Hi.i have paid for the job in full.all I want is a good quality workmanship and peace of mind. I really wanted to put my trust in this guy.but somehow I could not stop thinking about the radiators being missed out from the cleaning process. It's an oldish installation and as far as I understand cleanliness of the system is vital to the health of a new boiler. I did not pay extra for the flush but from what I have found out from various sources, system flush is a routine, standard practice also required to keep the warranty valid. We have forked out on a Worcester bosh boiler with a filter to get a long warranty (8 years) not to have to worry about anything that is central heating related for a very long time.dont you think that my concerns and anger are justified?
Has my CH system been flushed correctly?
- Thread starter Halschka
- Start date
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D
durhamplumber
rip it all out...get British gas in and pay 6k...then will you be happy. if all your rads are getting hot..then it's fine.too much bulls hit about flushing and balancing crap..
When installing boilers the British Standard and the manufacturers expect a minimum of a chemical clean. That is running a cleaning agent followed by draining and adding an inhibitor. That might take an hour. If the system is very dirty then a power flush is needed which is about 5 hours to be done properly.
Your guys are clearly typical installers who expect to do the job easily in one day.
To be fair most systems are clean enough to not need power flushing. They should all have chemical cleaning though. Most installers just run the system with the chemicals in it for a while. But doing it properly involves running each rad on its own in turn.
I have no reason to believe that there will be any problem with your installation and particularly as you have a filter. Worcester expect a filter is installed to honour their warranty.
I give simple quotes which include whatever cleaning is necessary. It is very rare that I ever need to do a power flush. But when I do a chemical clean then I do it just like a power flush with each rad in turn. But, whatever I do, I fully guaranty the cleanliness!
When I install a combi I expect it to take about three and a half days on my own. But then I don't want to kill myself so my days are usually shorter ones. Gentleman's hours in fact. But then I always do the job properly with the best chemicals and materials.
I usually charge about £840 plus the trade cost of the boiler for replacing a combi. You have not said what you have paid but I would say that the way the job is pretty typical of most installers whose priority is to fit it all in onw day and not very carefully either. On my installs I return a couple of weeks later to clean the filter! Not many installers seem to do that.
Probably I am a little unusual wanting to do jobs properly. It is partly because I don't need to be earnings driven and having spent many years with BBC Engineering, quality of work was more important than the time taken.
Yesterday a customer called to say she had decided her boiler finally needs replacing. Her husband died unexpectedly a few months ago and she was very shocked by that so I am taking her out for dinner tonight as she agrees she needs to go out to get back to normal. She is quite nice looking too and her daughters are good fun as well.
If your installers were doing their job more carefully they might have found the jammed rad valve and could have easily replaced it while the system was drained. But I do not agree that replacing it is in any way their responsibility as its your valve. It broke because it was jammed. If its open now then little point in replacing it for the moment.
It is unclear to me how and when these rads were turned off. But seems that you should have advised them at the time so they could do what was necessary to include them in the chemical cleaning. But little point in any arguments with them over redoing it as they are going to refuse. Better not to engage in arguments with heating people as you never know when you will need them again.
They certainly should have balanced the rads themselves. That is the only thing that you should perhaps try to get them back to do. But it is quite feasible to do it yourself. The FAQ on this site tells you how it is done.
Tony
Your guys are clearly typical installers who expect to do the job easily in one day.
To be fair most systems are clean enough to not need power flushing. They should all have chemical cleaning though. Most installers just run the system with the chemicals in it for a while. But doing it properly involves running each rad on its own in turn.
I have no reason to believe that there will be any problem with your installation and particularly as you have a filter. Worcester expect a filter is installed to honour their warranty.
I give simple quotes which include whatever cleaning is necessary. It is very rare that I ever need to do a power flush. But when I do a chemical clean then I do it just like a power flush with each rad in turn. But, whatever I do, I fully guaranty the cleanliness!
When I install a combi I expect it to take about three and a half days on my own. But then I don't want to kill myself so my days are usually shorter ones. Gentleman's hours in fact. But then I always do the job properly with the best chemicals and materials.
I usually charge about £840 plus the trade cost of the boiler for replacing a combi. You have not said what you have paid but I would say that the way the job is pretty typical of most installers whose priority is to fit it all in onw day and not very carefully either. On my installs I return a couple of weeks later to clean the filter! Not many installers seem to do that.
