Baxi / Potterton -- is drain down needed?

[mbetter]

Hi there,

I've just received a £450 bill for the repair of my boiler and just wanted to tap into your expertise to see if some of the labour was necessary.

I've been charged £100+ VAT for two parts -- a Syphon Condensate Trap
and a Baxi flow switch, which seems fair enough...

But I've also been billed £265+ VAT for labour, largely for the "drain down"
of the heating system. I'm wondering if the drain down was essential and whether just changing the parts would have been sufficient to make it work?

The boiler hadn't been serviced for 3 years.

Thank you for your help.

 

[ianmcd]

you don't say which boiler you have and what was the fault that you called them out for ?

 

[ivixor]

Draining down consists of attaching a hose to the drain cock and then opening said drain cock, then waiting a while. Not £265 worth of work!

However that might just be poor itemisation by the plumber. £265 for a day's skilled labour isn't unreasonable.

 

[mbetter]

Thank you for your replies. To answer your questions...

-- The fault was that the boiler had "ignition lock-out" -- so it would ignite
and then go out after a few seconds.

-- It's a Potterton Promax HE Plus.

The parts looked quite small and not difficult to replace, so I was surprised that it wasn't done in an hour or two. It took about 4.5 hours altogether. Is a drain down essential when the flow switch and condensate trap are replaced?

Thank you for your help.