What quals do you look for-need to service oil fired boiler

[Boilerman2]

I agree Holding OFT101 allows you to commission oil fired installations which is a valuable source of income and an opportunity to get the new householder to enter into a service contact with you,

if you are serious about oil then OFTEC is highly recommended

 

[cider]

Thanks

Thats pretty much what I thought, as long as you stick to servicing only you don't actually need any knowledge of oil boilers at all!!

Does the same apply to Oil Aga's ?

Are you for real?

How will your public liability stand?

Dont you have to be compitant in some way, be it trained or experianced?

Would you also consider repairing peoples brakes on there cars for a living?

 

[Corgigrouch]

Hi

I asked the question as I have a basic knowledge of oil fired boilers and aga's (to the point where I have installed my own replacement Heatslave 25 ), and am considering servicing locally.

Who would I go to to get more knowledge about other makes of boiler and preferably some qualifications without having to do a complete plumbers rip off course.

I do hope that you have merely phrased this badly..... There is a world of difference between popping in a boiler, connecting pipes and switching it on and knowing when a boiler is not working correctly or is actually dangerous. A chimp with a spanner can fit a new boiler and make it work but it takes a guy who knows exactly what he is doing to insall a boiler correctly and set it up to run efficiently.

I did some brickwork in my living room years ago, looked like Yosser Hughes built it and the plasterer almost died laughing, Should I advertise my services as a brick layer?

If your customers ask you if you know what you are doing, what will you tell them? If you can't fix their problem will you still charge them for your time? or will you give them the number of a real oil boiler engineer?

 

[Blimp]

Thanks for your comments


Cider

I was simply asking the question!

It seemed strange that I would need qualifications to even look at a gas boiler (and now a electric socket) but can legally service oil boilers with no experience, which can be just as dangerous.
Also why I asked advice on how to become experienced and qualified.

Car maintenance is another hobby, and I have restored many brakes without incident. Yet!

Corgigrouch

Agree, badly phrased. When I said fitted my own boiler, I meant I ran the pipework and installed boiler & flue as per instructions and then paid for a "real Boiler engineer" to commission

 

[cider]

Car maintenance is another hobby, and I have restored many brakes without incident. Yet!

There you go you can service their boilers and throw in a free brake check at the same time

 

[oilserver]

i used to be oftec registered when it first all came about and whilst on the course had to show the examiner? how to take a burner to peices properly and then had to show the rest of the class how to do this , so when my registration had ran out and had discovered you don't need to be oftec registered to service i gave it up and now get a local plumber who is oftec registered to commission for me. it is quite funny because i have put the odd fault on a boiler for him ( turned the oil off on one and turned a photo cell around on another ) to find and he aint had a clue (lucky he is a skilled competent oftec trained engineer lol).

 

[slapper]

i used to be oftec registered when it first all came about and whilst on the course had to show the examiner? how to take a burner to peices properly and then had to show the rest of the class how to do this , so when my registration had ran out and had discovered you don't need to be oftec registered to service i gave it up and now get a local plumber who is oftec registered to commission for me. it is quite funny because i have put the odd fault on a boiler for him ( turned the oil off on one and turned a photo cell around on another ) to find and he aint had a clue (lucky he is a skilled competent oftec trained engineer lol).

Oftecs a load of Bollix

 

[Danoil]

I would also advise anyone to do OFTEC training (even if you don't decide to register with them). Although I don't totally agree with the way they work it's the only way to cover you if anything goes breasts vertical.

Case in point; A few years ago a customer of ours one hot summer had spent most of a week creasoting his fence and shed, unfortunately the compost heap next to the shed caught alight and took the shed and fence with it and what was stood right up against the boundary fence? Yep, the pastic fuel tank!

After the insurance company had been informed one of the first questions asked was "who installed your tank there?" (Not us I hasten to add!) we had to show copies of CD/11's to prove we had informed him in writing it was not sited correctly time and time again when we had serviced the boiler which left us in the clear, but had we not been deemed competent and known the rules and regs etc enough to do this what would have happened then?

Unfortunately, the plumber who wasn't OFTEC registered who installed it for them had a bit of explaining to do.

My point is, whether you are OFTEC registered or not you need to know what the rules and regs are as well as how to do the job to any degree of competency else your in for a whole lot of bother when it enevitably goes wrong.