Had a new central heating boiler fitted less than two years ago and decided to take advantage of the gas board's offer to service it for £49 as advertised. The gas man duly turned up and on looking at the boiler immediately issued me with a safety notice warning because the boiler was not protected by a 3amp switch fuse and he refused to do the work.
My question is this:- Why could he not just turn off all the electrics to the property at the main fuse box and do the service, or am I missing something? I call it jobsworth.
shaking Wed 02/07/08 17:12
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You can't service a boiler without the power on. They have to stick a probe into the flue when its running to check Co2 levels etc.
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Question Author
what was his problem then zac, maybe it was time to go home.
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Is £49.00 the norm for servicing a combi? I imagine it to be a lot more. I`ve had mine for three years now and wonder if I should get it seviced by now.
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I don't think you read my answer correctly. You CAN'T service a boiler without the power on so therefore he couldn't just turn all the power in the house off (incidentally he wouldn't have had to do this, only switch off the circuit which the boiler was on). They have to check that the boiler is running correctly once its been serviced.
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Question Author
thanks zac, so it hasn't been fitted correctly then?
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Question Author
Shylock73, call british gas by 15th Aug to get a service for £49. Tel. 0845 600 1054 quote GA04 as advertised in Daily Express
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Are you saying thats its not plugged in to a near by socket ?
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Question Author
thanks raysparx1. I don't know how it has been connected, the boiler is in the loft and there is no way I can get up there. It was fitted by a registered corgi plumber so should be up to scratch. Think the british gas man was trying to be clever even though I made him a cup of tea. There doesn't seem to be any service these days, perhaps he wouldn't change the fuse because he is not an electrician, health and safety again. Thank you for responding but I still spitting feathers!!
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Ray, stop messing about and just pop over and put him an inline switch for gods sake, you know BG don't know how to do it.
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if the boiler is fitted in a loft , you are supposed to have adequte lighting and the loft boarded out enough so you can safely work on the boiler. It also states in all manufacturers instructions that the boiler should have a 3amp fused supply( depending on the boiler). If any of this criteria wasn`t met i wouldn`t work on it, plus how can a guy work on a boiler in the loft with all the electricity off !!
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Question Author
the loft is boarded and there is a light up there, still don't understand why he couldn't have isolated the boiler from the fuse box, perhaps he didn't want the extra hassle of climbing up there more than once, also I have seen electricians with a battery light attached on a head band. The fuse box has loads of switches with everything marked.
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Its not his fault that whoever put your boiler in didn`t do it right. The fused spur is to protect you as well as your boiler.If you have a fused spur i am sure he would have changed it . Because of all the electrical checks you have to do these days you need some form of isolation near your boiler or it would take forever and a day to do a 30/40 min job,Runing up and down loft ladders is not my idea of fun, just because someone didn`t do their job properly.
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Question Author
thanks for the response, I still think it was a jobsworth. A very unhelpful individual with no compassion. I have an electrical certificate so will be contacting him.
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Question Author
An update for anyone interested, especially Raysparx1 who was more than helpful. The electrician called today at my request and went straight to the 3 amp switch fuse which was situated in a cupboard next to the time clock. He has now put another one in next to the boiler, clearly marked, in case any other jobsworth from British Gas comes to work on the central heating boiler.
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It states somewhere in the IEE Regulations that a fixed piece of equipment must have means of local isolation within 2 metres, so did the boiler in the loft have a spur unit next to it as that's what the British Gas man could have been on about....
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