New boiler waiting times – the winter trap
New winter, same problem. Sometimes it’s October, and sometimes later. But without fail – every winter will see ‘the freeze’, known in the industry as ‘boiler switch on’. It’s the point in which boilers, often not touched since the previous Autumn fail on mass across the country.
Panic ensues, and the greatest behind closed doors race of winter in Britain will commence.
You – and thousands of other landlords (and homeowners) – up and down the UK desperately compete for the same boiler installation services when yesterday isn’t soon enough.
Tenants – famous for their patience – will bombard the phones of landlords and letting agents alike explaining relentlessly how unacceptable it is, how many children they have an how even Christmas could already be ruined.
Your best isn’t only not good enough, it’s not even in control.
Fortunately, pro-activity (and the right company) can come to your rescue.
Heatable – the UK’s 3rd largest boiler installer have two key pieces of advice for our landlord community before this seasons big freeze:
1. When it freezes, don’t panic buy – it’s very likely a frozen condense pipe.
What is it?
Most modern boilers will have a ‘condense pipe’ that slowly releases an almost unnoticeable amount of excess water from the boiler – usually leading to an outside draining point.
Most of these aren’t insulated and aren’t cut out for sub-zero temperatures – so when it drops below zero, they’re going to freeze and shut the boiler down.
What to do:
If you’re ahead of the game reading this – do what you can to insulate the outdoor part of this pipe. Simply wrapping it up in warm material will do the trick. There are tonnes of videos online to help with this.
If it’s already frozen:
You’re going to need to unfreeze it. Assuming you can access it safely, you can perform the above and wait for the temperatures to drop or even apply warm water. After that, and once you know it’s no longer frozen, you’ll need to restart the boiler.
Here's a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PRHnxdRezA
2. Sometimes, boilers are just broken (sorry)
If you just happen to have an untimely broken boiler on your hands, speed is of the essence.
Services like Heatable can offer installation as quickly as next day, but it’s not possibly for every company to offer this for everyone during a cold snap. The demand is simply too high.
So, you’ll need to act quick and it pays to ‘shop around’ with regards to speediest installation dates – ask companies if they will accommodate you onto their cancellation list at the very least should any new spots arise.
To best prepare yourself for receiving a speedy service, you should approach any boiler installation company armed at least with the below knowledge about the boiler in your property (photos of it are even better):
- The boiler make
- The boiler type
- The boilers flue location and exit location
- A description of the boilers current location
- The floor the boiler is on and how accessible that is from outside
Most companies, including Heatable can quote and install based on these details (plus photographs) and won’t require an additional survey visit beforehand.
If you don’t have these details, don’t worry – but it will slow your installation date down a little most likely.
