Woke up this morning to find a d1 error - condensate pipe/trap blocked
on my Vokera. Frozen, obviously - except it couldn't be, because it
routes to an internal waste stack. I extracted the pipe and trap from
inside the boiler and found the pipe blocked with a load of black
gritty gunk (which apparently is due to the condensate dissolving the
aluminium heat exchanger?). Cleaned that out, still didn't work.
Faffed around a bit, and it started working, presumably because some
condensate higher up had finally cleared the sensor. Put it back
together, working boiler

So ice isn't the only problem. Question is, is this level of blockage
normal? Or is my heat exchanger on its last legs?

In article ,
Ben Blaukopf writes:
Woke up this morning to find a d1 error - condensate pipe/trap blocked
on my Vokera. Frozen, obviously - except it couldn't be, because it
routes to an internal waste stack. I extracted the pipe and trap from
inside the boiler and found the pipe blocked with a load of black
gritty gunk (which apparently is due to the condensate dissolving the
aluminium heat exchanger?). Cleaned that out, still didn't work.
Faffed around a bit, and it started working, presumably because some
condensate higher up had finally cleared the sensor. Put it back
together, working boiler

So ice isn't the only problem. Question is, is this level of blockage
normal? Or is my heat exchanger on its last legs?

My (Keston) runs at low temp - typically 45 flow, 32 return.
I have had a couple of cases of something slimy/jelly-like
growing in the bottom of the heat exchanger, and blocking
the drain hole. You will get a build up of burned insects
and the like there, which were sucked in the air intake.
If you run the boiler at very low temperature like I do,
this can form the basis for some organic growths, and even
if you don't, that debris itself can block things if it
builds up.

To clear out debris which collects in the bottom of the
heat exchanger before it builds up enough to block the outlet,
I now pour a couple of pints of water into the flue terminal a
couple of times a year, which with my Celcius 25 does result in
washing away any solids collecting on the bottom of the heat
exchanger, and it hasn't blocked for some years now. I don't
know if this is safe for all condensing boilers (but certainly
don't make a mistake and pour it in the air intake - that's
probably rather fatal in most cases). However, it's a lot
easier that taking the burner off the top of the heat exchanger
and flushing through with water, which is what the service
instructions expect you to do (and always requires a new
gasket, as a new gasket breaks into about 20 pieces the first
time you fire up the boiler).

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Jan 18, 11:40*am, (Andrew Gabriel)
wrote:
In article ,
* * * * Ben Blaukopf writes:

Woke up this morning to find a d1 error - condensate pipe/trap blocked
on my Vokera. Frozen, obviously - except it couldn't be, because it
routes to an internal waste stack. I extracted the pipe and trap from
inside the boiler and found the pipe blocked with a load of black
gritty gunk (which apparently is due to the condensate dissolving the
aluminium heat exchanger?). Cleaned that out, still didn't work.
Faffed around a bit, and it started working, presumably because some
condensate higher up had finally cleared the sensor. Put it back
together, working boiler

So ice isn't the only problem. Question is, is this level of blockage
normal? Or is my heat exchanger on its last legs?

My (Keston) runs at low temp - typically 45 flow, 32 return.
I have had a couple of cases of something slimy/jelly-like
growing in the bottom of the heat exchanger, and blocking
the drain hole. You will get a build up of burned insects
and the like there, which were sucked in the air intake.
If you run the boiler at very low temperature like I do,
this can form the basis for some organic growths, and even
if you don't, that debris itself can block things if it
builds up.

To clear out debris which collects in the bottom of the
heat exchanger before it builds up enough to block the outlet,
I now pour a couple of pints of water into the flue terminal a
couple of times a year, which with my Celcius 25 does result in
washing away any solids collecting on the bottom of the heat
exchanger, and it hasn't blocked for some years now. I don't
know if this is safe for all condensing boilers (but certainly
don't make a mistake and pour it in the air intake - that's
probably rather fatal in most cases). However, it's a lot
easier that taking the burner off the top of the heat exchanger
and flushing through with water, which is what the service
instructions expect you to do (and always requires a new
gasket, as a new gasket breaks into about 20 pieces the first
time you fire up the boiler).

