Cold weather and hard water
Condensing boilers drain water through a plastic pipe that can freeze, and hard water leaves scale inside hot parts. These entries cover both, plus what is and isn't known about sea air.
- Frozen condensate pipe
A frozen condensate pipe shuts a condensing boiler down in cold weather, and Worcester and Ideal user guides allow a thaw at ground level with warm, never boiling, water.
- Condensate pipe
A condensate pipe is the plastic waste pipe that carries water from a condensing boiler's flue gases to a drain.
- Flue and plume
A boiler flue plume is the white water vapour seen at the terminal of a condensing boiler, and makers describe it as normal.
- Limescale in a boiler
Limescale in a boiler is mineral scale left by hard water when it is heated.
- Hard water treatment
In a hard water area, a new boiler's feed water should be treated to reduce limescale under England's Approved Document L, which defines hard water as over 200ppm and asks for "suitable measures" rather than one product.
- South coast: hard water and sea air
South coast hard water comes from chalk: South East Water says most of its supply in southern England is hard, which matters for a boiler, and no official figure or rule on sea air was found.