How to clean a boiler condensate trap?

The modern boilers and systems are now required to use condensing technologies that are designed to make the systems more efficient in terms of both power and energy. While the condensing boiler units are designed and built to operate at an efficiency level of more than 90% that is a proven improvement on past models.

Before learning on how to clean a boiler condensate trap, you should know as to what is a boiler condensate.

What is a boiler condensate?

Condensing boilers are made to operate by not only using the heat generated by the combustion process but also the heat of water vapor content. Older non condensing units could waste up to 50% of heat that is produced due to gasses escaping up the flue. During the process, the flue gasses happen to drop rapidly in temperature from around 130℃ to 50℃ that eventually results into the gasses to condense.

A heating appliance can produce around two liters of condensation every hour that is also known as the boiler condensate. This condensate then gets drained via your waste water outlet through a condensate pipe.

Is boiler condensate dangerous?

The boiler condensate is not as dangerous as it looks like. Some of the carbon dioxide created during the combustion process dissolves in the condensate, making it slightly acidic. However, being mildly acidic, it is not dangerous to health, so this is not really something that you need to be concerned about.

How does a boiler condensate trap works?

The condensate trap safely collects and release the condensation produced by the boiler in order to prevent any vapors created during the combustion process from escaping with it. These components might vary in design depending on the different models you operate.

Now as you know very well about the condensate trap, you might be wondering as in how to clean a boiler condensate trap.

How to clean a boiler condensate trap?

If your boiler gets serviced regularly on time, you shouldn’t experience any problems with the condensate trap. Your heating engineer would clean the trap out during these maintenance services and thus prevent the sediments from building up. 

What is a condensate pipe on the boiler?

The condensate expelled from a condensing boiler is acidic, with a ph between 3 and 4 that needs to be removed. A drainpipe is thus required for the condensate producing during operation. This is a short length polymer pipe with a vapor trap in order to prevent exhausted gases from being expelled into the building. The condensate pipe is located on the lower section of the boiler unit.

You might be wondering as to what comes out of a condensing boiler flue.Here is it.

What comes out of a condensing boiler flue?

The flue gases that leave the condensing boiler are cool which is why they tend to produce a noticeable mist of water vapor around the flue terminal (outlet) itself. This is because the gases condense upon the contact with the surrounding air masses. To be true the accumulated plume is not a problem at all, however some of the homeowners continue to have a problem with it.