Taking appliances apart

[kyle]

Hi guys,
Another of my strange questions here,, Do you ever get in front of an appliance,say a fire, and think how the blo--y hell does this come apart.
Every time my engineer places a job on me, I sit there feeling very silly, sitting in front of a fire I have never seen, engineer watching me..customer watching me, thinking right, where do I start...... or is it just me. Cheers,
KYLE.

 

[kirkgas]

haha, no its not just you, we have all been there, trying to look cool and professional while we look for the fixing screws, "usually" the casings are hung on at the top and fixed back at the bottom by wing nuts or screws, i remember one old dear in particular who watched me struggle to get the casing off her fire, she says "are you all right there? can you get the front off" yes im ok trying desperatley to find the screws, in the end she admitted every time someone came to look at the fire they needed help, turns out you had to lift off the false coals, emeove a wee panel then unscrew 2 wing nuts, she knew we didnt know but it was her entertainment, bless her!!

 

[oldplumber]

At times like this, you go for the"I'm parched, is the kettle on please?", it gives you 5 mins to struggle on your own.

 

[moony]

i can remember coming across my first worcestor si II looking for the screws! always handy to have the book in front of you. i ask for the model of the fire/boiler when im called up and then i download the manual and have a look before i go to job so ive got a good idea if its one i havent worked on before. there will always be something that will get you stuck for a few minutes its whether you start flapping or not that determines how unprofessional you look.

 

[dontknowitall]

It's just you.



Don't worry - happens to all of us at some stage (usually when we're new). My bugbear is the oil control valve on Agas. I can never remember which way is on and which way is off. Customers tend to look at me sideways. Then I work it out and suddenly the customers realise I've fixed the problem then I'm the bees knees!!

 

[buckley plumb]

been there many a time .the last was trying to put the case back on a ferroli optimax 30c .took it off several times to see if i could figure out what i was doing wrong and struggled every time to get it back on.i felt like a wally untill i spoke to another enginer in the merchants who said he had the same problem.

ant

 

[Plucky]

been there many a time .the last was trying to put the case back on a ferroli optimax 30c .took it off several times to see if i could figure out what i was doing wrong and struggled every time to get it back on.i felt like a wally untill i spoke to another enginer in the merchants who said he had the same problem.

ant

Been there, got the T shirt!

Same boiler

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

yes it happens to everyone been there many times

 

[gasmarc]

i went to a job and had this huge rugby bloke standing behind me with his arms crossed watching what i was doing ,i eventually sussed how to get the cover off ,I have done jobs before fixing boilers and it has taken longer to get the cover back on , about 2 months ago I put a new viessmann combi in and could i get the cover back on ,total nightmare ,i did it in the end

 

[stevetheplumber]

ive often stood looking at a boiler trying to work out how the case comes of nine times out of ten ive taken out the wrong screws first time

 

[GrahamM]

ive often stood looking at a boiler trying to work out how the case comes of nine times out of ten ive taken out the wrong screws first time

Statements like this Steve make the more recently qualified lads feel a whole lot better.

 

[gasmarc]

easily done i think one of the vokeras with the 2 spring loaded screws is a hard one to suss at first

 

[Dannypipe]

If someone says this has never happened he's full of ****. So relax, and maybe make a joke about it while they're watching you!