Plumbing and heating insurance?

I live in Worcester. Does that count?

 

My Ideal is as old as the house. Hardy little things but now showing its age. Still, it soldiers on. But I do need to replace. I was seriously thinking about air heat source but given the latest shenanigans with utilities, gas, solar flares scaremongering etc I'm thinking I should still spread my risk and stick to gas. Anyone have experience of these reverse air conditioning units?

 

I'd quite happily stick the money in a bank IF (and that's a big IF) the local guys would even pick up the phone ! seems to be a shortage in Shropshire unfortunately

 

Don’t bother unless it’s a new build you will not get your money back the units will cost £8-9k and then you need to double the size of the rads as it only works on low temps and the predicted 1/3 kWh is a crock of Marmite.

 

Don’t bother with air source heat pumps they only work if your house is super insulated and ideally has underfloor heating.
Ground source works better but will be costly to put in.

I have just had a Worcester boiler put in and it has a 12 year as long as it’s serviced

 

Air scourge heat pumps are very finicky about system volume size. As mentioned above at the very least you’ll be having all the rads changed to doubles. However sometimes even that’s not enough system volume and all the pipe work will need upgrading as well. So basically a complete from scratch install. Including the A Con Heat Punt that’s gonna be a 15k job. If you’ve got a lot of 15mm flow and returns, a one pipe system or god forbid micro bore then you’re probably not gonna get away with just over sizing the rads.

Anyhow Hydrogen blend boilers are well into the testing phase now. Give it 5-8 years and I think they’ll be pretty common.

 

Did you keep the receipt? Any chance you can take it back and swap it for a proper boiler?

 

Sounds like you are better off turning your fridge around and putting in the fireplace instead of the kitchen.....

 

I take issue with a few of their Pros as well. Easy installation process for a start. At what point is re routing huge chunks of pipe work and squeezing in a dirty great buffer tank somewhere an easy process?

can be used for space or water heating. Yeah but not at the same time on a cold day. You’ll be putting your immersion on if you want hot water in winter.

Save money on energy bills. Even that’s doubtful. Probably on a perfect install yes, but I’ve yet to find a perfect house ever.

 

Our gas central heating has been in for 21 years from new. In that time about 3 soldered joints have sprung a leak and the boiler has needed three air circulation fans as the bearings dry out, and a radiator fell off the wall earlier this year, and one diverter valve siezed up, and one circulation pump I ran dry. So far thats about £500 in maintenance. I do occasionally clean the boiler burner out, after watching a "professional service" of the boiler, but basically ever since I fixed the initial installation by screwing the cover on the boiler properly so it stopped banging and blowing out, my opinion of central heating installers remains low.

 

Like all walks of life there’s good and bad in all trades. I know a few absolutely s@@@ hot installers and repair engineers. I know a lot of bang average ones as well.

To be honest, and I’m not being rude here, but if you think servicing a boiler consists of hoovering out the burner then you are way off the mark.

At the very least you need to do
F A G S

Flue - that’s integrity checks on products of combustion and O2 on a premix or fan flued burner.
Or if it’s open flued then you need to do a flue flow test and a spillage test.

Air - that’s combustion air and cooling ventilation air. That’s calculating the required ventilation minus the advantageous air and allowing for communicated air, compartment ventilation, extract fans etc.

Gas - have you got the correct burner pressure? If it’s a premix do you know how to select the High/low mode and test at each. Have you got a calibrated flue gas analyser? Do you know what the allowable combustion ratio is for that boiler pre and post service? Do you know how to adjust the boiler to achieve the correct FGA readings? What about achieving a stable flame picture? What would you look for if you had flame lift for example? Or if the pilot adjustments were incorrect.

Safety - Do you know what type of flame failure device is fitted to your boiler? Is it thermoelectric, rectified current, photoelectric cell? Do you know what the Gas Installation and use regs specify as the legal procedure to check the operation of these? What’s the permissible amount of seconds for a flame failure device? How about the over heat protection or the flue stat test?

