British Gas

[Soggy_weetabix]

Do other gas engineers know what the british gas 'service' includes?

Was called to a boiler today that in transco's term's 'was pi**ing fumes' and was isolated.

Upon inspection...boiler completely sooted even after a bg service on 6/1/06.

Personally whilst i find people paying BG...Centrica... or whatever they are nowadays wasting their money, surely a duty by them is to service an appliance properly.

It was a Potty Kingfisher MKI and customer reported burner never been removed in 15 years.

Oh, BG wont repair as 'no parts longer available', hence her lack of faith and getting me in to give an opinoin.

Could this ever warrant the HSE getting involved?

David

 

[corgiman]

I would say that a RIDDOR should be sent mate.

 

[Soggy_weetabix]

Cheers CORGI dude.

Have it written 1st thing tomorrow

David

 

[lor]

dont expect a result from them m8

 

[corgiman]

Hate to agree with pillock here nut nowt will probably come of it, but that should not stop u doing it

 

[ollski]

What was the reason for it sooting up?, without knowing the cause it would be irresponsible of us to say riddor it. It could be caused by a problem occuring in the 8 or 9 weeks since the inspection. Bg cannot say the appliance has no parts available unless it is completely withdrawn from parts availability according to the manufacturers, but they will say there is not a full parts availability and it may not be repairable, I think that is insisted on by trading standards.
Never believe a customer, the amount of times I have stripped a back boiler only to be told nobody has ever done it to that extent before when I know full well I did exactly the same the year before.

 

[croydoncorgi]

Favourite for causing sooting on a Kingfisher is the gauze filter stupidly placed right at floor level where it traps EVERY bit of passing dust! Once the inlet air is restricted soot forms at an incredible rate!
(Note that not all Kingfishers have this badly-positioned filter! Only the bigger ones.)

 

[DP]

Let this post link up to

//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=47169&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

The man is still sitting in the cold (gas line capped at the boiler) as he can not get any joy from the service provider.

 

[Slogger]

riddor isnt the way to go

just give a better quote to fit new boiler thatll hurt bg a lot more



did you know you have to put your name to a riddor ? what if the other engineer was a total nutter and found out where u live

i say fix the problem and dont be a police man for the he your life could be at stake


how do i know this COS I DONE A RIDDOR ONCE never ever ever etc ever again not worth the hassle

 

[Soggy_weetabix]

Well guys (and maybe the odd girl), thanks for you replies.

Boiler was sooted due to burner filter completely blocked., and over 3000ppm of CO was spilling into the room it was installed.

Im astonished that BG can not be held responsible for this! If I had said 'a mate of mate etc etc' then you fellow CORGI guys would have no delay in wanting me to 'shop him/her'.

As for RIDDOR, corgiman is the only one to back me up.

But anyway, boiler de-sooted running like a swiss watch, and will give many more years service with me looking after it.

BG appear to a pure money making machine (as we all know) but if they put lives at risk surely they must be accountable?

David

 

[corgiman]

From

http://www.riddor.gov.uk/info.html


Gas Incidents
If you are a distributor, filler, importer or supplier of flammable gas and you learn, either directly or indirectly that someone has died or suffered a major a 'major injury' in connection with the gas you distributed, filled, imported or supplied, then this must be reported immediately. See 'Report an Incident - Report of a Flammable Gas Incident'

If you are an installer of gas appliances registered with the Council for Registered Installers (CORGI), you must provide details (using form F2508G2 - Report of a Dangerous Gas Fitting) of any gas appliances or fittings that you consider to be dangerous, to such an extent that people could die or suffer a 'major injury', because the design, construction, installation, modification or servicing could result in:

(a) an accidental leakage of gas;
(b) inadequate combustion of gas or ;
(c) inadequate removal of products of the combustion of gas.

if they serviced it just a few weeks before I would say that it is unreasonable to say that this has built up that quick, therefore it, in my opinion, would be reportable under B and C of the above, see no argument against raising a RIDDOR for this

 

[cross thread]

burner never removed in 15 years says customer.when was the last time you belived what a customer tells you

 

[GWP-Stansted]

While we/re talking about sooting up.

I looked at a boiler (15+ yr old OF system boiler) about a month ago, on a I was never here basis due to the following.

The heat exchanger was solid with soot, which I cleaned, the flue had some months prior been changed from a standard horizontal item to a vertical, however it now had 4 bends in it, the first being imediate instead on after a 500mm vertical section as indicated by the MIs - this lead me to believe the flue was incapable with the boiler slowing the removal of combustion products - correct?

BTW the customer, bless him knew better and I heard through the grapevine that he had sorted the sooting problem by replacing the thermocouple rather than getting a new boiler - bless him.

 

[Agile]

Is the regulation vertical part 600 mm or only 500 mm ?

 

[Soggy_weetabix]

Thanks for your input Corgiman

Action has now been taken, and BG are taking this matter seriously now.

I am frustrated that CORGI engineers seem to think the words 'British Gas' means you are exempt from any legitimate claim of incompetency.

We both know lack of proper service has caused this, and whilst exeptional circumstances can cause a boiler to soot...never..and I mean never have I had a boiler soot on me once serviced on an annual basis.

Even open flued (domestic) appliances in paper destoying factorys aint sooted on me yet. And yes.....took me a while to get them to adhere to regs! Another story

David