Can your boiler blow up??

Zogger · 6 Oct 2007 at 22:33

I wouldn't risk the carbon monoxide personally. Could be that the old one did change colour because of a relatively small level of carbon monoxide and it only happening sporadically. This happened to our boiler (not the noise iirc), the flame was burning the wrong colour occasionally and the carbon monoxide alarm got set off. The boiler was turned off for quite a while after that until we could get a new one but when it started to get cold it was turned back on and seemed fine.

Suffice to say it's lucky we had carbon monoxide alarms because on one morning shortly afterward, when everyone in the house (apart from me) was off to work it started producing carbon monoxide again. Chances are I would have been in bed for the next couple of hours or more and quite possibly wouldn't have realised until it was too late, had the alarm not gone off.

p.s. I know nothing about boilers

MikeHunt79 · 6 Oct 2007 at 22:36

Justintime said:
Sahara is good this time of year.

Great reply

GarethDW · 7 Oct 2007 at 00:08

Your local Chavda will sell electronic carbon monoxide detectors, which - as already mentioned - work much quicker than the "coloured stain" ones.

basmic · 7 Oct 2007 at 00:46

Your washer ought to be able to heat water. I mean how else is it going to do a boil wash, unless your hot water comes out the taps 5c shy of boiling point?

NokkonWud · 7 Oct 2007 at 01:11

Yes, they can.

teulk · 7 Oct 2007 at 02:27

I work in the gas industry and boilers can explode or rather they tend to have whats called a "voilent ignition", i.e a build up of excess gas before the boiler ignites. It obviously makes a very loud bang when it evenutally ignites the gas and can blow the front off the boiler along with other things. You should get any problems checked out with you boiler immediately - just turn it of at the wall, turn your thermostat to zero and leave it off untill its fixed. As for the CO detector, carbon monoxide is know as the "silent killer" as you cant see it or smell it. You can however look for signs i.e, yellow burning flames or sooting on or around your fire, boiler etc. Again if any signs are found or the detector sounds or changes colour get your appliances check immediately. I would say for battery operated alarms check the batteries first if it sounds, as in smoke alarms a low battery can cause them to sound. If in any doubt get your applience checked. Your landlord/lady or who ever you rent from is responsible for the up keep/servicing of your boiler and it must be carried out annually.

DavidMarq · 7 Oct 2007 at 02:58

Hedge said:
Get a dish of water, open a vent on a radiator and drop let it run water out until the pressure drops down to 1.5milibar for starters.

1.5 milibar is a static head of 0.015 meters this is insufficient. 1.5 bar giving a static head of 15 meters might be better.

Hedge said:
Secondly the bit with the blue valve is the cold feed to the boiler, chances are this valve might be choked with lime or something, so when its open, its not completely letting water pass. When the hole becomes smaller, the water pressure increases, much like putting your thumb on the end of a hose...

Restrictions in the cold feed valve will cause a decrease in the downstream pressure not an increase. It is impossible for the pressure to increase above the mains static pressure until you run as a closed circuit and apply heat, with the exception of the slight increase of pressure on the discharge side of the pump.

Hedge said:
this makes the pipe vibrate. If they arent clipped well , they will shake like hell and make a very loud noise.

Pipe vibration has several causes one of which is entrained air.

Hedge said:
Boilers very rarely "blow up" infact, they almost never do. On a boiler ignition there is a flame sensor, the gas valve opens to let a small amount of gas through to the pilot, the pilot then lights against a thermocouple/flame sensor. When the gas valve knows there is a flame, it will then open the main gas to the burner.

in some circumstances you will get explosive ignition, where the gas/air mix might be dodgy, and the gas takes longer than it should to light.

The rest of this is true.

cheets64 · 7 Oct 2007 at 03:31

Carbon Monxide maybe tasteless and smell less but its not symptom less if you are awake you will feel dizzy or have and headache and you wont know whats causing it unless you think wtf is doing this and know that it is Monoxide, people have just sat in there livings rooms breathing it in and end up going unconscious and dieing.

If you are in your sleep you are ****** unless you have one of those alarms.

"andy" · 7 Oct 2007 at 03:38

it will have a Relief valve

it could blow up if thats seized though

FlyingFish · 7 Oct 2007 at 08:42

Blimey!!!

If your going to listen to anyones advice from the above posts then take it from those advising you to turn the boiler off at the wall and not to use it! Let the landlady deal with it, and if you have any concerns about the person doing the work, then ask to see their corgi card. Check its in date, and also on the back where it lists what appliances the chap can work on.

Like a sensible few have mentioned, if you are in any doubt about the presence of CO, then get an alarm fitted (preferably battery or mains powered) fitted near the appliance. Or even better read the instructions for the best places to site the alarm. They are only about 20 quid nowadays.

As there are hundreds of different systems on the market, let alone those that have been fitted a few years ago, it would be a real stupid thing to act on advice from people having a guess.

You should only go as far as what the Users Instructions tell you. If you dont have them then get them. If they are lost, phone up the manufacturers and they will send them out...its normally quite easy.

Sorry if this reads out of order, but in the last 11 years of working with domestic heating I've seen a lot of dangerous and hazardous situations. Including exploding boilers, from water and gas! People that have been in Hospital with CO poisoning and even more sadly have died from it

Your only here once, so let the qualified people fix and advise you about your boiler. While they are stood in front of it!

Stay safe
Mick

basmic · 7 Oct 2007 at 10:47

If I remember right, doesn't the landlord/lady have to provide a working carbon monoxide detector, as well as a smoke detector?