Portsmouth plumbers reveal how to keep your boiler working in freezing weather

Prestige Plumbers in Portsmouth has issued advice to residents about what to do if their boiler has either stopped working, or isn’t working as effectively as normal.

Owner Sharon Hack says that a few bits of basic DIY can clear up your pipes and make a big difference to the heating in your home.

She said: ‘Our phones have been ringing non-stop all week – there are a lot of people having boiler troubles at the moment.

‘But there are things that people can do themselves if their boiler packs up, and they can be really easy fixes.’

If your boiler is not working at all, Sharon says that it is probably the outside pipes at fault – but all you need to fix this is a kettle of boiling water or a hairdryer.

She said: ‘What has been happening is the condensing pipes on the outside of the property have become frozen.

‘All you need to do is boil a kettle and pour the hot water over the pipes to unfreeze them.

‘If you aren’t comfortable doing that you could even just use a hairdryer to reheat the pipes.

‘Once you have done that just reset your boiler and you should be good to go.’

But it is possible to stop this from happening completely – with the solution being to not turn the heating off at all.

‘The best advice I can give is to not turn your boiler off at all, but instead turn it right down if you are going out.

‘It would be more expensive to reheat the pipes from frozen every time than it is to just adjust the temperature.’

Insulating your pipes is something that can be done with a quick trip to a DIY shop.

Sharon said: ‘Make sure you get some lengths of legging from a DIY store – you can get a metre of it for about 48p.

‘Wrap it around the pipes and that will help insulate them from the cold, reducing the chance of your boiler packing up.’