Quoted £400 for boiler repair

[Jasmine1]

My Worcester Greenstar Junior 28i has a weep from the flow manifold, I've been quoted £400 to fix it, this seems incredibly steep for a £20 part and a couple of hours labour.

That said I've done some Googling and I can't get a feel of what the price should be.

I can get another quote but it always helps to know what the good people of PH think.

[dave_s13]

Sounds VERY expensive.

Get another opinion. Ask around friends, family and on local facebook groups for a recommended gas fella.

[camshafted]

Ring up Worcester, tell them about the issue, and they might let you set up an insurance plan for around £25 per month and then send someone round to do the work.

[Andehh]

That seems VERY expensive. At £400, that's what, 1.5 days + part!?!?

[Fore Left]

Unless it desperately needs fixing now you should be able to get a WB service plan for less than that.

Alternatively sign up for boiler maintenance with British Gas or Scottish Power. Other providers are available and its worth checking if there's a minimum period before you can call them out for a fault.

[dave_s13]

Fore Left said:

....

Alternatively sign up for boiler maintenance with British Gas or Scottish Power. Other providers are available and its worth checking if there's a minimum period before you can call them out for a fault.

They are all, invariably, shoite!!!

From experience.

Getting the WB backed one probably isn't a bad idea though.

[kambites]

WB themselves have a fixed repair cost of £250. Or at least they did a few years ago.

When something (the primary heat exchanger I think) went on ours, the guy who came around replaced it and everything else that was looking even vaguely worn; we ended up with most of a new boiler for £250. Given the thing was seven years old and hadn't been touched since it was installed, I can't really complain about that. Hopefully now it'll do another seven years without servicing.

Edited by kambites on Thursday 1st June 12:42

[Salesy]

kambites said:

WB themselves have a fixed repair cost of £250. Or at least they did a few years ago.

When something (the primary heat exchanger I think) went on ours, the guy who came around replaced it and everything else that was looking even vaguely worn; we ended up with most of a new boiler for £250. Given the thing was seven years old and hadn't been touched since it was installed, I can't really complain about that. Hopefully now it'll do another seven years without servicing.

Edited by kambites on Thursday 1st June 12:42

They still do but not sure what the cost is now. Plus the engineer will have every part for that boiler on his van.

[Rickyy]

It's hideously expensive. I've done a few and could probably change that part in 20 minutes. Might take someone an hour to do it if it's their first attempt.

[Rickyy]

Rickyy said:

It's hideously expensive. I've done a few and could probably change that part in 20 minutes. Might take someone an hour to do it if it's their first attempt.

ETA: Where are you based? If you're in or around South Wales, I'll be happy to do it for a far more reasonable price!

[Jasmine1]

Thanks but I am in the North West.

Can anyone tell me how to turn the water on/off for the boiler? I see there are two cold water inlets at the bottom of the boiler with valves but turning these do not make a difference.

The water was turned off by the boiler engineer but he didn't tell me he was doing this, I'm now without hot water and he won't come back without paying him.

[kambites]

You mean the mains feed is closed so you have no water coming out of the hot taps at all? This shows you which pipe is which:

http://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/support/document/...

page 23/24. It looks like second water pipe from the right is the mains inlet and should have a valve on it which you can open. If that doesn't work, he must have shut off the water somewhere upstream of the boiler, trace that pipe and see if there's a valve on it.

[Jasmine1]

kambites said:

You mean the mains feed is closed so you have no water coming out of the hot taps at all? This shows you which pipe is which:

http://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/support/document/...

page 23/24. It looks like second water pipe from the right is the mains inlet and should have a valve on it which you can open. If that doesn't work, he must have shut off the water somewhere upstream of the boiler, trace that pipe and see if there's a valve on it.

Yes correct, I found that manual last night and already tried the pipes on the right but no luck. They only turn 90 degrees, and are very stiff. Is this normal?

The only other valve is the stopcock, which is on and cold water is running.

[Jasmine1]

OK Kambites I just had another look and I have it working.

No idea why I couldn't get it last night, probably because I was so furious that the cheeky bd has come to my house, disabled my boiler and wants £400 to turn it back on again.

Worcester want £260 fixed repair cost, I wonder if a local gas engineer could do it cheaper? Its only a £20 part but google says these boilers are a pain to work on.

Thanks again Kambites.

[dave_s13]

Jasmine1 said:

OK Kambites I just had another look and I have it working.

No idea why I couldn't get it last night, probably because I was so furious that the cheeky bd has come to my house, disabled my boiler and wants £400 to turn it back on again.

Worcester want £260 fixed repair cost, I wonder if a local gas engineer could do it cheaper? Its only a £20 part but google says these boilers are a pain to work on.

Thanks again Kambites.

That fixed repair cost isn't too bad considering there's a good chance they will fix it 1st time, not leave you stranded without hot water and change other stuff as they go.

Or it might be £20 in parts and 30min job. But that's the gamble you take and finding someone reliable can be hard.

And, you can't get gas work done "cheap", it just doesn't happen. You can get screwed over and then you can pay a fair price - that WB quote is somewhere in between and isn't unreasonable.

[kambites]

It's not really gas work - the fitter shouldn't have to touch the gas connection to change the water manifold. I've done such jobs myself in the past.

[dave_s13]

kambites said:

It's not really gas work - the fitter shouldn't have to touch the gas connection to change the water manifold. I've done such jobs myself in the past.

To us lay-folk it is.

Would a "plumber" come and fix this for the OP or would you need a "Gas Safe" registered chap. I suspect the latter. Hence in this case, it kinda is "gas work".

[kambites]

dave_s13 said:

kambites said:

It's not really gas work - the fitter shouldn't have to touch the gas connection to change the water manifold. I've done such jobs myself in the past.

Would a "plumber" come and fix this for the OP or would you need a "Gas Safe" registered chap. I suspect the latter. Hence in this case, it kinda is "gas work".

Interesting question, I've no idea if a professional would need to be corgi registered (or whatever it's called these days) to work on the water-side of a boiler.

[Sheepshanks]

kambites said:

Interesting question, I've no idea if a professional would need to be corgi registered (or whatever it's called these days) to work on the water-side of a boiler.

Basically, if the case needs to be removed then the person doing the work needs to be Gas Safe.

You get arguments about whether the outer case forms part of the combustion system or not - it certainly does on some boilers but "the industry" of course takes the view that only Gas Safe people would know that anyway.

[Bristol spark]

Sheepshanks said:

Basically, if the case needs to be removed then the person doing the work needs to be Gas Safe.

.

I install a lot of smart thermostats, which often requires removing the boiler cover.

Are you suggesting i should be Gas Safe registered??......