Of course whether it's worth doing boiler repairs is another matter.
With bitter experience you will learn some boilers are just such awful designs that you are better off personally turning round and walking out. Might not be best for customer but once you touch it you are responsible for the consequences which in a badly designed boiler can be massive. The customer will strraight away blame you for every consequent problem caused by your actions. They won't help you, so not helping them is not as tough as it seems at first.
I don't want to slate any manufacturers publicly but you'll soon learn what not to touch.
My view is that the person who did the customer a great disservice was the guy who fitted it. I have no guilt about refusing to touch it based on my past experience. Don't beat yourself up because some money grabbing combi swap merchant has made a fortune banging in the cheapest thing he could find and charging a fortune as though it was a great boiler and then not answering the phone when it goes wrong.
That said 50% of boilers I go to are the old pilot light era with no reason not to keep them going except when parts become unavailable.
Of the rest only about 10% are complete rubbish which will spring leaks from every conceivable point the moment you stand in the same room with it. Customer will claim boiler was perfect before you touched it except of course for the fact it doesn't work which is why you are there.
I had one once, didn't work, looked at pcb, right in front of my face with customer watching it spontaneously set alight. I said at the very least you need a pcb (boiler was 15 years old) I suggested if it were my boiler I wouldn't buy a pcb for it, I would renew boiler, fan seemed on it's way out and many other expensive parts could give way any moment. She let me go, ramng a mate of mine he went changed pcb and made £100 out of her, came back to me bragging and saying that she thought I was a real cowboy and had set light to her pcb.
i.e. you can do your best for them but they won't apreciate when you are doing what is best for them and will readily blame you for everything.
Of the rest, there are almost always two trips involved because you need at least one part, sometimes it takes three trips.
You can make a lot more money ripping out bathroom suites and puting in new ones, fitting new installations and combi swaps.
However the boiler repair work generates more work. That's the best that can be said for it.
The basic problem is that many of the boilers in people's homes are bearely of merchantable quality.
With bitter experience you will learn some boilers are just such awful designs that you are better off personally turning round and walking out. Might not be best for customer but once you touch it you are responsible for the consequences which in a badly designed boiler can be massive. The customer will strraight away blame you for every consequent problem caused by your actions. They won't help you, so not helping them is not as tough as it seems at first.
I don't want to slate any manufacturers publicly but you'll soon learn what not to touch.
My view is that the person who did the customer a great disservice was the guy who fitted it. I have no guilt about refusing to touch it based on my past experience. Don't beat yourself up because some money grabbing combi swap merchant has made a fortune banging in the cheapest thing he could find and charging a fortune as though it was a great boiler and then not answering the phone when it goes wrong.
That said 50% of boilers I go to are the old pilot light era with no reason not to keep them going except when parts become unavailable.
Of the rest only about 10% are complete rubbish which will spring leaks from every conceivable point the moment you stand in the same room with it. Customer will claim boiler was perfect before you touched it except of course for the fact it doesn't work which is why you are there.
I had one once, didn't work, looked at pcb, right in front of my face with customer watching it spontaneously set alight. I said at the very least you need a pcb (boiler was 15 years old) I suggested if it were my boiler I wouldn't buy a pcb for it, I would renew boiler, fan seemed on it's way out and many other expensive parts could give way any moment. She let me go, ramng a mate of mine he went changed pcb and made £100 out of her, came back to me bragging and saying that she thought I was a real cowboy and had set light to her pcb.
i.e. you can do your best for them but they won't apreciate when you are doing what is best for them and will readily blame you for everything.
Of the rest, there are almost always two trips involved because you need at least one part, sometimes it takes three trips.
You can make a lot more money ripping out bathroom suites and puting in new ones, fitting new installations and combi swaps.
However the boiler repair work generates more work. That's the best that can be said for it.
The basic problem is that many of the boilers in people's homes are bearely of merchantable quality.
