Heating

Woke up this morning to find that the central heating boiler had packed up.

British Gas can't get anyone to me till tomorrow

Deep Joy

To Brum,
Has your gas boiler got a condensate trap pipe fitted? This is the plastic pipe that allows the acid to flow away to the drain from the boiler. It is normally sited through the outside wall.

Do a quick check.... This pipe will freeze up causing the acid+water to block and back up to the boiler. A quick blow job preferably with a hair dryer on it will soon sort things out!


I have just checked my central heating oil tank reading. To play safe, realising the weather may get worse and with one months oil left in the tank, I ordered a 'full top up.'

Just been quoted 70p a litre. Normally it is around 43p at this time of the year! The conning ba****ds!!!! That's a lot of money xtra for 1000litres

Ours comes on the first of October, never mind what the weather is like and goes off 1st April, ditto. Mrs F can't understand why.

brum wrote:

Woke up this morning to find that the central heating boiler had packed up.

British Gas can't get anyone to me till tomorrow

Deep Joy

Check you batteries. (assuming you have any in your controls).

alan8376 wrote:

To Brum,
Has your gas boiler got a condensate trap pipe fitted? This is the plastic pipe that allows the acid to flow away to the drain from the boiler. It is normally sited through the outside wall.

Do a quick check.... This pipe will freeze up causing the acid+water to block and back up to the boiler. A quick blow job preferably with a hair dryer on it will soon sort things out!


I have just checked my central heating oil tank reading. To play safe, realising the weather may get worse and with one months oil left in the tank, I ordered a 'full top up.'

Just been quoted 70p a litre. Normally it is around 43p at this time of the year! The conning ba****ds!!!! That's a lot of money xtra for 1000litres

That's exactly the problem mate. Compounded by the fact that the pipe runs above a lean-to type conservatory.

Breaking every H&S rule in the book I knocked the pipe off (completely full of ice) and had water running from the boiler but the cow still wouldn't fire up.

Anyway, got in from the Xmas feeding frenzy this afternoon and tried again. Lo and Behold, the bugger started up ! !

We are now basking in centrally-heated warmth again.

I grew up in the 1940s, how did we survive without central heating ?

Not to mention outside bogs. Well we were poor! All say ahh.

Good for you Brum. Glad I could help.

Once a REME always a REME. I can't let go of fixing things..... I am not into solving heating problems normally, but picked that tip up along the way last year.

Guys, take note!
80% of boiler break downs in freezing conditions are caused by the Condensate Pipe freezing up and plugging itself.

A tip! If you can up the diameter of the Condensate pipe that is outside the house then do it, AND OR fit the thickest lagging around that pipe you can buy, and I am NOT talking about the skimpy lagging that you buy from your local DIY store. Go round to a proper plumbing shop.

I wouldn't even know where to look, but good that Brum has heating again.

Just checked my condesation pipe after reading this, frozen solid and the pipe has split. Have thawed it out before my boiler packs up.

Would all pers who found my 'Condensation Pipe' tip useful, please donate to my bank account in Switzerland!

PM me for details.

Signed Julian A

Is that a sort of "Boilerleaks" thing?

"He,he" Good one!

Brum, you're right. How did we survive in the old days without central heating? I'll tell you. We never even noticed most of the time. I think that, to an extent, we were hardened to the cold. My old man used to have us kids out on the bombed sites looking for bits of coal. The weather would be freezing, and it might take a couple of hours to fill a small bucket, but we did it, mostly without complaint. Today's kids wouldn't survive.
We sat all day in school with an open fire at the end of the class-room. The teacher would usually be stood in front of it, so we kids had to wear coats.
Happy days.
That said, in the early sixties, the camp at Worthy Down, Winchester, had coal-burning stoves in the barrack blocks. Very primative. Not to mention the cockroaches in the cook-house.

7 Armd Workshops Fallingbostel accomodation still had coke fires in each room even in 1972.

Hildesheim, Tofrek Barracks in 1966 had a barracks central boiler which feed all the central heating in all the blocks. Coupled with the secondary glazing this made life nice and warm.

alan8376 wrote:

Hildesheim, Tofrek Barracks in 1966 had a barracks central boiler which feed all the central heating in all the blocks. Coupled with the secondary glazing this made life nice and warm.

