To be furious and disappointed in our gassafe engineers

[Avago]

We got a new Worcester Bosch boiler installed about 6 years ago by local Gassafe (or corgi back then?) engineers. It's had various problems since and been both fixed and serviced every year by Worcester Bosch. There is currently a British Gas engineer condemning it and explaining to my DH how it has been wrongly installed and where the carbon monoxide is escaping from.

I'm horrified. We have 2 detectors that didn't go off as levels were low but how can all of those engineers missed the problem? It's almost certainly been leaking since installation since its wrongly fitted flu , not wear and tear. Arrrrgh!!!!!!

Spoke to the BG engineer and he didn't think it worth complaining since they could say we had done it our selves. What on earth is the point if Gassafe if not to take care of all this?

Erm, I would get that double checked if I were you, BG are well known for creating problems that dont' exsist in the hope that you'll buy a new boiler from them

Not that I'm cynical or anything............

I know where you're coming from Jim but they are happy with the boiler, they're not happy with the screw and sticky tape used to hold the wrong flu part onto the boiler. Bodge up is very visible, meter reading visible too (though I accept I wouldn't know a safe level ( is there one?) from a dangerous one).

Get a second opinion. Imnotaslimjim is absolutely right, BG are notorious for doing that.

Get a second opinion from a Gas Safe engineer through word of mouth, or go on their website. DP is Gas Safe and he says screws and a foil- backed tape are supposed to be used for the flu- Worcester Bosch even supply them with their flu's.

So what levels of carbon monoxide did they measure ?

And why are they condemning the whole boiler if it's just the flue ?

Lining their pockets, cumfy

There's nothing wrong the boiler, they're completely happy with it but it's leaking carbon monoxide at the back where it's flued. The original GS engineers installed a horizontal flu to begin with but we realised all the vapour was then going out passed our new French doors ( new extension) so they changed the flu to a vertical one but didnt change everything properly. We've had ongoing problems that WB always came out to and they have serviced it for 5 years. Last year was the first time the engineers used the tape and screwed it- together (not in a normal area) and this is the area that gives a high reading of CO. We have another engineer coming tonight through a friend of a friend for another opinion

Independent GS engineer agrees with everything BG man said, even agreeing that its pointless reporting to GasSafe because we can't prove who did what - I think that what's upsetting me most.

I've been sitting watching corrie thinking Tyrone was mad yet I don't feel we've faired much better using the right people.

But did they tell you what the actual value of the "high readings" in ppm were ?

I was walking the dog but he couldn't have taken any readings because the the BG guy took the fuse out to stop us using it.

You definitely need a second opinion and not by british Gas engineers.

OK - reading on, if it's been installed in an inappropriate place and the vent is wrong, that can only be down to the initial installers. Unless you've put the French doors there most recently.

Our boiler vents close to an opening window, but even with the window open, the CO readings aren't normally high. I just close the window if the wind is blowing in a very particular direction.

The boiler position is fine - it was put in at the same time as the extension was done, was just wee saw clouds of vapour floating past our window (the house is on different levels and extensions sticks out at right angles) and didn't like it aesthetically (never even thought about fumes tee tearing home). Engineers said it wasn't a problem to put in a vertical flu and make the outlet higher. The external CO isn't a problem, the connection from the boiler to the flu pipe is. The original engineers used the wrong one then at least 3 other engineers from Worcester Bosch fixed and serviced it over 5 or6 years before last year deciding to tape the joint and put a screw in it. The BG engineer today showed DH vapour escaping at the internal joint - the moisture is visible.

British Gas engineers (and all BG staff) are on commission. They get big bonuses for new boilers and other business they generate. Do not trust!

I'd get gas safe out to check the boiler. Dh was subcontracted by BG and was dropped pretty quickly because he refused to upsell things at the time of installation. He'd much rather do the job properly than aim to get more money for a rip off company.

Oh and if they offer you a power flush say no, as independent Gas engineers can do it for a fraction of the £800 BG aim to charge

We also had poor experience with BG and suspect we were conned into £600 worth of fannying around work only to then have the boiler condemned as being a load of crap the engineer had never heard of (cant remember the brand now but even I had heard of them).

The price quoted to replace the boiler by BG was more than three times the price we eventually paid to an independent.

The rules have changed a fair bit over the last few years so it is quite possible that how your boiler was fitted was okay then but isnt now.

Wow, I'm amazed nobody seemed to have a good word to say about BG!

Apart from seeming to enjoy saying his bit about it now being illegal to turn on our boiler and if we stopped him doing blah blah blah I thought he was ok - no pressure to do anything (apart from the fact we'll be cold) or sales talk.

I'm pissed off with the installers who reused the horizontal flue to make a vertical one and didn't bother fixing it to the wall properly and thereafter the WB engineers who never noticed.

We have a independent recommended GS engineer coming tomorrow to fix it for £300 - his hourly rate is £20ph instead of BG's £80 !

OK I agree with you all now.

BG was right with the initial wrong flue installation. New engineer sorted that no problem but then he couldn't get the previously working boiler to work. It was throwing up an error message so that was sorted (disconnected wire) then another error message (another disconnected wire)..... this went on 5 times plus the fan had been buggered about with. Engineer reckons BG were banking on us redoing the flue then ordering new parts (all the disconnected ones would normally be assumed as defective) then finally after huge parts and labour bill it still wouldn't work and bingo new boiler required.

And the reason he looked for disconnection? He'd seen it done before several times by BG. FURIOUS !!!

Oh - BG are a pita. When our old boiler broke down they engineer came out and told us the PC board had gone, they couldn't get a new one until the following Tuesday (This was the Thursday before Easter) which would have left me with no heating or hot water (five months pg at the time).

DH said no chance was it the PC board and to call out an independant for a second opinion.

Independant diagnosed a knackered fan - fixed and replaced that afternoon. He said that all the BG engineers do is stick their little computers on and take what they say as read. It would have diagnosed the PC Board because the knackered fan wasn't kicking in at all, but any engineer who knew what they were doing should have noticed that the fan was not kicking in, which would make the boiler appear completely dead!

BG also quoted us £3500 for exactly the same boiler that an indy fitted for less than £2000.

They are massive rip off merchants.