An Expensive Weekend.

[BroadAmbition]

Right,  That's done it for me oldgregg.

The new prv is due to arrive Wednesday, knowing how these things go, I am immediately after this post ordering a new expansion tank.  The two combined will be less than £50 and fitting will be free of course.  What price piece of mind?  Besides I am getting most royally pi55ed off with having to go up the loft and pressurise the system every time we want hot water or the heating on, not to mention a permanent puddle outside on the drive

Griff

[BroadAmbition]

Ordered.  Apparently it is due Wednesday too.  Good, no prizes for guessing what I'll be doing Wednesday after work then

Griff

[BroadAmbition]

Said expansion vessel and prv arrived yesterday.

Snag there was by the time I had finished at yesterdays client, taken rubbish away, emptied same from van, then visited two clients for estimates I did not get in till 1930.  By the time I had my tea, processed estimates etc it was 2130.  Too late for I felt for mucking about up in the loft. Instead got second coat of varnish on the new mast - Gotta get ones priorities right.

Due to a plumber getting behind (Aka letting me down) todays booking is postponed so the boiler will be tackled this morning

Griff

[BroadAmbition]

Sorted.

Prv and expansion vessel changed this morning.  On inspecting the old units, the prv was definitely the problem.  The vessel would have lasted how long? I know not but we now have years of service left in the new unit.  Hot water and central heating running like a guddun, silent, maintaining pressure, no more popping up the loft to re-pressurise morning, noon and night.    Job done and ticked off all for less than £50:00

Mucho thankso to you members that have offered advice  

I have pre-booked a gas safe plumber to do a full service on it in the morning for peace of mind too

Now, where did I put that mast and my varnish?

Griff

[addicted]

No use to those of you in God's own County I know but just so as to prove that  good, honest,  reliable plumbers really do exist,   we, here in Cambridgeshire,   have a wonderful plumber who charges us the same for parts as he pays himself, always comes promptly when needed and keeps his labour charges to a minimum. He also goes the extra mile too when  last year our  gas fire refused to ignite he found it  needed a new part that was no longer available( the fire is 15 years old) he went to enormous trouble to  track one down, doling so within a week and coming to fit it with a tiny bill to follow. He's worth his weight in gold..

 

 

Carole

[OldBerkshireBoy]

7 minutes ago, addicted said:

No use to those of you in God's own County I know but just so as to prove that  good, honest,  reliable plumbers really do exist,   we, here in Cambridgeshire,   have a wonderful plumber who charges us the same for parts as he pays himself, always comes promptly when needed and keeps his labour charges to a minimum. He also goes the extra mile too when  last year our  gas fire refused to ignite he found it  needed a new part that was no longer available( the fire is 15 years old) he went to enormous trouble to  track one down, doling so within a week and coming to fit it with a tiny bill to follow. He's worth his weight in gold..

 

 

Carole

Must be the coffee & bacon rolls that you give him everytime lol. I`m good, prompt and reliable to customers however I do add a % mark up on parts if I supply them, this is because any part supplied by me comes with my guarantee and the quality being what it is nowadays I have to factor in return visits and you can`t expect the customer to pay twice can you?

[grendel]

expensive morning for me - opticians eye test and new glasses, £220, next the dentists, £256 band 3 work, and after that a trip to the tyre place for two new front tyres, and tracking check, £190, ouch

[FairTmiddlin]

Cor that certainly deflated the wallet.

But at least you can see, eat and drive with confidence now.

[BroadAmbition]

Friday - Gas Safe Plumber serviced the boiler - £60:00 all in and reported all to the good.

This Saturday evening - Pressure maintained constant since Thursday morning, reliability back to normal.

Jobs a gudden

Griff

[KaptinKev]

22 hours ago, BroadAmbition said:

Friday - Gas Safe Plumber serviced the boiler - £60:00 all in and reported all to the good.

This Saturday evening - Pressure maintained constant since Thursday morning, reliability back to normal.

Jobs a gudden

Griff

Personally and what I've heard, a service of a boiler is a bit of a con. If a boiler is running normally and with the sensors and sophistication associated with boilers nowadays, a heating engineer doesn't have alot to do. A service helps a lot with landlords distancing themselves from this possible killer, but we are all heading in the direction of calling our boiler "Alexa"

[OldBerkshireBoy]

Gonna have to disagree on the first point Kaptin but the second is nearer than you know. First up will be newbuild blocks of flats and buildings such as but in it time it will be in every house but the fuel source may not be gas.

[KaptinKev]

6 minutes ago, Pumpmedic said:

Gonna have to disagree on the first point Kaptin but the second is nearer than you know. First up will be newbuild blocks of flats and buildings such as but in it time it will be in every house but the fuel source may not be gas.

So hopefully gone are the days where a service engineer turned up with a vacuum cleaner, and banged the sides of a boiler to make it sound good to the customer!

