Snow & Ice Warnings in March 2018

There are warnings for snow and ice this weekend, which may result in an increased number of heating breakdowns and calls to our repairs teams. Here are some tips on how you can prevent this and help yourselves.

Heating Breakdowns

The majority of heating breakdowns are caused by frozen condensate pipes, this can simply be fixed by pouring warm water on the condensate pipe until the ice drops out. The condensate pipe is the pipe leading out of the boiler down into the drain.

Follow the link to the video below, to see how you can defrost your condensate pipe

 https://youtu.be/9tWUv7oHXOs

You may then need to reset the boiler by simply pressing the reset button the front panel of the boiler.

If this does not rectify the problem please call our repairs team or our out of hours number (outside of working hours)

Frozen Pipes

If your sink or bath is not draining, this may be due to the waste pipe being frozen. Pour warm water down the drain or use a hairdryer on low to slowly warm the pipe.

If you have no water coming through your taps, check if you have water in the rest of the house. If your water pipes are frozen, you can warm them up slowly by warming the room, or warm the pipe by using a hairdryer on low. Leave the taps on whilst you are warming up the pipe, so the water can flow once its defrosted.

Helpful Tips

• Keep an eye on elderly neighbours and relatives, get them to wrap up warm and drink plenty of hot drinks.
• If you have an outside toilet put a tea spoon of salt in the toilet pan. This prevents the water from freezing and cracking the toilet. (Salt water freezes at a much lower temperature than tap water)
• If you have an outside tap turn this off at the stop tap to prevent any bursts.
• Close your curtains as it start to turn dark and tuck curtains behind the radiator.
• Move large items of furniture away from radiators to let the heat release into the room.
• Have at least one hot meal a day, eating regularly helps you stay warm.
• Wear several layers of clothes rather than just one thick layer to help maintain