Gas safety certificate and boiler service whilst draining system down.

Hi,

I have asked this in another forum but had no luck and I would love to know the answer!

I have had problems with a letting agent and landlord over a boiler issue in a rented house. Its a long story but if someone would be able to answer this question it would help me a great deal.

Q. Is it possible to perform a gas safety check and service a boiler during the period when the radiators are draining down? They were doing a power flush that day hence the draining down. They were being drained from a hose on a radiator and all radiators were fed from the floor.

A bungalow, pumped open vented system and the boiler is a Baxi Solo 15 HE.

If someone in the know could give an answer I would be very very grateful.

Regards

 

The gas carcass can be checked whilst draining the CH system. The boiler needs to be tested whilst operating.

 

Hi

Thanks for replying!! That is what I thought would be the case. So there is no way possible that a boiler can be serviced or safety checked in this situation, as in isolated in some way? As I see it there is a direct "connection" from the rads to the boiler so if the rads are drained so is the boiler and so is the coil in the hot water cylinder. Is this correct or is there a way to frig it so the boiler can still be tested? I just need to make sure as its quite a serious issue if a gas safe engineer is claiming to have serviced and safety checked a boiler when they didn't. All I saw was him walk around with a tablet, was in the garage a few minutes where the boiler is.

Many Thanks Again

 

Did you know the two jobs were to be carried out on the same day? Might of been a good idea to inform the gas engineer of the other job going on that day.Maybe he did not fancy coming back wasting more money.Report him to gas safe and give him some proper s...te in his life.....And stick to the speed limit on your Honda like the good law abiding citizen I am sure you are.

 

Arranged by the letting agent, both engineers from the same company. So is that how you would do it then? You know so you don't waste money?

 

Weird...Why would 1 person not do both jobs

 

Sounds like this is tip of the iceberg amd you pi...d off with landlord and agent

 

Based on your sarcasm it appears you think I am being petty expecting a gas safe engineer to do his job properly? Feck me no need to post again with your useless opinions.

Cheers

 

Pushed your bed up against the opposite wall, Durham?



Seriously though, DP, the OP had a good point - you can't do a LLGSC on an empty system.
Assuming the OP has got it right.
And we are always moaning about losing trade to wasters. It was not he who engaged the guys.

OP - agents are notorious for paying peanuts and charging a lot more to the landlord. It does not justify poor work practice, but does go some way to explain it.

Did you receive a certificate!

 

Use the “ignore” button to filter out the annoying people, and keep posting.

As FiremanT says - what paperwork did you get?

 

Hi Guys

Cheers, ignore button found. Anyway yeah I got a certificate. Just looked at it and noticed it said carried out safety checks to cooker and serviced, same for the gas fire and same for cooker!! Seems a safety check and service is writing down the appliance details on a piece of paper. So I had one engineer arrive first thing in morning to tackle a rad or two that wasn't getting warm and fit/replace a few TRV's. He went in the loft and garage then started draining the system down from a radiator in one of the rooms. The other engineer from the same company arrived what about 3/4 to an hour later saying he was going to do the safety check. A bit odd as the previous one didn't expire until 3 months later. TBH I didnt see him with any tools just a tablet. I was in the livingroom when he worked on the gas fire, I didnt see any covers come off think he just started it and wrote the details down.

Anyway the problem turned out to be the CH pump was knackered and was replaced. All was ok the rad was now getting hot but other rads started banging repeatedly (when CH was on)like they were being hit with a metal hammer, mainly the largest in the livingroom but the small one in the kitchen aswell. The pipe is that microbore stuff. It drove us mad, at first I thought it was the rads moving on the brackets(no plastic seats) because now the rads were getting hotter and expanding more maybe. Tried stuffing towels behind them to see if it made a difference but it didnt. The engineer came back and his answer was to wedge a piece of 22mm copper pipe at an angle between the rad and the wall. Erm a bit ****e would you say? It fell off.

The noise from the rads got worse and I also noticed the boiler started banging and sounding really rough, you could feel the banging through the pipes. We ended up just using the fire in the livingroom for heat because the noise was like torture. The engineer came back when I wasnt there, spoke to him on the phone he said "the boiler sounds awful" and will speak to the agent. I noticed he had turned the CH pump to maximum. Anyway the boiler started tripping out on overheat. I rang them up and said send someone out, its an oldish boiler and we are in a very hard water area and I bet the heat exchanger is limescaled up. The engineer told me the plumbing in the loft was incorrect but not dangerous. I suspect the loud metallic banging was because of the kettling in the boiler causing heat pockets and different pressures that wasnt being absorbed by the system because there was no F+E pipe to the tank in the loft. Does this sound plausible?

They didnt do anything, it kept tripping, not often just like once a week. I spoke again and said show me proof of when the boiler was last serviced. This is when they said it was serviced at the same time as when they did the safety inspection. I said feck off did you, they sent me the gas safety record and sure enough it shows they did the safety check and serviced the boiler, fire and cooker. My arse I said. So thats where we are. I am certain a boiler cannot be serviced and safety checked whilst the system is draining down and thats what I came here to ask.

If someone could give me the practical and theoretical reason as to why this is impossible I would be very very grateful!!!

Sorry for such a waffle, its only one question really!!

 

I thought this was recent? Obviously not.

Anyway, I am not going t write chapter and verse. But, to safety check a boiler, there is a minimum of flue inspection, gas burner pressure OR gas rate test, if open flue a spillage and flue smoke test has to be completed. None if these can be carried out on a non firing appliance. (Except smoke test).

Can you scan in a copy of the cert?

 

The 16.88 and 5.28 is exactly the same as the previous safety record. The 21 is n/a on the previous.The 0.0005 was 0.0004 on previous and the 31 is 37 on previous.

 

If what you are saying is accurate, the cert is a fabrication.

I would be especially concerned that the fire has not been checked. The fire needs to be removed, the chimney checked, a smoke pellet lit in the builders opening, and the smoke observed issuing from the chimney pot/terminal. He should also check the flue through it entire route, especially if it is a precast flue.
Some guys doing Landlord inspections insist that they do not need to remove the fire, but I disagree.

 

As @FiremanT , that certificate should be on absorbent paper so that it is at least of some use.