No Water or Heating for days

[Sherwood93]

Hi, I’m hoping if someone can help me, I’m a DIY novice! On Friday morning we woke up and both the heating and water weren't working (apart from the kitchen tap cold). The temperature on Thursday night was -7, and it hasn’t got much warmer, up to about 0 degrees. I’m assuming I have a frozen pipe somewhere in the house, but I’m unsure and if so I would struggle to find it.

The house is a detached dorma bungalow, with the water cylinder and vessel on the 1st floor in an airing cupboard and the combi boiler in the utility room on the ground floor. The pipes run through the eaves in order to reach one another. Our condensation pipe is inside and feeds into an internal soil stack.

I’ve been looking at the water cylinder this morning as 2 days with no heat and water is starting to become an issue. When I was looking at it I saw that the Tundish was full of water, some dripping on the floor boards. Since then the water levels in the tundish and the pipe below has started to drop, which I’m assuming is a good thing.

Can anyone help with getting our water and heating back on?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Notch7]

I’m really sorry to hear that, you must be absolutely frozen.

can’t help on your prob I’m afraid, but I’m sure a pro will give you advice.

 

[terryplumb]

Is water flowing from hot taps ,but just not hot ? Does hot water cylinder have electric immersion heaters that you could use ?
The tundish shouldn't have water in it at all , that's an issue for a G3 plumber to look into. The fact that it does and it can't escape indicates the pipe is frozen.
What boiler make and model do you have ,is it showing any fault codes ?

 

[Sherwood93]

No the water is not flowing from the taps at all, hot or cold, apart from the kitchen sink which can generate cold only, if you turn to hot it doesn’t work.

Boiler is a baxi combi.

Originally it wasn’t showing an error, but then the pressure went to 0 and it started showing E119, nothing happens when you try to repressurise. Since yesterday we have turned off the boiler as that is what we were advised to do

 

[oldbuffer]

1. At a guess I'd say the cold water mains to the combi is frozen. somewhere between the kitchen cold tap and the boiler itself.
2. However, the fact that the boiler pressure has dropped to zero also suggests there is a burst pipe or fitting somewhere.
3. I'd:
3.1 Turn off the main stopcock to the property.
3.2 Try and find the cold pipe to the boiler and warm it gently and slowly. Pipes burst when they thaw, not when they freeze, so go gently.
3.3 From time to time see if water is coming through by turning the water back on and seeing if you can re-pressurise the boiler.
4. Its possible that something inside the boiler has been damaged or the cold feed pipe bursts, and water will leak. If so:
4.1 Turn the main stopcock off again.
4.2 Put a full bore isolation valve on the cold feed to the boiler. (If its the boiler that leaks, there is already a valve for this purpose underneath it).
4.3 Turn the stopcock on. You will be no better off, but now worse off, than at present.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

....
3.2 Try and find the cold pipe to the boiler and warm it gently and slowly. Pipes burst when they thaw, not when they freeze, so go gently.
....

All good advice except that one- pipes do burst when they freeze but they don't start leaking til the water melts. At least burst placcie is easy to spot (you'll see the barrier layer)

 

[terryplumb]

You have a combi boiler ,and a hot water cylinder ??
Show us pics of both please.

 

[Sherwood93]

 

[gas112]

edit

 

[Sherwood93]

You will see that the the L shaped pipe came off, that’s when it was thawing. So originally the pressure was fine, and then this pipe popped off. I got all of the ice out of it and have re applied it.

 

[martygturner]

condesate drain is blocked

 

[terryplumb]

Your boiler isnt configured as a combi, that would heat water on demand when hot taps are turned on.
The cold water supply to the cylinder is probably frozen,unfortunately it's anyone's guess as to where the ice plug is, you would know better than us where the coldest place is likely to be where that pipe runs.
Not sure what you have removed ice from ,is it the braided filling loop ?

 

[Sherwood93]

Your boiler isnt configured as a combi, that would heat water on demand when hot taps are turned on.
The cold water supply to the cylinder is probably frozen,unfortunately it's anyone's guess as to where the ice plug is, you would know better than us where the coldest place is likely to be where that pipe runs.
Not sure what you have removed ice from ,is it the braided filling loop

I think you’re right with the cold water supply to the cylinder, I’m tempted to try and let it thaw out because as you mentioned it could be anywhere. I’ve circled the bit I’m talking about, it’s the pipe that connects a pipe going from the wall to the area where the pressure valve is

 

[terryplumb]

The braided flexible hose is your filling loop ,was that frozen, and can you now top up system pressure ?
As your kitchen tap works ,where is that filling loop in relation to the sink ?

 

[Sherwood93]

No it was the filling loop that was frozen, it was the pipe that the filling loop is connected to, which then runs through to an outdoor pipe. Still can’t top up system pressure but I’m guessing that could be because there is another blockage elsewhere. The sink is in the middle of the room, connected directly to where the mains what stopcock is