Probably I am a little unusual wanting to do jobs properly. It is partly because I don't need to be earnings driven and having spent many years with BBC Engineering, quality of work was more important than the time taken.
Yesterday a customer called to say she had decided her boiler finally needs replacing. Her husband died unexpectedly a few months ago and she was very shocked by that so I am taking her out for dinner tonight as she agrees she needs to go out to get back to normal. She is quite nice looking too and her daughters are good fun as well.
If your installers were doing their job more carefully they might have found the jammed rad valve and could have easily replaced it while the system was drained. But I do not agree that replacing it is in any way their responsibility as its your valve. It broke because it was jammed. If its open now then little point in replacing it for the moment.
It is unclear to me how and when these rads were turned off. But seems that you should have advised them at the time so they could do what was necessary to include them in the chemical cleaning. But little point in any arguments with them over redoing it as they are going to refuse. Better not to engage in arguments with heating people as you never know when you will need them again.
They certainly should have balanced the rads themselves. That is the only thing that you should perhaps try to get them back to do. But it is quite feasible to do it yourself. The FAQ on this site tells you how it is done.
Tony
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WTF...
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Durhamplumber- I got a quote for a job and expect it done well. It wasnt' 6k but it wasnt the cheapest either. The radiators are hot now (not balanced though so in the main room it takes 45mins for the rad to get truly hot?!), but if the system hasn't been prepared properly, the chances are that the performance will drop and things might start to break a lot sooner than they would have otherwise. Anyway - from the tone of your message I sense, that there is not much point in further discussion.
Agile- thank you for an extremely comprehensive response! i have found out more than I have bargained for
I hope all goes well with the lady! Going back to the radiators - first thing I have done when the installer arrived was to inform him that the radiators have only just got put on the wall after months of being disconnected completely. I have also said that all me and my husband have done is put brackets on the wall, hang them and screw on the nuts that connect them to pipes. Please check for leaks etc. I think somebody who knows heating systems and what it takes to take individual rads off a the wall, would know that it requires closing the lock shield valve and draining the water out. He should have pieced together from the information I gave him. He hasn't checked at the start and only discovered the closed valve at the end. If this happened at the beginning of the job when he coould just said- the valves are ceased up and then it broke, I would think: unlucky, paid for the replacement valve and would have no issues. But he ignored my request to check, flushed third of the system using a chemical (we only have 6 rads!), then discovered the closed valve and wrestled with it using a wrench until it snapped. I am waiting for a letter from him, I'll see what he comes up with. Thanks a lot.
Agile- thank you for an extremely comprehensive response! i have found out more than I have bargained for
I hope all goes well with the lady! Going back to the radiators - first thing I have done when the installer arrived was to inform him that the radiators have only just got put on the wall after months of being disconnected completely. I have also said that all me and my husband have done is put brackets on the wall, hang them and screw on the nuts that connect them to pipes. Please check for leaks etc. I think somebody who knows heating systems and what it takes to take individual rads off a the wall, would know that it requires closing the lock shield valve and draining the water out. He should have pieced together from the information I gave him. He hasn't checked at the start and only discovered the closed valve at the end. If this happened at the beginning of the job when he coould just said- the valves are ceased up and then it broke, I would think: unlucky, paid for the replacement valve and would have no issues. But he ignored my request to check, flushed third of the system using a chemical (we only have 6 rads!), then discovered the closed valve and wrestled with it using a wrench until it snapped. I am waiting for a letter from him, I'll see what he comes up with. Thanks a lot.
Social worker also.
When he said her girls are fun too I've got to be honest social worker was not my first thought. Depends on their age I guess.
and all for £87 bloomin bargain
Yesterday evening the lady wore a nice halter neck dress and looked good. She unexpectedly drank wine but that was not a problem as I had a spare bottle in the car. Turns out she likes dancing and her sister used to be a singer. Her daughters are 17 and 20.
Today I went with another customer to the funeral of her cousin. Started at 11 and finished about 6 pm. But no drinks as they are SDAs.
Today I went with another customer to the funeral of her cousin. Started at 11 and finished about 6 pm. But no drinks as they are SDAs.
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