Ta.

In the "faffed about" stage, I was reading the bit in the manual about
the heat exchanger and replacing seals, and deciding that was a step
too far.

I presume that if I simply identify which bit of the flue the plume is
coming out of, I'm unlikely to go far wrong, provided it doesn't run
downhill to the outside!

In article ,
Ben Blaukopf writes:
Ta.
In the "faffed about" stage, I was reading the bit in the manual about
the heat exchanger and replacing seals, and deciding that was a step
too far.
I presume that if I simply identify which bit of the flue the plume is
coming out of, I'm unlikely to go far wrong, provided it doesn't run
downhill to the outside!

Someone familiar with the insides of your boiler would need
to comment on that - I'm not.

ISTM it shouldn't do any harm because condensation in the flue
needs to run back into the boiler anyway and be drained out,
but that path might not flush the base of the heat exchanger,
and might not be able to handle more than a tiny trickle in all
cases.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On 18/01/2013 16:33, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Ben Blaukopf writes:
Ta.
In the "faffed about" stage, I was reading the bit in the manual about
the heat exchanger and replacing seals, and deciding that was a step
too far.
I presume that if I simply identify which bit of the flue the plume is
coming out of, I'm unlikely to go far wrong, provided it doesn't run
downhill to the outside!

Someone familiar with the insides of your boiler would need
to comment on that - I'm not.

ISTM it shouldn't do any harm because condensation in the flue
needs to run back into the boiler anyway and be drained out,
but that path might not flush the base of the heat exchanger,
and might not be able to handle more than a tiny trickle in all
cases.


Presumably with the "concentric" flues, the vent is always on the inside
with the intake as the annulus

On Fri, 18 Jan 2013 02:35:31 -0800, Ben Blaukopf wrote:

Woke up this morning to find a d1 error - condensate pipe/trap blocked
on my Vokera. Frozen, obviously - except it couldn't be, because it
routes to an internal waste stack. I extracted the pipe and trap from
inside the boiler and found the pipe blocked with a load of black gritty
gunk (which apparently is due to the condensate dissolving the aluminium
heat exchanger?). Cleaned that out, still didn't work. Faffed around a
bit, and it started working, presumably because some condensate higher
up had finally cleared the sensor. Put it back together, working boiler


So ice isn't the only problem. Question is, is this level of blockage
normal? Or is my heat exchanger on its last legs?

If I understand what is going on (which is questionable) when my Worcester
Bosch combi is first powered up it runs in a special low temperature mode
and also primes the condensate drain.

So perhaps all I would need to do was power off then on again every 6
months or so.

Cheers

Dave R


--
Pan in Vista on second Vista PC.

On Friday, 18 January 2013 10:35:31 UTC, Ben Blaukopf wrote:
Woke up this morning to find a d1 error - condensate pipe/trap blocked

on my Vokera. Frozen, obviously - except it couldn't be, because it

routes to an internal waste stack. I extracted the pipe and trap from

inside the boiler and found the pipe blocked with a load of black

gritty gunk (which apparently is due to the condensate dissolving the

aluminium heat exchanger?). Cleaned that out, still didn't work.

Faffed around a bit, and it started working, presumably because some

condensate higher up had finally cleared the sensor. Put it back

together, working boiler



So ice isn't the only problem. Question is, is this level of blockage

normal? Or is my heat exchanger on its last legs?

Woke up this morning with water dripping from my sabre boiler, took it apart and found that water was somehow getting into the combustion chamber,checked condensate trap and it was empty ,stripped out condensate pipe back to the Condensing unit it was blocked solid with ash like grit, Condensing unit itself was blocked as well and full of water cleaned them all out and boiler returned to normal operation