riley]

There is a trap on the waste before it goes outside so the open tee wouldn't be a problem.

There’s no logic to what you say there. All the same as Rob pertained to it is part of the flueingof the boiler and as such is not for DiY or modification

 

[fixitflav]

Are we talking about the same trap here? There's the one inside the boiler (which AFAIK all condensing boilers have) and one which might be installed downstream to prevent smells from the drain. As the outlet from the boiler trap is allowed to go into an open tundish I don't see why pipework after that point is part of the flue. But I could be wrong.

 

[Ric2013]

My condensate waste has only frozen up once and caused the boiler to switch off, this was on a particularly cold night. I thought of the following way of stopping the boiler switching off in the event of it freezing up again. The pipe drops out of the boiler vertically and then runs horizontally for about 900mm before it goes through the external wall into the drain. If I was to put a tee in the horizontal run with the branch set at 45 degrees and put a bucket under the tee on very cold nights. If the pipe should freeze up then the condensate would still be able to run out through the tee and the boiler shouldn't then switch off. Does anybody see any problems with this idea

Put an access plug on the tee?

To be frank, it sounds to me like an idea that can be described as 'stupid, but it works' and I'm quite impressed actually. If you're happy to manage the workaround and empty the bucket, I'm thinking go for it.

My only concern would be that, as the tee is internal, you would get blasts of cold air coming into the house via the tee and possibly drain smells also. Might be possible to put a running trap on the internal horizontal waste run after the tee to prevent these occurrences?

[EDIT - but if Rob Foster's right about the legality of the matter, then it might be better to wait until the gas installers have had their say before making a decision].

 

[david stanton]

can you use this and get your 'engineer' to attache it on next service visit for £10, 20, 30, 1000 etc?
https://www.NoLinkingToThis/p/mcalpine-condensate-pipe-clamp/3101v

 

[Rob Foster]

can you use this and get your 'engineer' to attache it on next service visit for £10, 20, 30, 1000 etc?
https://www.NoLinkingToThis/p/mcalpine-condensate-pipe-clamp/3101v

If the boiler has no internal trap then this component will not be safe in my opinion as it might vent naughty gas inside the building....which is what all the legislation is about oreventing. centralheatking