Gas Safe Central Heating Engineer

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Hi,
I'm having a great deal of problem getting the Gas Safe Heating engineer back to repair an intermittent problem with my new heating installation. Basically, an electrician carried out all the electrics and the gas safe engineer has done all the plumbing. I now have the problem that each is blaming the other for the problem which is getting me nowhere.

I always understood that a gas safe heating engineer did both the electrics and plumbing for a new installation with it all being on a separate circuit from the consumer unit. Am I correct or have I been misinformed??

Many thanks in advance....
 
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usually the gas safe guy would be competent enough to do the electrics, as its part of the boiler.

i wouldnt allow someone to fit a boiler that couldnt also wire it in.

what problem are you having?

has the boiler been register with the manufacture for the warranty? if you have the warranty documents, it might be prudent to get the boiler manufacture in to have check it out.
 
Hi thanks for the response but is a gas safe engineer qualified to do electrics as well as plumbing? I think yes?

Fortunately, the company who installed this system are considered professional and I have no doubt about it being unsafe. Its just that the plumber seems to have too much work on and farms out all of the electrics.

In answer to your Q, I have an S plan system and the problem is that the HW valve switches on only appx 50% of the time in the morning but never in the afternoon. The HW valve has been tested so this only leaves either the programmer or cylinder thermostat as being the problem. Also, the timeclock is set correctly. Involving an electrician to diagnose an intermittent problem is always going to be problematic.

I didn't want to be telling professional people how to do their job, but to avoid any further messing about, my solution would be as follows:
1) If unable to test electrics with the problem being intermittent, the solution is to replace both the timeclock and cylinder thermostat and all should be good.

2) Alternatively, a simple test for the programmer would be to move the wire from the programmers terminal 3 and put it on terminal 4. This will move the HW connection to the CH connection. This will mean that the HW should come 'on' at the same times as the CH. If the fault still occurs, then it's not the programmer but the cylinder thermostat. If it doesn't occur (and all is well) its the programmer at fault (simples).

Basically, I feel I should only be chasing one person to correct this problem (ie the Gas safe engineer) - am I correct??

By the way, I do have a 12 yr warranty for the boiler and an installation Buildings regulation Compliance Cert for the installation.

Many thanks....
 
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did you employ both individually, or did the gas safe guy employ the electrician?

it sound like the gas safe guy employed the electrician, so it is the gas safe guy you should be solely dealing with.
 
This is a refurb of the house being carried out by a builder appointed by the insurer. Both the plumber and electrician are subbed to the builder. Sorry this is complicated, I kept the info to a minimum for simplicity.

It seems to be the builder muddying the water hoping that I get board and go away.
 
This is a refurb of the house being carried out by a builder appointed by the insurer. Both the plumber and electrician are subbed to the builder. Sorry this is complicated, I kept the info to a minimum for simplicity.

It seems to be the builder muddying the water hoping that I get board and go away.

yeah that is only going to get complicated, unfortunately they will all go round blaming each other and you wont get it sorted.

the only thing you can do is speak to your insurance company and see if they can force a resolution.

if not, you'll prob be best to do it yourself, you shouldn't have to, but you are clearly not going to get anywhere with 3 different people all blaming each other.

it should be relatively easy to do the checks armed with a multi meter and turning the various items on and off to find the fault.
 
yeah that is only going to get complicated, unfortunately they will all go round blaming each other and you wont get it sorted.

the only thing you can do is speak to your insurance company and see if they can force a resolution.

if not, you'll prob be best to do it yourself, you shouldn't have to, but you are clearly not going to get anywhere with 3 different people all blaming each other.

it should be relatively easy to do the checks armed with a multi meter and turning the various items on and off to find the fault.


You're right sxturbo, I was holding fire with involving the insurer to allow the builders all opportunity to sort this. I seem to be spending all of my time chasing my tail.
Maybe we should agree to get an independent CH engineer in to sort all of these problems with the threat of recharging costs as I also have the reverse circulation problem referred to in an earlier response which still hasn't been sorted.
thx
 
A good heating engineer should be able to do all that without any issue. While most gas safe heating engineers will be unlikley to also have electrical qualifications, its a given that they should be able to fault find on the very simplest of system like what you have. Although not all Gas safe appliance installers are heating engineers, he may only fit boilers in which case he may have no fault finding knowledge at all.

Was the time and clock and zonevalves fitted new with the boiler or are they existing old ones? If they are existing then its not really anything to do with the fitters of the boiler (if theyve only been contracted to fit a boiler)
 
And are you running out of hot water later in the day? Im sure by the sound of it you have a good idea what your doing, but could it be that the cylinder is already warm in the PM and so not always needing to kick back on?

You could swap the CH/HW demand wires behind the time clock as a sort of double proof, ie, the heating would then only work some of the time and the HW all the time which would prove the clock is faulty or not.
 
And are you running out of hot water later in the day? Im sure by the sound of it you have a good idea what your doing, but could it be that the cylinder is already warm in the PM and so not always needing to kick back on?

You could swap the CH/HW demand wires behind the time clock as a sort of double proof, ie, the heating would then only work some of the time and the HW all the time which would prove the clock is faulty or not.
I'm only a diyer trying to get this problem sorted. The HW comes on as it should in the morning so we're able to get 2 showers which will use most of the tank. The HW never turns on in the evening which means I have to manually switch the HW valve so I'm pretty sure the water isn't hot already. FYI, the time clock is correctly set and the green 'on' lights come on as they should.
If you look back at this thread, I have suggested the programmer test so I'm waiting for them to come back and do it (fingers crossed).

many thx
 
Its impossible to tell without seeing it happen at the time, but I'd hedge my bets more so on the Zonevalve having an issue than the clock. (I know you state it was "tested" but that really means nothing) When you manually leaver it open do you have to lock it in place or will it hold its self open?
 
When you manually leaver it open do you have to lock it in place or will it hold its self open?

I have to lock the lever in place at first. Just checked the valve now as the HW is still on and the valve lever is all floppy with the valve open
 

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