No hot water - frozen pipe or dodgy boiler??

[Deborah Jewison]

Hi

Yesterday morning we woke to find we had no hot water - nothing coming out of any of the hot taps in the house. The cold water was working fine. We have a worcester greenstar 23i junior boiler, which is heating the house fine. It was fitted about a year ago, replacing one of the old style conventional boilers with hot water tank in airing cupboard etc.
We wondered if the mains pipe into the house was frozen (it's in the garage and not lagged - yet) so we've been trying to de-thaw it, but no luck yet.
Two things are confusing me though - why haven't we run out of cold water yet ( I assumed there was a header tank in the loft which would eventually drain down) - we have flushed the loo several times, been using the cold taps etc, and the pressure is fine.
I also just stuck my head into the loft, and can't actually see a cold water tank up there. There were a load of pipes running from the old hot water cylinder up into the loft, but they were all taken out (along with the cylinder) when the boiler was replaced, and I can't see any pipe work going into the loft now. I actually vaguely remember the guys who installed the boiler saying something about not needing the header tank in the loft any more.
If this IS the case, presumably it's a boiler fault, not a frozen pipe that's stopped the water? Could it be the distributer valve in the boiler, or would that just mean that water comes through the hot taps but isn't actually hot?

Thanks

 

[philtheflush]

the reason the cold is working is probably because the mains run through the house and they have extended the mains to reach the boiler through the garage so any draft it will freeze the pipe soak some towelsin boiling hot water and wrap them arond the pipe a hairdryer will also work just hope a pipe hasnt split

 

[Deborah Jewison]

The mains comes into the house through the garage, up through the floor and there is a stopcock either side of the water meter, then it goes into the house. Don't think anything was extended when the boiler was put in cos they didn't do any work in the garage. Have tried wrapping hot towels round the pipe - no luck. Think am going to sit there with a hair dryer for a while.

 

[philtheflush]

you probably also need to get a plumber round if pipes dont thaw