[OldBerkshireBoy]

9 minutes ago, KaptinKev said:

So hopefully gone are the days where a service engineer turned up with a vacuum cleaner, and banged the sides of a boiler to make it sound good to the customer!

What you describe is not a service engineer!

[KaptinKev]

12 minutes ago, Pumpmedic said:

What you describe is not a service engineer!

Unfortunately I have seen them in action.

[OldBerkshireBoy]

24 minutes ago, Pumpmedic said:

What you describe is not a service engineer!

 

8 minutes ago, KaptinKev said:

Unfortunately I have seen them in action.

What you saw in action wasn`t a service engineer.

[Hylander]

On 23/03/2019 at 22:55, BroadAmbition said:

Friday - Gas Safe Plumber serviced the boiler - £60:00 all in and reported all to the good.

This Saturday evening - Pressure maintained constant since Thursday morning, reliability back to normal.

Jobs a gudden

Griff

That was cheap ,  down here it is about the £90 mark.

[oldgregg]

11 hours ago, Pumpmedic said:

What you describe is not a service engineer!

No indeed. And you can usually spot these cowboys as they arrive in a blue van that matches the TV adverts.

[OldBerkshireBoy]

1 minute ago, oldgregg said:

No, they arrive in a blue van that matches the TV adverts....

Of which there are good service engineers and what is known as sales engineers but that is a whole different topic. 

Find a good local independent guy and put your monthly contract money in a jam jar is my advice to anyone with a gas boiler.

[ranworthbreeze]

Sadly these days there are part fitters rather than service engineers, if they do not have the part they do not have the time, temperament, or skills to repair a circuit board for example. 

Regards

Alan

[grendel]

talking of repairing, sadly nowadays parts are not designed for repair, I recently managed to get a canon camera cheap at a boot fair, when I got it home I tested it to find it dead as a dodo. google told me that in all probability the fault was either a faulty sensor switch on one of the doors, or a fuse had blown, after eliminating the faulty switch I stripped the camera down and bridged the fuse - in this instance the fuse was mounted on the circuit board, and was less than 1/16" (1.6mm) square, definitely not a replaceable fuse. 

[hazelgirl]

Well it looks like we maybe in for an expensive one too, our trusty old boiler decided to not fire up yesterday so we are currently without heat or hot water, we do still have the shower so that's good.

Fingers crossed any repairs (if possible) will be covered by the home care scheme and the £60 excess we have just paid before an engineer will be sent I find a bit odd, if you're covered you're covered aren't you? hmmmm maybe I am not understanding the policy correctly, either way I suspect the old gal has had it and we need to brace ourselves lol 

[OldBerkshireBoy]

6 minutes ago, hazelgirl said:

Well it looks like we maybe in for an expensive one too, our trusty old boiler decided to not fire up yesterday so we are currently without heat or hot water, we do still have the shower so that's good.

Fingers crossed any repairs (if possible) will be covered by the home care scheme and the £60 excess we have just paid before an engineer will be sent I find a bit odd, if you're covered you're covered aren't you? hmmmm maybe I am not understanding the policy correctly, either way I suspect the old gal has had it and we need to brace ourselves lol 

Firstly look for a pressure gauge and if that is reading below 1bar all may not be lost, secondly the company you mention have a poor reputation so should you be told that parts are no longer available then I suggest you try a middle aged independent guy.

Don`t get me started on having to pay before they will attend.

Good luck.

[OldBerkshireBoy]

26 minutes ago, ranworthbreeze said:

Sadly these days there are part fitters rather than service engineers, if they do not have the part they do not have the time, temperament, or skills to repair a circuit board for example. 

Regards

Alan

Don`t blame the engineers instead blame the fat cats that own the bigger outfits for squeezing the engineers so much that they simply don`t have the time nowadays.

+20yrs back I was doing 4 jobs a day repairing water pumps, every job was done properly and mostly fixed in one visit. When I recently left it was expected that the same guy would attend 7 jobs a day (note attend) and second visits for whatever reason were chargable.

[grendel]

you should try getting hold of one at christmas - my central heating has only ever broken down on christmas day - and its happened 3 times now (though its been a few years since the last.

[hazelgirl]

5 minutes ago, Pumpmedic said:

Firstly look for a pressure gauge and if that is reading below 1bar all may not be lost, secondly the company you mention have a poor reputation so should you be told that parts are no longer available then I suggest you try a middle aged independent guy.

Don`t get me started on having to pay before they will attend.

Good luck.

Thanks for the tip, I will pass on to him who will never be obeyed so he can check it out tonight, I get what you are saying about the "middle aged independent guy" but we really struggle in our area to find honest reliable trades people, it's not just plumbers, it's any trade.

It is terribly annoying when you take a day off work and wait in for nobody to turn up, my mum has had 3 different plumbers over the past few years and none of been reliable where time keeping and getting hold of them was concerned.