Condensate question

[Bhoydavid]

Might be a daft one here but how long does it normally take from firing boiler up to condense running down the drain?

was at one earlier and had boiler on full for 5/10 mins and had the condense disconnected and it never appeared?

as said am I being daft ? :17:

 

[newcastle phill]

Hi.
Edited because this tapatlk is rubbish. It happened a while ago but again its displaying forums wrong and showing no user info

Appologies

 

[Atouchofgas]

Well as we are in the private forum, I would guess he is.
Was the condensate trap full before high fire?

 

[newcastle phill]

Ehhh my tapatalk says public forum lol
Bloody hate this new update its not working properly regarding.
My appologies.

Well if you are testing on hot water it wont produce condensate.
You will only get condensate on heating.
If you check the MI it will probably state how much per hour and ust divide that volume down into minutes.
But generally speaking pretty quick as the temp differential between return temp and flue gasses is greater so the dew point is lower - hence more condensate

 

[Bhoydavid]

Ehhh my tapatalk says public forum lol
Bloody hate this new update its not working properly regarding.
My appologies.

Well if you are testing on hot water it wont produce condensate.
You will only get condensate on heating.
If you check the MI it will probably state how much per hour and ust divide that volume down into minutes.
But generally speaking pretty quick as the temp differential between return temp and flue gasses is greater so the dew point is lower - hence more condensate

Thanks for the reply. I was testing on hot water. Genuinely never knew it never produced condense. Assumed it produced condense on both. Was at a promax earlier and the primary hex had gone and so the pressure was lost and down the condense drain.

It's been a learning curve today lol

 

[townfanjon]

Yep its an obvious one if you think about it , on HW you dont really have a return like you do on heating , therefore no temp diff and no condensate , i think i have that right lol

 

[lame plumber]

intergas gas combis will produce condensate in dhw mode

 

[wattsie1987]

I'm not agreeing with that at all I fit ecotecs and get a nominal flow and return temp in dhw mode of 20 c which will condense happily all day every day day.Regardless if the boiler is doing heating or hot water it uses the same circuit within the boiler and as long as there is a temperature differential to allow heat to be harnessed from flue gasses into the return before it enters the hex condensing will occur .

 

[dancinplumba]

Return needs to be around 55c for condensing to occur

 

[Bhoydavid]

Another couple daft ones while I'm at.

How come on most SE boilers you can't see the plume outside usually yet HE gases are cooler and you see them no problem?

 

[Ermintrude]

In SE it's vapour in HE it's droplets

 

[Bhoydavid]

Will a primary hex that is leaking only lose system pressure when heating is running? Or does it depend how bad the leak is/burner being on to expand the hex to allow it leak etc.

Baxi advised over the phone that it would be leaking hex if topped up to 2 bar, shut the flow and return isovalves and checked the condense with boiler off. There was no water coming down in the 15 minutes i had it disconnected but no System leaks, vessel and prv ok so went with the hex as per advice from baxi.

Just recently grasping the repairs/breakdowns side of it and every day is most certainly a school day

 

[wattsie1987]

I've had some only leak when when operational and the hex expands.

 

[cdodds2004]

I've had some only leak when when operational and the hex expands.

really?? what a nightmare to diagnose lol

 

[wattsie1987]

really?? what a nightmare to diagnose lol

Yea lol. Its been the cylindrical hex's think the coils expand open slightly when hot.

 

[Bhoydavid]

I've had some only leak when when operational and the hex expands.

How would you check that?

Fire heating on and check the temp/colour of condense ?

 

[wattsie1987]

Yea I've had one that went down once every 3 weeks from new was a right pain in the a$$ as the leak was so small. Disconnected the condense pipe for 2 weeks while customer on holiday and no water. Checked the whole system twice and got manufacturer out who changed the main heat exchanger and hasn't lost pressure since. (2 years ago). I swear it was evaporating as it leaked as the leak was so small!

 

[Bhoydavid]

Yea I've had one that went down once every 3 weeks from new was a right pain in the a$$ as the leak was so small. Disconnected the condense pipe for 2 weeks while customer on holiday and no water. Checked the whole system twice and got manufacturer out who changed the main heat exchanger and hasn't lost pressure since. (2 years ago). I swear it was evaporating as it leaked as the leak was so small!

What a nightmare that sounds haha.

 

[Aquazone]

I've had some only leak when when operational and the hex expands.

I had one on a Giannoni hex where it had been only leaking when operational for over 12 months. Only found it because, as the leak got worse it caused ignition faults as burner was soaked.

Cuts thought topping it up each week was par for the course!!!