Boiler Woes

Yesterday we had boiler problems. Again. Last year our old boiler died a death, and had to be replaced. To get to more or less the same time of the year, one year on, and to have your new boiler pack up is somewhat disheartening.

Somewhat disheartening to a normal person, at any rate. To someone with clinical depression, it's utterly mortifying. Hello, that's me then. So, instead of having a fun day with my cirucular saw, buiding ends for kitchen cabinets, I found myself unable to do anything but lie semi-motionless on the sofa.

There's work being done on the gas mains nearby, so I figured maybe it'd knocked off our gas. I tried some neighbours' houses, but they were out, so I couldn't cross reference. I figured this by running through the installation manual, available as a PDF on the manufacturer's website - they had a handy flow-chart for problem solving - and looking at the gas meter, I could see that nothing was being drawn.

So, I phone Transco, just to find out if there was a problem in the area. Typical call centre thing - the bastardisation of Welsh placenames, and the inability to vary from a script. I didn't want an engineer coming around particularly, just wanted to know if my gas supply was okay, but he despatched one anyway. Engineer arrived, supply was fine (and apparently our meter is a 1977 vintage that should really have been replaced by now), all eyes return to the boiler. I sulk and panic for a bit, then decide to try the hot water again...

...and, after about 30 seconds of running, this time it sparked up, and we had glorious hot water, so I turned on the central heating, and that worked as well. Briefly. The warning light that had come on when I was trying to shave that morning came on again, and the flame went out. I explained to Jayne that it'd done that earlier and apparently it was an overheating warning.

At this point, Jayne solved the mystery completely. She said, "Do you think those brambles at the side of the house could be blocking the flue or something?" I should explain to those who haven't seen - our house is an end-terrace; the front half meets a car-park for the chiropractors' building, and the back half meets a piece of waste ground that we can't get into. It used to be owned by the university, but it seems to have been sold on, and as such the people from Estates in the university no longer tend the brambles that grow on it.

I leant my head through the dinky opening in the bathroom window and was immediately surrounded by brambles, and yes, some seemed to be a little too involved with the flue. I managed to chop lots back with my secateurs, but with it now being nighttime, there wasn't much that I could see clearly. I could just reach the flue though, and saw there was a bramble that had got into the system, and a big leaf just inside the covering. So, I got the leaf out but had to leave the bramble - secateurs, gloves and even pliers weren't getting it out, it was just too clingy. I decided to have a go today, in the light, and see if I could get into the wasteground somehow.

Today came, and I had an idea. I have a pair of plumber's grips for tightening radiator valves and things, and they have a tremendous amount of leverage on them. I figured I could lean through the window with these and apply far more leverage to get the bramble out. Tried it, and although the grip was good it needed me to get my other arm out for more strength - this bugger wasn't going without a struggle...

...and then this thing came out.

For scale, that's my 60cm steel ruler it's against - 24" for yanks. That was the source of the problem. Held straight it's 70cm long and 15mm wide at it's widest part. And the last 2 cm was all I could see, the rest had grown into the boiler. You can tell looking at its colour that most of it had never seen the light of day. This parasite was the cause of a completely ruined day, much despair and a chilly me.

So, if anyone has some Agent Orange to spare, I'll gladly put it to use.