British Gas urgent advice as frozen pipes leave homes without heating

The energy provider says it expects 50,000 households to need help with their heating and hot water systems this week alone.

When temperatures drop below zero, uninsulated pipes can freeze and the expanding ice forces pressure to build, often enough to crack the pipe and trigger leaks or flooding when it thaws.

Peter Knowles, Technical Repair Engineer at British Gas says: “If your heating suddenly cuts out or the taps run dry, don’t panic – frozen pipes are common in a cold snap and usually straightforward to fix.”

How to locate the frozen section of pipes

You’ll need to find out which pipe is frozen. If you have a modern condensing boiler, it’ll most likely be your condensate pipe. This will be a plastic one that comes out of your boiler – find where it goes outside to see if it’s frosted over.

Thaw it safely

Once you’ve found the culprit, you’ll need to thaw it out to get things flowing again. Slowly pour hot (but never boiling) water over the frozen pipe and place a hot water bottle over it to help melt away the ice.

their finances.”

Recommended reading:

Restart the boiler

Once thawed, reset the boiler. It should fire up normally if the frozen pipe was the issue.

Burst pipe

If you suspect a burst pipe, often shown by a sudden drop in water pressure, damp patches or water marks on walls and floors, turn off the water supply at the stopcock straight away. Open all the taps to drain the system and keep the supply off until a qualified engineer can assess the damage and carry out the repair.

Last winter, more than 1.2 million customers called on British Gas engineers to fix broken boilers and get their heating and hot water system back up and running.