water entering boiler through horizontal flue

[joshing]

Hi first ever question really confused so seeking advice had a vaillant eco 28 condensing boiler fitted on 21/6/10 all fine untill this morning got up and water pouring from bottom of boiler down walls into room below engineer arrived and when we turned mains back on there was no leak so he then removed cover and found water in fan and round burner tells me the water had to have come in through the horizontal flue i respect the engineers professional diagnosis but i cant understand how it is possible for this quantity to get in through a small pipe fitted on end terraced gable weather was severe rain and gail force winds last night. Can anyone let me know if they have come across this before and how i should expect the installers to correct it so that it dosent occur again.
thanks for taking the time to respond J.W.

 

[tamz]

The flues on condensing boilers have to run back to the boiler to allow the condensate do drain back. Unfortunately this also means the air tube runs back too and in heavy driving rain water will run down the air tube into the inside of the boiler. It is not an installation fault more a design fault which all the manu's are aware of yet can do nothing about.

 

[Spudhater]

If the flue went Vertically through the roof the problem would be solved, but may not be practical but then that might depending how often you get driving rain...

 

[johnf]

I had this with a Customer once. He phoned and said the boiler was not working. We went to have a look and found the boiler to be flooded and a fried PCB. After asking a few more questions it transpired that he had been watering the roses with a hose and may have got "a little close to the flue". What he really meant was that he wasn't looking what he was doing, water from the hose went straight down the air path and knackered the PCB. The boiler was an Intergas and luckily they covered a new PCB even though they knew it was not their product at fault.
At the end of the day water can sometimes get down the air path of a balanced flue.

 

[Last Plumber]

Hi first ever question really confused so seeking advice had a vaillant eco 28 condensing boiler fitted on 21/6/10 all fine untill this morning got up and water pouring from bottom of boiler down walls into room below engineer arrived and when we turned mains back on there was no leak so he then removed cover and found water in fan and round burner tells me the water had to have come in through the horizontal flue i respect the engineers professional diagnosis but i cant understand how it is possible for this quantity to get in through a small pipe fitted on end terraced gable weather was severe rain and gail force winds last night. Can anyone let me know if they have come across this before and how i should expect the installers to correct it so that it dosent occur again.
thanks for taking the time to respond J.W.

The flue on that boiler is non-concentric so it is possible that the air intake can be installed level and the flue duct inside will still have the correct rise to outside. Ask the engineer to install it correctly. It is possible ( if you are careful) to have a slight fall on the air intake and still maintain a rising flu exhaust.

 

[mfgs]

This thread is 6 years old haha

 

[Last Plumber]

This thread is 6 years old haha

I can't believe it, I didn't look

 

[johnf]

Oops! Don't know how that happened!

 

[Dotty]

Moved off open forum.