Etc etc etc. And we haven’t even covered whether an appliance requires a one use gasket after inspection? Does yours? Is it a positive fan case? Do you even know the difference? How about cleaning any sumps, condensate traps etc.

my opinion of people who do their own boiler services and I can guarantee do a much worse job than a proper qualified engineer isnt very high either.

There’s an awful lot more to it than shoving a hoover in it.

 

Stay away from B.G. They trade on people thinking they’re a reputable company which as others have mentioned is definitely not the case.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,I’ll say no more ,,,but,,, DONT!!!

 

I’d tell that firm you got insurance with BG and hope the calls stop. Personally, I don’t think the insurance is worth it.

 

Below is copied at post that I posted my experience with homeserve on their facebook page . I was contacted online very quickly, they phoned me this morning stating they will lok into things . I wont hold my breath for a positive result though . The engineer that came to examine the boiler the second time was unbelievably arrogant totally uncaring of the situation he left my neighbour in .

Homeserve came and serviced my 94 year old neighbours bolier . When they drove away it didnt work. I phoned them to inform them. They came back over two weeks later , refusing to come out earlier , they condemned the boiler as uneconomical to repair . When i told them it worked fine before they serviced it they came all shirty and refused to repair it or take any responsibility. They today sent a cheque for two hundred pounds in the name of her dead husband. No explanation at all, leaving a 94 year old with no hot water or central heating .. SHAME ON THEM

 

Can’t say I’m surprised. I got called to an apparent boiler fault after home serve had attended to do a repair to the heating system. The boiler worked fine before they attended.

When the guy left he couldn’t get the boiler to work. So he came back a few days later with one of their apparently senior engineers. Neither one of them could work out what was going on. So they told the old lads it must be a boiler issue and a coincidence.

I attended and within about five minutes worked out the issue that had baffled two of their engineers for two visits.

There wasn’t any water in the system after the first guy had drained it to do the repair!!

 

I also filled a black bin liner with debris from behind a gas fire that they had apparently been servicing for several years.

 

Fortunately its so old , condensate traps and other rot boxes are a thing of the future for that boiler.

I worry about it when it stops working, then I buy it a new fan. Because that stops the boiler because no air flow pushing the switch closed. And theres a basic flame failure device feeding a solenoid.

Zero lines of code in zero processors.

When it also decides to let loose the water, I may change it.

 

Update to this post

I got another call from Homeserve this afternoon , Its a good job i didnt hold my breath for a good outcome. The lady who called me, although was very nice , the same result was obtained, they are not going to do anything . BEAR WITH ME THOUGH, the call , in my opinion was to try and buy me off (or the neighbour in reality) they made an offer , of £130 compensation , over and above the already £200 they sent a cheque for , that i now understand was to end the contract that was paid for , and has run for approximatly 13 years plus.
They dont seem to understand that the boiler was working fine, all year each and every day , then their service engineer attended , and when he left the boiler wasnt now working . if they cannot understand that , i neither couldnt get them to understand the fact that they have left a 94 years old lady without hot water or central heating, On a moral ground that is simply wrong
Having explained that to the lady , again she simply tried to buy out of the situation by offering financial compensation , they have no morals

i have insisted, and been advised i will get a written reply as to why the boiler wasnt working after to the service engineer attending , and a list of parts needed that made the boiler un ecconomical to repair , again i wont hold my breath for it.

The reality is , unless i proceed with legal action , on what grounds exactly ?, then they will win , because they simply end up doing nothing ,and i would have to do all the leg work running around to build a case, but i need the boiler working for the neighbour (currently she is in a care home but a meeting on Monday may mean plans afoot to get her home) , i am pleased to say that financially there is no issue in buying a new boiler and having it fitted, its just a matter of timescale, i have a fitter coming in the morning to price a replaement


The issue here for me is the moral side of things, i feel the strongest thing i can do in terms of Homeserve is provide as much bad publicity as possible , promoting the story online and to friends and family and uncle tom cobly and all , hence my post here today . please take note of my neighbours situation and if you are wanting to take out insurance cover for your boiler then please remember this scenario with Homeserve.