Potterton Baxi Combi 80e gas valve

Well £110 plus our £84 diagnostic fee comes to £194 so we are still competitive !!!

Tony

i dont like the way we charge. sometimes people get a good deal but i think id rather do how you do and charge more for the first call/diagnoses but replace parts at no extra cost.

sometime i have to collect a dignoses fee which some parts takes minutes then charge again to fit it. where as i suppose you make your money on the jobs that require no parts and just tweaks and adjustments.

To be honest you don't need to second guess the guy as he has diagnosed the fault and if it doesn't fix it you don't pay him. If you want a guaranteed fix you could always try bgs fixed fee of about 145.00 parts labour and one year guarantee.

Does that mean it hadn't fallen off the back of the lorry yet

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I dunno - none of it made much sense - and dunno if I feel guilty about having to get someone else, when I couldn't get hold of him. There seem tobe so many different pricing systems!
But I'm the same as a freelance artist - in my case: a charge for a meeting, a different daily rate depending on where I am working - £150 - per day for example has materials extra and travel - less for projects in schools, another rate for conferences and training courses.
BUT - I don't have a big queue of customers like you guys do.
Public art projects are difficult as they are often 'a price for the job' - which means out of that fee you have to get materials, public indemnity and liability, any structural engineer fees, fabricator, installation, writing service and maintenance plan, etc including meetings and drawing up designs, etc. So have to weigh up if a fee will cover all that. Sometimes the people offering the fee don't realise all the costs and health and safety stuff - and in the arts there is always someone who will do it - even at a loss.
Oh boy - I hope tomorrows plumber is ok. I've had a big project postponed so I'm hard up right now.

Thanks so much guys for all your advice[/img]http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r47/cgw_bucket/lookingatthestars.jpg

THANKS GUYS. Here's one of my art pieces. I imagine you all look like this

Could be just a mucky pilot jet - main jets starving the flame detection electrode of a flame when they light. Common as, well, muck, really.

Sorry mate, I prefer mine...

Well in fact it could be anything! Even just a dirty connection on the flame detection electrode lead!

I cannot manage all these photobucket pictures but if you want a picture of me in front of a boiler I am in the middle picture on:-

http://www.glow-worm.co.uk/

Tony

Could be just a mucky pilot jet - main jets starving the flame detection electrode of a flame when they light. Common as, well, muck, really

Well in fact it could be anything! Even just a dirty connection on the flame detection electrode lead!

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This is what I was wondering, but don't know how you get to the jets to clean 'em or what you do it with.

Its brilliant being able to ask you guys about this - and not to feel too stupid. I'm quite capable with other things - honest. Well, at least capable for a girl. I 've done projects like this in schools - I had cut the life size figures out of marine ply using a black and decker jig saw - until I got a couple of deWalts:
[/img]http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r47/cgw_bucket/Mermaid.jpg

A school caretaker was supposed to help me on one project, but got upset and disappeared coz my power tools were bigger than his and to make matters worse, I offered to lend him mine! I was dead friendly about it but he spent the rest of the day polishing floors with a big noiy machine!
Thanks again for your advice. Wish me luck with my new plumber today

PS Guys - cos the boiler hasn't been used for a few months I'm wondering if some sediment, much has made a solenoid or valve stick a bit. But I'm just a girl so will politely suggest when plumber arrives - coz what do I know? But from your comments - I'm hoping evidence points in that direction rather than something more expensive!
Thanks again. Will take my laptop with me and look at this thread today - if I can surf off a broadband in Hasings.
Cheers

Original price you where quoted is not far off the mark as the part is only £81.50 inc vat for the part with an extra £6 for next day delivery anywhere on the mainland from gas appliance spares preston . Retail from them is £97.81 inc but they give just about everyone 20% discount.. Gas valve takes about ten mins to fit so with soundness testing etc no more than a 45 min job . As for it being the correct diagnosis i cannot comment because you have gave different versions of what the fault is... But if it is right it sounds like you have found an honest enough engineer who charges you the proper price of the part and making about £70 for fitting it.

thanks for that. Namsag. I gave different versions because I was working off what I'd been told by friend who is staying in flat, but am off to flat myself today and at least - thanks to you all - I have an idea of best and worse case scenarios. Best is muck in jets, etc and worse is gas valve. Plus I have an understanding of how much time and what i may expect to pay. You're right - I think I've found someone trustworthy now - and a second nice guy called this morning from a message I left yesterday - he (whilst not wanting to be critical of another plumber) was a bit dubious about it being gas valve and asked if it had been left idle for some time and socame up with idea that it may be 'muck' or furred uo solenoid.
Thanks again - I'll let you all know how it turns out. And if you all need the advice of an artist......................

Both Baxi and Potterton had a combi 80e 5 years ago, the Potterton version was based on the Puma and the Baxi 80e was new around 2000/01, if its the Baxi (black pull down front panel) it could be as simple as the low gas rate has gone out of calibration,

Well guys - it cost me £285. I watched the guy checking everything and it did turn out to be the gas valve. I know this sounds as if I'm a nightmare for being suspicious, but when he went to get the new valve, I watched him bring it in - in a new pristine box and and while I was popping in and out - doing other things - I saw him take out the old and put in the new. He worked solidlly all the time 1.30 to 5.30pm and did all the tests before and after. I did the 'discount for cash?'
He said that if he ever - and it was rare-ish - had to replace gas valves on these boilers, he'd had to order the part, but when he went to his supplier he was surprised to find they had quite a few in stock. His supplier said that he'd been selling a lot recently.
I probably should have opted for Potterton Heateam at £299 with a year's repairs - if you need 'em. But by the time he'd done the diagnostics I thought it would be mean of me. Besides the friend who's renting the flat has a baby and though I'd given them an electric heater, they had been without central heating and hot water for almost a week. So I didn't feel I could reasonably make them wait any longer

I tell you what I hate. It's middle class people on good salaries who complain about what they have to pay plumbers, car mechanics , builders, etc. I think its a weird kind of snobbery and indignation. They think other people (other meaning - not their own kind) should earn less than them. I'm not middle class, I'm self employed and work is unpredictable - I've got loads or not enough. The valve cost £150 - take off other expenses and my guy - a trained, skilled worker involving responsibility for potentially dangerous gas and equipment (who must be paying heavily for insurance and corgi stuff, etc)got £100 for half a day's work. Are these snobs really worth more - they are usually the same people who would say they are all for equality, would believe in animal rights, would criticize racists, sexists, etc. Just so long as they are on the top of the heap and seen as 'better' everything's ok.
Sorry about the rant guys.