specialising

[kb76]

Dear all, not sure I'm in the correct forum here! I'm Kevin and new to the site only this morning although I do check it out from time to time. I'm a gas safe registered engineer of 22years and have decided to change direction slightly and focus solely on boiler breakdowns and servicing having found with being a general heating and plumbing engineer my work was far too varied and my breakdown skills were suffering as only 10-15% were call outs for boiler faults with much of my work being boiler installations and change overs and hey, general plumbing is a pain in the :nono: let's be honest! Have been on many manufactures courses recently and sat a fault finding diognistics course which i really enjoyed. Have set up a new website here in the south west focusing on this, I believe it's quite a specialist side of heating, can be challenging but very rewarding. In the past I've tended to rush into a boiler case looking for faults as apposed to following the logical sequence Combi boilers follow...
Any advise from fellow boiler technicians much appreciated...
Thanks for reading
Kevin

 

[Stanios]

Hi Kevin,
Not sure what advice you are after exactly, however I can tell from my experience a good source of breakdown jobs could be other plumbers. There are quite a few plumbers who dont want to fiddle with boilers and stick to installs (and rightly so). Good luck in your endeavours!

 

[hammers4spanner]

Always helps if you know the sequence of operation from demand to pump spinning etc etc

 

[hammers4spanner]

Oh you need to pass your gas safe number to the mods on here for more specific advice forum rules

 

[kb76]

I'm pretty much there with the sequence, however I guess with so many boilers out there this varies slightly and over time combis have evolved eliminating some controls (air pressure switch) for example.
Do you guys on the breakdown/service side generally stick to this or mix it up a bit?
Will send my gas safe details to mod once I have the 10 posts.
Thanks
Kevin

 

[Chalked]

Please get your post count up to the required 10 on general topics.not gas related. You will understand why once your in.

Thanks.

 

[Unregistered]

Please get your post count up to the required 10 on general topics.not gas related. You will understand why once your in.

Thanks.

The general plumbing forum?
Thanks

 

[townfanjon]

Personally , i am all for any kind of specialising in any trade. I spent years in the motor trade but could never seem to find the right 'bit' to specialise in.
Now after 13/14 years in this job i am still looking for something to specialise in this job . Lol , i will find it then retire lol.
So good luck on the breakdown specialising, but I would , for the time being at least keep your options open on at least some other plumbing options /work.

 

[Dotty]

The general plumbing forum?
Thanks

Just remember to keep checking that you're logged in. They'll amount to nothing otherwise!

 

[kb76]

Must have logged out by mistake there...
I guess it's a new challenge in a huge industry and it's taken me 22 years to discover that's what I would like to specialise in. Off course i'll need to take on other heating/plumbing work, particularly in the summer months. I cant bear not being able to fix things and like to know why faults occur, maybe that's why I enjoy the breakdown and service side these days, as well as coming up 40 and bones beginning to ache a bit more these days?

 

[Stanios]

Ah I thought you were 22 years old

I'm a gas safe registered engineer of 22years

 

[kb76]

I wish I was still 22, no unfortunately not1

 

[Rabbitman]

Repairing boiler can be rewarding and easier on the knees but after a while you can get fed up, I spent years specialising in just boilers but after 8/9 breakdowns - services a day 5/6 days a week it gets a bit mundane

 

[townfanjon]

I wish I was still 22, no unfortunately not1

And so say all of us !!!! Lol

 

[kb76]

So do you boys carry manufactures manuals when you can (obviously not all of them) or tablets with apps etc?

 

[Rabbitman]

I was lucky as i worked for the manufacture so info was available

 

[lame plumber]

if your in the centre of Bristol, just doing servicing and breakdowns is a viable option, if your in the backwaters and limited customer base, not a chance. Remember if your liked by your customers, its you they will ring for plumbing etc, if you fail to do the work, they wont call for the annual service of the boiler as the next lad will have his foot in the door.

 

[kb76]

20 mins south of exeter, nearest town Newton Abbot. Shall crack on with my commercial in the summer and OFTEC which will hopefully open a few more avenues and boiler cases!

 

[lame plumber]

Newton Abbott, happy days there, spent at what was once an agricultural college, now long gone, we used to auction off students at the cattle market during rag week, only the lasses ever got sold, cant remember what else we did due to imbibing an awful lot of cider