Boiler warranty problem

[MarkRAllen]

Hi all, new to the site so hope I don't make any faux pas'

I was wondering if you could give me a bit of advice.

We had a new boiler installed as part of an extension last year and it seems to have developed a problem with the internal pump. It's a Heatline Capriz 24a and although the CH seems ok, when we run hot water in the bathroom the pressure gauge jumps around alarmingly, strange noises come from the boiler and then it displays an F20 error and pumps out cold water. There's no noticeable drop in flow rate at the tap at any point so i can only assume the issue is internal to the boiler. When I reset the boiler, the CH system then seems very temperamental afterwards and flags an F23 error a few times until eventually calming down and pumping CH as usual. Obviously something is not right internally so I tried to get the manufacturer involved (still under 2 year warranty) and we'll have to go without HW for the time being (tricky with a 10 mth old baby)

The plumber who installed it said at the time (Feb last year) that he had registered it for us. However it seems he had only registered it with the gas safety board, not the manufacturer. When I spoke to the manufacturer at the weekend to get them out to check it over they said the appliance had not been registered on their system and that if we wanted it registered the commissioning engineer would need to complete the “Commissiong checklist” included in their service manual.

Now the plumber thinks this requirement for a commissioning checklist is unusual but has agreed to fill in the form as best he can (sent it to him via email). What I’d like to know is; is this unusual behaviour from the manufacturer? And secondly, if the plumber or manufacturer cause problems for us and we don’t get the warranty cover, is there any form of legal recourse we might be able to take with the company who did our extension and claim to provide a 10 year guarantee on their work?

This whole thing should be a simple call-out and fix but I don't want to void any possible warranty by getting our local guy (not the installer) to fix it and would rather get the manufacturer out to do it for free if we can.[/i][/b]

 

[dcawkwell]

Usual for a boiler like this would be plumber registers the boiler with gas safe you as the home owner register the boiler with the manufacturer.

The manufacture if feeling particularly pedantic can come out and if they
see the checklist sheet isn't filled in can simply refuse to look at it as it
wasn't installed correct to their requirements.

The plumber should have filled this in. It takes all of 30 seconds.

 

[Dan Robinson]

The manufacturer are well within their rights as the benchmark certificate is mandatory.

Typical attitude of an installer of such quality appliances.


AKA ****boxes.

 

[Tibbot]

Your installation is considered incomplete until all commissioning checks have been made and recorded on appropriate paperwork. This has been industry practice for decades now.

 

[polesapart]

Notifying the boiler with Gas Safe is a building control issue; registering the boiler with the manufacturer for warranty is separate.

The boiler in question is about the cheapest of cheap, which does not bode well for manufacturers support.

What warrantee did the installer give you on his workmanship and on the the materials he supplied? Did he supply the boiler?

Some manu's will honour a warrantee in the first year even on an unregistered boiler based on the boiler serial number (which gives them manufacture date).With a bottom end boiler, unlikely.

As for filling in the Benchmark in without being in front of the boiler to measure the combustion parameters: NOT POSSIBLE.

 

[Terry lambert]

As said, installer should have filled out the benchmark, and you would hope actually carried out the tests in the commissioning.

Hopefully the system is clean and the installation fitted to manufacture instructions or they may still not work on it.

 

[McCombi]

An installation engineer that thinks it's strange for them asking for the commissioning benchmark to be filled out?!?

Alarm bells ringing for me there tbh. I would double check it was actually a registered installer that fitted it.

 

[MarkRAllen]

Thank you all for your responses.

It's more or less what I expected. A cheap boiler hence the pernickity response to the warranty call out (if possibly justified if the checklist is a requirement anyway) and an installation that was not done with much due care and attention. He was a sub-contractor to the main firm so we'll have to approach them about any recourse, I'm not very hopeful as they try to avoid talking to us about lesser snags we encountered after the build was complete.

Would anyone be able to suggest an alternative boiler of comparable capacity but higher quality? I want to do a comparison to see just how cheap this thing is.

Tibbot - you said the installation is considered incomplete without the commissioning checks being recorded. Is that a "best practice" or an industry regulation that i can quote to the building firm?

 

[Dan Robinson]

Technically it is classed as At Risk as an installation until the benchmark is filled in.

An alternative product would be an Intergas HRE or Vaillant Pro.

 

[gazdaz36]

Just to let you know, it's most likely that you have a blocked plate heat exchanger. Heatline is part of the vaillant group so it's very unlikely they will repair it under warranty.

 

[gazdaz36]

Good luck

 

[Tibbot]

The product you have is WRAS approved, CE marked and conforms to all relevant standards. It makes no difference if it's cheap to buy. Any installation errors, if they're the cause, would create the same faults on a boiler at 3 times the price.

Commissioning, compliance paperwork and customer instruction & handover are mandatory with any controlled service - boiler, cylinder, stove, cooker etc..

 

[Tibbot]

Vaillant Pro.

Dan, can you point out the £400+ worth of equipment difference between that and what the OP has? Because I can't.

 

[Agile]

The problem on your boiler from your description is caused because of dirt in the boiler.

This arises because the installer did not properly flush the system before fitting the boiler.

Thats normal for 3rd class installers who have to work for builders!

In a way its to your benefit that the makers did not come because they would have charged for their visit and not repaired it.

Best of luck in getting the builder/installer to come and sort it out. As a price guide I charge about £136 for sorting that problem out!

To be honest although they are cheap to buy, if they were ever fitted to a totally clean system they would be as reliable as most other more expensive boilers! They use the same pumps and gas valves etc. Only the PCB seems a little more delicate than some others.

Unfortunately to get the job the builders quote for the cheapest boilers because they know must householders just want the cheapest job. Then you have this problem, buy cheap means buy twice! They are about £400 compared with about £1000 for a proper boiler.

Tony

 

[Dan Robinson]

09 tech support line
no eBUS
no weather comp.
2 year warranty providing the engineer can turn up.
Less well laid out internals.


Whether that is worth £400 I'll let you decide. But you know my feelings on main stream boxers anyway .