Advice on a boiler that exploded with water!

Hi Brian welcome to screwfix, you've come to the right place because 2 people are talking rubbish, the plumber and the landlord,
If the boiler was fitted correctly it would niether flood the gaff when it rains nor would it be possible to flood with over pressurizing , the boiler has safety failure devices which should spill out of the building should anyone over pressurize, and in my entire working life I've never seen a combi leak because a drain was blocked,

 

Landlord has used the same 'plumber' yeh right, for years, somat goes belly up and they hatch a plan........

 

Hi Brian, if it all happened as you report, then you should have nothing to worry about.

Of particular importance, I think, is "I also turned the boiler off as soon as the water started, if that makes any difference..." - I presume you turned off the power supply? Good move.

As pointed out above, there is nothing inside the boiler that should be irreparably damaged by turning off the valves underneath (usually: gas, mains water in, CH flow and CH return and possibly a 'top-up' valve) - the pressure should not exceed 3 bar in any component inside as there is a safety discharge valve which opens at this pressure and dumps the excess water safely outside via a copper pipe.

The only part which isn't protected by this safety valve is the domestic hot water side, but you couldn't have shut that off anyway as there should be no valve there on the hot water supply.

Worth taking a photo of these taps so's we can see what exactly you've turned! Do you still have access to the flat?

Hard to know what 'blew' - boilers just don't tend to do that sort of thing. Any idea where the water was coming from - what part of the boiler? Was it from inside the casing, or from a pipe underneath? Did the water smell 'chemically'? Was it hot or cold?

Anyway, if the situation is as you described, you should be fine - your deposit is protected against malicious attempts to extort like this. Your landlord is probably hoping you'll simply accept you did something wrong and let them have the money. They won't succeed - they need to prove that you caused the permanent damage to the boiler, and they simply ain't going to manage that.

If they try, it looks as tho' this landlord needs reporting as he's clearly dishonest and is out to exploit his tenants.

Keep us posted - it's a fascinating one

 

hi brian, i would ask for a written report by a competent person! if the l/lords plumber is a heating engineer!!???

 

Unfortunately but true, 99% of landlords want the rent but give minimal in return, DA and Tom have given an unbiased view, that is fair, and that also shows that in reality no matter what you did subsequent or prior to the leak was your fault.
You removed power to the boiler, it doesn't matter if you turned off at boiler or killed the whole house tbh, you did the right thing.
The landlord hasn't a leg to stand on Imho mate.

 

You were right not to remove the boiler cover.

You turned off the boiler switch - cool.

The water was cold? Were your radiators running? The darkish black/blue tint suggests 'system' water, the water that's sealed inside your boiler and radiators and goes round and around... (And that colour also suggests a system that isn't well maintained - ie, it's full of oxides from rusting rads...)

Perhaps she's suggesting you accidentally turned on a tap instead of offski? If the tap you turned was the 'top-up' tap and you did happen to turn it on and not off, then that would allow more mains water into the boiler system. However, this should not under any circumstances cause the boiler to blow! If you had turned this tap on earlier so that the system pressure was rising, then all that should have happened was that the safety valve would have opened and emptied out the excess. And when this happens, you often don't even notice - it just happens quietly...

So, no - you couldn't have done anything to cause this damage.

My mum-in-law used to regularly over-top-up her boiler when the pressure dropped, and also would sometimes not shut the valve off properly afterwards. All that happens is that the pressure goes up to 3 bar and the excess is dumped outside. The boiler should be able to handle at least 10 bar without issues, and if your boiler managed somehow to get to over 10 bar, then it was dangerously faulty before and you are lucky it didn't really blow...

So, even if you had turned on a tap and left it running, this burst should not have happened under any circumstances.

So, stick to your story - watching TV, bang, and water. You turned off the boiler switch and also some taps underneath. End of...

 

If this is a property that is let, the landlord needs to carry out a yearly CP12, also know as a Landlords Gas Safety Certificate.

 

Hi Brian.

The CH was off, so that explains why the water was cold. It was almost certainly 'system' water due to its colour - the water that's sealed inside the boiler and rads.

And the simple situation here is, something inside the boiler 'blew' with no advance warning. We cannot work out from here what that part was, or what caused it.

The 'safety release valve' is a feature on every 'sealed' boiler like yours; they all have it. And if it is forced open by rising pressure (which is quite a common thing to happen) then the excess water (usually hot...) is directed safely outside where it cannot cause any damage or scald anyone.

The fact that 'your' boiler leaked all this water inside the boiler itself suggests that either a pipe was loose (say that safety discharge pipe) or else it was another component that burst. Either way, sod all to do with you...!

Either 'your' boiler blew because the pressure inside increased for some unknown reason, or because it just 'failed' for an equally unknown reason. In the former case, the safety valve should have tripped to stop the pressure rising beyond a safe 3 bar. This is the worse of the two scenarios; if the pressure increased but the safety release didn't do its job - that's really quite scary. Imagine if the system was running and the water nearly at boiling point when this happened?

Turning off the mains water means that the boiler would have stopped leaking after a few minutes - the system water would have leaked until the pressure dropped to zero, and there would have been no fresh mains water to top it back up (say if the top-up tap had been opened).

So, for future reference, turn off the power (there should be a switch nearby - but don't touch it if it's wet... Instead switch off at the 'fuse box') and turn off the mains water stopcock. No need to touch the actual boiler (but not a problem that you did).

 

You mean after the boiler had blown and you left the house for good? Then - yes - turning off the mains water and the leccy power should mean that the boiler cannot possibly leak or 'blow' any more!

 

Your ll is a twit. Or worse.

She hasn't a chance.

What is the name of the regulating body that oversees deposits? That should be your port of call - you shouldn't need small claims or any of that.

I understand that the reg body gets a small amount from each deposit precisely to provide this service. Check it out.

(And report back - we love the more entertaining threads )

 

just another thought, being a rented property the gas and leccy should be checked every year. Its obvious that who ever did the gas checks on theis boiler was't up to the job,

 

Similar doon here - we have a deposit protection scheme. I understand the process is also similar in that if there's any dispute, the two sides need to sort it out with the deposit holder as mediator.

She hasn't a chance...

And, yes, if the LL hasn't put the money in an approved scheme she's on even shakier ground.

But - calm and reasonable 'cos you can afford to be. You'll get every penny back voluntarily or by legal 'force'.