Boiler Corrosion

underpants

I recently moved into a rented house and it has a fairly standard kerosene boiler for home heating.

There's a small boiler room on the side of the house and when I was in the other day I noticed that the side of the boiler is completely corroded and when the heating is switched on I can see steam/smoke coming from the side.

Obviously this is not a good thing but exactly how bad is it?
Does it make the boiler extremely inefficient?
Is it dangerous?

I'll see if I can get a photo later and upload it.

DGOBS

yes a pic may help, but treat as dangerous in the meantime

jimf

i would agree completely with dgobs to treat as dangerous and maybe even shutdown boiler until fully checked over by a competent service eng

underpants

Here's a few images.

It's quite a small space so difficult to get a good angle on it.
And it's not really clear the dept of the hole but see what you think.

DGOBS

Looks like flue gas leakage causing that, shut it down

JohnnieK

Could you go a bit higher with the photo's? could be a flue issue or a leaking fitting above (safety valve, auto air vent). Either way you need to get someone in.

It also looks like it needs a new burner flange, a good bit of staining there too.

shane0007

That's a SIME cast iron sectional boiler. Remove side casing & look for signs of water or flue leakage. Either way, most likely a replacement boiler required.

underpants

Thanks for all the replies.
Turns out that it was actually a pressure valve beside the boiler that was releasing steam and corroding the boilder from the outside.