I believe there was a similar arrangement on the MQ estate at Mönchen-gladbach. The heating was apparently supplied by a rubbish-burning incinerator. That would be 1960.

Dolmetscher wrote:

alan8376 wrote:

Hildesheim, Tofrek Barracks in 1966 had a barracks central boiler which feed all the central heating in all the blocks. Coupled with the secondary glazing this made life nice and warm.

I believe there was a similar arrangement on the MQ estate at Mönchen-gladbach. The heating was apparently supplied by a rubbish-burning incinerator. That would be 1960.

I haven't got a clue where the communal boiler was for our MQ's in Wildenrath but the radiators could get extremely hot and the hot water was positively dangerous.

In the block next to mine, two young children were scalded to death when the eldest one turned the hot tap on when they were in the bath. The mother had only gone outside to get her washing in. I had to drive to the camp to get an ambulance. Very tragic.

In Moscow, all those massive apartment blocks are provided with free heating and hot water. The heating is by radiators which you can not turn on or off individually. The city decides when its cold or not and turns on the heating. The heat is a by product of their coal/oil fired power stations and is piped all round the city. Amazing. The hot water comes from the same source. There is no such thing at temperature control. Its either hot or its not. You could turn your hot water tap on, go on holiday for a month, and when you get back it will still be running red hot. In Summer each sector of the city in turn has its hot water shut down for a few weeks while the pipes are repaired, most Muscovites simply take cold showers, we had a small electric water heater for such occasions. It was so hot in the apartment that at -25 outside we had to have windows open.

We had the same in the "Battleship" in Oerlinghausen, lovely, loads and loads of hot water and you didn't have to worry about the bill.

Jim, I think that the majority of MSQ Flats in Germany worked like that. When we lived in Flats in Dortmund and Gutersloh we paid Pfennigs Fuel and Light per month and then in the Spring we got a rebate, don't know how it worked but never complained (or asked)!

Listening to some of you I feel mollycuddled. I grew up with double glazing, central heating and hot water on tap.

Some excercises and battle camps were spent roughing it but I never complained - just accepted it. My parents, on the other hand, grew up in the 30s and 40s so in a way must have lavished the luxury of central heating and safe living.

On that note, I recall my parents being burgled in the early nineties in Bielefeld where they had civvy hirings - my mother was awfully distraught and threw lots of personal clothing away. Cash was taken as well as jewelerry - the cash wasnt worth much as it can be replaced but the jewelerry was family hand downs - seeing my mum like that and just having returned from a tour in West Belfast I was ready to skin the little ******** that did that.

Wimp!

Yep, MQ's Blocks in BAOR you paid 'Heating & Lighting' Houses you had your own bill (I think)

My first MQ was at Longmoor in a 30's house with open fires in every room. I hired Calar Gas heaters to suppliment it upstairs but had an open fire which heated the water in front room.

Second MQ at Borden had Gas Fired CH but also a 'Rayburn' Coke fire which was a doodle to keep burning.

jim wrote:

Wimp!

LOL

Mike_2817 wrote:

Second MQ at Borden had Gas Fired CH but also a 'Rayburn' Coke fire which was a doodle to keep burning.

Reminds me of a hiring I had in Ireland (Lambeg). Lovely bungalow with a Rayburn in the kitchen. You could burn practically anything on it.
I used to keep a dog ferret, there, and hunt rabbits on the sandhills at the back of the house. Fishing in the river Lagan was only a couple of hundred yards away.
Bliss.

Mike_2817 wrote:

Yep, MQ's Blocks in BAOR you paid 'Heating & Lighting' Houses you had your own bill (I think)

My first MQ was at Longmoor in a 30's house with open fires in every room. I hired Calar Gas heaters to suppliment it upstairs but had an open fire which heated the water in front room.

Second MQ at Borden had Gas Fired CH but also a 'Rayburn' Coke fire which was a doodle to keep burning.

Don't suppose you can get coke anywhere now as they don't make coal gas? Maybe in a third world country? Used to sting the eyes when the cocky watchman had his brazier going and us kids would sit and keep him company. Would have been a great job for a paedophile thinking about it but none ever bothered kids that I heard of.