Is my charge reasonable?

[Rob Foster]

I hope she charges you by the hour.

I got a life sentance in fact if I had gassed her on day one I would be well out by now.

 

[fixitflav]

I’m now lost? What are we talking about here?

Whether a non-GSR person can (legally) work on their own boiler.

 

[Harvest Fields]

Ohhh. I’m with it again now then.

 

[Rob Foster]

1998 Gas Regulations cover most of the above. The largest fine a quick trawl uncovered was £1.2m plus sundry other fines and costs. 18 months in clink seems to be average incarceration. Plus the danger diy gas work puts the home owners family in. Its not just gas bangs but flue gas. solid fuel carries other dangers.
Rob Foster aka centralheatking

 

[Murdoch]

Whether a non-GSR person can (legally) work on their own boiler.

Why would a non GSR person work on a boiler?

Anyone with even half a brain knows that they are blxxdy dangerous ..... and can explode

 

[Ric2013]

Why would a non GSR person work on a boiler?

Anyone with even half a brain knows that they are blxxdy dangerous ... and can explode

Because every year I have to straighten the fixing lugs on the decorative casing on the boiler at my mother's house after some numpty who happens to be a RGI bends them by removing the casing in a ham-fisted manner (next year I will supervise).

Because I had three RGIs look at my own boiler unable to work out why it was overheating 'perhaps it's supposed to do that'. Then I discovered the flow and return had been reversed.

Because I've watched (yet another) RGI work on my boiler, fit the functional casing and then wonder why the boiler wouldn't fire, then he realised he'd left one corner hanging off and had missed the fixing hook entirely. Lucky the boiler has pressure sensors able to recognise that the casing has been put on by an idiot. (The manufacturer's instructions say to check the condition of the seal and to check the casing has been fitted correctly. Ha ha.)

The one that said a heating system was full of air and it turned out he hadn't checked the ballcock on an open-vented system.

The one who serviced a boiler he had originally fitted for a customer of mine and then ignored her all weekend when she told him, in the middle of winter, that her heating wasn't working. He was eager enough to come and look when she sent a text saying 'don't worry - I'll call Baxi out'. Customer is in her 60s and has emphysema, but by then I was on my way (it was his shoddy wiring).

This, sadly, is the level of competence I find in local gas installers. People ask me for recommendations and I'm currently unable to give any. You can understand why I would feel safer in my own house if I had worked on my own boiler than allowed an unknown person with a Gas Safe card to work on it for me. So, yes, it would be interesting to see what the law says.

 

[Harvest Fields]

We are not all like that mate and people still shouldn’t mess with gas unless trained.

 

[Ric2013]

We are not all like that mate and people still shouldn’t mess with gas unless trained.

I know we aren't all like that, but you can well understand why the industry has such an awful reputation. I note that my thread in the Gas Installer required forum has received zero interest, so I can only assume all the good ones did the sensible thing and ran as far from Colchester as they could.

One guy I used to use and who had seemed quite good got struck off the register. I did know another guy who also seemed quite good, not that I actually met him myself (though he was at least reassuringly expensive), but he did make me wait a month for a repeat annual boiler service before finally telling me he simply wouldn't have the time (as he no longer does domestic).

Another guy I've heard of installed a boiler but hadn't had it it setting mode when he set it up, so it wasn't correctly commissioned. Luckily the manufacturer sorted this out and commented 'it happens often'.

So, just personally, I've been through 5 gas installers and found, perhaps, only one good one. Let's hope I'm just unlucky because, so far, 80% of the local ones are not very good. If I based solely on my own experience, I'd have to draw the conclusion that whatever training people do for their membership of Corgi and now Gas Safe does not give (or is not enough to give) a competent person.

You will well understand that, in my own home, with my relatively simple Potterton Profile, I would be more inclined to trust myself than a random technician/installer from the Yellow Pages when it came to the fan, pressure sensors (they only register a pressure or lack of: no proportionality involved), theromocouples, thermostats, solonoids, and the pcb, though I wouldn't be happy setting up a gas valve.

Quite honestly, I do know someone I would trust with it, but he hasn't been Gas Safe or Corgi since the 80s, so he wouldn't be allowed to touch it either! Obviously one of you horrible lot would be welcome.

In the meantime, I just don't have it serviced and keep it under observation. If I suddenly disappear, you'll know why.

 

[Jerry]

All those parts are fitted dry (no wet work). Can't take more than 1 hour each to change a fan and pcb.

That's 2 out of the 10 hours. 8 hours to diagnose ?

£45/hr is cheap for my area.

A failed fan pressure switch is an easy test and hard to get wrong.

Pretty sure if you had called the technical helpdesk of the manufacturer and they had walked you through the process and found the fault with you, it would have taken less than 10 hours.

 

[Jim09876]

40 hours @£45 per hour comes to £1800.