gas central heating questions

[sidecar_jon]

Regards to the heat exchanger I'm at a bit of a loss to see how he could have discovered it sooted up if he couldn't get the front off and with regards to cleaning take the burner out and run it under the sink and while its out stick a tray under the heat exchanger and pour water through it....well if you're registered of course.

The fault will most probably be caused by a blocked lint arrestor due to lack of servicing, but it could be a number of things that will only be discovered during or after a proper service.

err how does the heat exchanger work?.. im thinking its a car radiater type thing with the burners under it... surely if one was to take it off, the whole of the contents of the radiators would rush out?...


as an aside ive been asking friends what they would do, they range from, get a profesional in never touch gas etc to one guy whos doing up a riun of a house who said he did all his own gass work no problems. I just looked up (http://members.aol.com/asupplies/ealing/diy/gas-f-a-q-home.html) advice on regulations and it says that all gass work must be carried out by a "compitant" person ( which disqualifies me) and its only Gas work for pay that has to have a Corgi qualified person....

 

[chrishutt]

they do not meet current building regs

Back boilers can still be installed quite legally if an installation is exempted under the condensing boiler assessment procedure. For example an existing back boiler in a flat will very likely get over 1000 points and so be exempt.

 

[sidecar_jon]

Looks at front room.. this house was built in 1800 the whole thing dont meet building regs!

 

[kevplumb]

might hit the thousand then

 

[ChrisR]

This is getting silly. It sounds like all the thing might well need is a hoover & brush out, and maybe a new air vent, through the wall or wooden floor. Big deal.
Do a pub crawl until uyou find one with a boiler bloke in. Slag off BG for 10 minutes and he'll check it for a pint on the way home.

 

[sidecar_jon]

im asking round..bound to be somone round abouts.... its that sort of place.

 

[sidecar_jon]

been hacking about the net found this... http://www.paulflynnmp.co.uk/newsdetail.jsp?id=373

"British Gas has admitted that its service engineers are rewarded for sales,".....

"British Gas says it pays engineers an individual bonus of £20 for every new boiler sold on the back of their recommendation. About 32,000 boilers are sold this way every year. In addition, one-third of an annual team bonus potential that works out at around £1,500 per engineer, is also attributable to successful sales".....

"British Gas technical advisers also work partly on commission. These advisers visit customers to recommend boilers and quote on the cost of a replacement after it has been declared defunct or unfixable by an engineer. ".....

"the more expensive the appliance sold, the bigger the cash bonus." ...

" An 82 year-old told she needed a new boiler. 2 days after it was installed, the annual inspection was carried out under her service plan. She received a letter to say it was “not to current safety regulations, and substandard.”


oh.... i feel like a victim of BG now.

 

[ollski]

oh.... i feel like a victim of BG now.

Why jon? you havent lost anything.

The commission thing is an absolute joke, depending on the quality of the information passed on by the engineer the payment for passing on a lead is up to a maximum of £10 in a point scheme, not cash. The payment is for generating a lead not for making a sale.Of course the salesmen work on commission, that is the normal way....no=one is forcing your hand you are merely getting a free quote to compare with the others you arrange.

There will be mistakes and poor advice from time to time, but with 8000 engineers visiting 10 jobs a day the percentage is small...in your case I don't see a problem, you have been told you need a service to acertain if your boiler is safe and received a free quote if you decide you would rather replace it.

The info on that site is out of date by the way, the company changed procedures due to criticism.

 

[sidecar_jon]

well ok your right... ive only lost me central heating, which was probably dangerious... just seems a bit shady, but then indipendant installers maybe far more tempted as they would make more than a few quid out of installing it too...

me friend recomends a coal fire with back boiler. I think rubbing two sticks together is the only heating we'r gona have for some time yet.


so can you explain how a heat exchanger works?... disconecting one would lead to an outrush of all the contents of the radiators would it?

 

[ollski]

why would you want to disconnect the heat exchanger?, it is only the pathways through the fins outside which are blocked....it's a definite corgi job to get to it though.

 

[sidecar_jon]

well.... i was just wondering how its "washed". surely getting a hose pipe in there isnt an option..i mean its over the jets etc. i was wondering how long a corgi guy would take to do it too...

 

[chrishutt]

Sidecar-jon, you've already been given some bloody good advice-

This is getting silly. It sounds like all the thing might well need is a hoover & brush out, and maybe a new air vent, through the wall or wooden floor. Big deal.

Please, stop farting around, take the advice given, find a competent Corgi re. engineer to service the boiler .

 

[sidecar_jon]

Sidecar-jon, you've already been given some b****y good advice-

This is getting silly. It sounds like all the thing might well need is a hoover & brush out, and maybe a new air vent, through the wall or wooden floor. Big deal.

Please, stop farting around, take the advice given, find a competent Corgi re. engineer to service the boiler .

dont get all nasty.... matter of cost really. Looks like winter is going to be cold. I acept the advice. And thats fine. i dont have much money, and im not about to mess someone around asking them to do work i cant pay for...

 

[chrishutt]

don't get all nasty

I didn't mean to be nasty.

It's just that you come to this forum expecting to have to have a new boiler installed (££££), we spend many collective hours (£££ of our valuable time) examining your situation and we point out that you probably just need to have the existing boiler serviced (££), and now your saying you can't really afford even this.

So have we all been wasting our time trying to help you?

 

[kevplumb]

chill fella
BTW i'm not going to cornwall for a love job