Boiler serviced, now fubar!
Discussion
A major UK company serviced my mothers boiler today, upon completion the boiler would not re-light, apparently the parts are no longer available, the engineer had to remove some part(details sketchy as 76 year old doesn't know much about boilers!)but some kind of valve. The service engineer got them to call & they said they would come our Monday, I said not really good enough to leave a 76 year old with no heating or hot water for 48 hours(thank god this didn't happen a few weeks back!). They are now coming out tomorrow. Now from their POV I guess it's tuff s
t this happened, but from our POV they really should not have taken this boiler on their insurance scheme if parts are not available? They have given her a voucher for £200 but lets face it that will be a piss in the sea compared to what this will cost! Anyone had any joy in pushing for a major discount? The service engineer reckoned you can get one for next to nothing due to the circumstances? I'm not so sure.
I was going over there this weekend to fix the oven which broke last wekk (electric element gone I think!).
Not a good start to 2011
t this happened, but from our POV they really should not have taken this boiler on their insurance scheme if parts are not available? They have given her a voucher for £200 but lets face it that will be a piss in the sea compared to what this will cost! Anyone had any joy in pushing for a major discount? The service engineer reckoned you can get one for next to nothing due to the circumstances? I'm not so sure.I was going over there this weekend to fix the oven which broke last wekk (electric element gone I think!).
Not a good start to 2011
On another forum somebody posted that because their boiler kept breaking down so often the company (BG I think) offered to fit a new one at cost price with free fitting because it would save them money. IIRC the T&Cs say they will service and repair boilers on a "best efforts" basis when certain parts are no longer available, but I have heard that they can sometimes be too quick to write off a boiler to get the business of fitting a new one. (That doesn't agree with the report above - perhaps there were clearly parts available all the time for that model though)
Edited by Gareth79 on Friday 14th January 20:58
Definately check for yourself that the parts are obsolete. Its a well known trick to get a new install especially if they saw your Mum, nothing personal but an older lady possibly on her own who is ' a dumb punter' is an easy target, surprised they didn't try the 'it will blow up and kill you and you neighbours and how would that be on your conscience' trick. Very sad, but its the world we live in, we deal with it every day.
Loads of places online do older model spares, even Plumbases Time and Temperature have come up trumps a few times on my Dads 20 year old rattler.
Loads of places online do older model spares, even Plumbases Time and Temperature have come up trumps a few times on my Dads 20 year old rattler.
Cheers guys, I'll get as much info as I can today. The boiler is ancient to be fair, I can remeber it being installed just before the snow started in a very bad winter-1980 or '81 I think! It's made by servowarm, what worrys me is if it is indeed fubar it will take major work to replace. It only has 3 pipes going into it-gas supply and two pipes which get hot, every other boiler I've seen has pipes everywhere!! The other worry is the exhaust outlet is very low down, I'm sure they have to be a set level now? Trouble is where it is fitted has a ceiling height of about 2.5m, I guess a vertical flue would be the answer there though? What a headache.
Dave_ST220 said:
It only has 3 pipes going into it-gas supply and two pipes which get hot, every other boiler I've seen has pipes everywhere!! The other worry is the exhaust outlet is very low down, I'm sure they have to be a set level now? Trouble is where it is fitted has a ceiling height of about 2.5m, I guess a vertical flue would be the answer there though? What a headache.
Don't panic about any of that. Three pipes is quite normal for a boiler. The boilers you're describing with pipes everywhere are probably combi boiler where you have additional pipes for cold water in and hot water out in addition to the three pipes you describe. The exhaust outlet probably won't be an issue either. Specific requirements for the location of the flue are set out in part J of the building regs, but generally providing that there are no windows etc. close by a flue can be as little as 300mm from the ground. If you want the full details then the document is available here, you want pages 54 and 55. Be warned it's quite a large download.http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/BR_PDF...
Dave_ST220 said:
It's made by servowarm,
This isn't good news, no. I condemned one the other day. The combustion box had almost every screw sheared off and was held together with silicone sealant and self-tappers. Bits ARE discontinued and specific, sadly. Dave_ST220 said:
It only has 3 pipes going into it-gas supply and two pipes which get hot, every other boiler I've seen has pipes everywhere!! The other worry is the exhaust outlet is very low down, I'm sure they have to be a set level now? Trouble is where it is fitted has a ceiling height of about 2.5m, I guess a vertical flue would be the answer there though? What a headache.
Flow, return and gas is completely normal for a central heating boiler. Flue positions DO vary, but 2.4M is the normal ceiling height so you shouldn't have a problem.Cheers Ferg. What annoys me is she is under some BG scheme, part of the 1st service with them is to establish parts are indeed available, I'm guessing they haven't been for some time now. Good news on the pipes though, what sort of cost is a boiler these days? I know there are lots of variables but a guide would be great. 4 bed semi.
Simpo Two said:
I avoid this problem by never having my boiler serviced. 22 years old and still going. 'If it works' etc.
Seriously? 22 years? Aren't you supposed to service it regularly? That said, never had mine in any of my houses serviced during the time I've lived in them but that's because I'm tight. 
We joined the BG service/repair scheme last year and had our boiler serviced as part of it. This was the first time it had been serviced to my knowledge in at least 14 years. The initial inspection resulted in the expected "it's an old boiler, we can't guarantee to fix it if it breaks" statement from them, but the servicing went well and it certainly seemed to help the heating work a bit better.
Since then they have also replaced our central heating pump which took the engineer almost a whole day to do due to various problems so we have certainly got value for money from the scheme. The next service is due soon, so will have to keep my fingers crossed. They seem to use every visit as a pre-sales opportunity though, always trying to get us to buy a new boiler.
Since then they have also replaced our central heating pump which took the engineer almost a whole day to do due to various problems so we have certainly got value for money from the scheme. The next service is due soon, so will have to keep my fingers crossed. They seem to use every visit as a pre-sales opportunity though, always trying to get us to buy a new boiler.
ShadownINja said:
Simpo Two said:
I avoid this problem by never having my boiler serviced. 22 years old and still going. 'If it works' etc.
Seriously? 22 years? Aren't you supposed to service it regularly? That said, never had mine in any of my houses serviced during the time I've lived in them but that's because I'm tight. It does kettle sometimes and was making some funny noises when it was -9 outside, so it's probably quite scaled up. But it kept working and I would read PH and see all these stories of people's fancy new combi boilers packing up and condensate pipes freezing...
Got a man in to look at it last week and whilst he could fit a shiny new one for £1200-2000, or do various 'flushes', his advice was 'leave it be'. It may not be as 'efficent' as a new boiler, but throwing boilers away every few years doesn't seem very efficient either!
As for costs, they can vary hugely depending on make, model, size etc but we have just bought a new Alpha CD25x Combi for a 2 bed for £450. Luckily, we work with a heating guy who owed us a huge favour so we cut our install costs but otherwise I think he charges about £400 to replace a boiler. Search around on the net as there are some good deals about if you look.
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