Liability for burst expansion vessel

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Your being taken for a t****, it was waiting to happen and you got stuffed, £1500.00 to replace an EV, what a joke, do as the others say and either fit it yourself or fit a seperate one or get an independant corgi or get the manufactureres agent to do it, either way dont let bg rip you off they are totally taking the piiss.
 
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As has been said,
cap off the original EV connection,
fit a new one (correct size or bigger)
replace the filling loop,
make a good job of it,

Then,

point out that BG had probably never done the BS7074 (think I've got the right number) checks on both the PRV and EV which have to be done anually, for safety,
and persuade customer to have you in to check the PRV and EV yearly. That way you can give him what he should get and you have done everything possible.

If he doesn't agree, ask PVM where's the best place to stand to pee in a tank :D


(PS moderator, isn't it about time the Christmas decorations (and hats) came down?)
 
While cannot say for certain, ICI Caldae boilers are of a similar pattern to the noe defunct Gemeni boiler. Expansion vessels are not made by boiler manufacturers but sourced elsewhere. Get your engineer to remove the vessel and fit identical- should be able to match it.

I suspect the client will have been pushed to go for a new boiler as parts for this (partially true) are no longer availablr. BG I suspect would have been pushing for a new boiler. Along comes you and now advantage is being taken of the situation.

As a heating engineer, I would be inviting the guy who says that the vessel has been ruptured by excessive pressure, to be on site for interrogation one to one. Of course the vessel will or could rupture if the PRV has never been tested- after all the PRV is supposed to lift at 3 bar and expansion vessel sustain a greater than 3 bar pressure.

You want to talk to your insurance. Then your solicitor having got to the bottom of this dirty mess once a competent heating engineer has advised you what really has taken place.

The man across the road was told that the burner on his Vokera Turbo was cracked. His was being quoted for a replacement boiler. He asked me to look at the boiler- I could see no crack. He invited the contract provider's manager to visit site and point out the crack on the burner. The boiler was soon restored and is currently heating his house. I was also present when the manager arrived. I was introduced as an independent heatin engineer.
 
BG don't claim to do a service every year, though they will if you insist, customers have told me. I can well believe it's perfectly true about taking the front off causing problems. I've heard that before for boilers, and in other industries.

You sometimes see instructions about filling slowly, though I think that's to do with thermal shock cracking things. The PRV is usually connected in much the same place as the EV, and it should have protected the boiler. Nobody can prove you filled it too fast, even if that could cause a problem. You aren't responsible if a light bulb blows when you turn it on, same with this boiler in my humble opinion.
You did break the water regs in leaving the filling loop attached though.

I'd wriggle or offer the cheap fix. They'll want to get it fixed soon, so if you make an offer to fix and they choose not to accept it they take on responsibility. This sort of thing is extremely unlikely to go to court, but you could make a "Part 36" offer. That means if it DID go to court and they were awarded no more than your offer, they would have to pay all the costs. It's designed to make people settle out of court, and it works.
When I used it there was nearly 200k at stake.
 
ChrisR said:
BG don't claim to do a service every year, though they will if you insist, customers have told me. I can well believe it's perfectly true about taking the front off causing problems. I've heard that before for boilers, and in other industries.

Don't forget you have to be Corgi-ed to take the front off a boiler and the OP isnt a Corgi....

Sounds like a stitch up to me. I think anyone could argue the toss with this one. The PRV should have blown and the fact that the EV, was a secondary problem. It has been mentioned elsewhere that the EV failing is a 'safety feature', otherwise radiators would start popping!

As chris says, make them a goodwill offer - £100-£150 and chalk this one down to experience. We all make mistakes and you just have to learn and move on mate.
 
By coincidence just fitted a new expansion vessel and PRV valve yesterday,
10 litre Zelmet vessel £48.98, PRV £6.50, both plus vat, 2 hours labour including fetching it, £85.00 = £150.18 now even if you triple this it still only comes out at £450.00.

I get totally fed up with the continual insinuations that the plumbing/heating industry is full of rip off merchants, well if what you say is true that BG want £1500.00 then it wants reporting to trading standards as it obvious who is the biggest rip off merchant, I would certainly ask to see BGs "written" breakdown of parts and labour for this quotation.
 
Hi guys,

Sorry for the delay in replying, problems connecting to the Internet.

Customer sent me a letter the other day suggesting that an independent heating engineer I contacted was a mate and that I was stitching him up. I'm sick of trying to help this guy as he has been aggressive and has intimidated both myself and my apprentice.

Spoke to the engineer who confirmed that the tap was in actual fact seized and was in a 'slightly open' position. The customer has since said that he forced the valve open using a screwdriver, which as you'll agree is impossible on a washing machine type tap when fully closed. The reason the loop wasn't disconnected was because we were in the process of filling the system and hadn't even got to the stage of bleeding the rads when this all happened

Anyway, back to the problem. The guy sent me this letter that says he wants £1700 for a new boiler plus the costs involved in calling BG out. It's in the hands of my solicitor now and I'm prepared to fight this all the way. I'd said to him that an external vessel could be fitted but he wasn't interested as BG had told him there was no space!!!!! An 8 litre vessel would have easily sat next to (or above) the boiler, he wasn't prepared to give up any airing cupboard space.

The customer continues to bleat on about him having a proper service by BG as part of his 3 star cover. I now think it's past the stage of sorting this out without assstance from my solicitor.
 
Really sorry that this isn't working out for you and it's totally obvious to anyone that the customer is being totally unreasonable, I get the impression that this person is probably a past master at ripping off resturants, shops, garages etc, unfortunately we all come across this sort of person in whatever occupation we are in, I was in a computer shop at xmas waiting at the counter, the guy in front was offered his money back, or a replacement for a dvd writer he had returned, he wasn't happy with either offer, I nearly got involved myself as it was starting to annoy me and waste my time waiting behind him, fortunately the other assistant became free so I ignored it, thing is there is no pleasing some people and the legal route is gonna be the only way, to sort it, keep us all posted and best of luck.
 
and don't forget to send in your bill and include any extras
 

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