Wonder if anyone can help with some advice here? about 1 month ago my central heating stopped working without warning so i called out the company who have the maintanince contract. The engineer looked at the boiler and said it was the pump that was away, he had to order a new one and returned 2 days later to fit it. When he fitted the new pump there was still nothing from the boiler, while checking this he had the boiler running and had the thermosatat removed from the front of the boiler a Baxi 51/3 RS. He went upstairs and stuck something down one of the pipes still with the boiler heating and no thermostat in place, he discovered that one of the pipes were blocked and cleared it but was also told it could have been an air lock. As you will know the boiler by this time was still heating and as soon as the water got through it blew water everywhere in my kitchen and i have since learned cracked the heat exchanger resulting in a wrecked boiler. He was apologetic about what had happened and told us that the companies insurance would sort it all out. Since then there owner of the company has denied any liability to what has happened and told me that i have to buy a new boiler as their engineer was not at fault. They also stated that blocked pipes do not happen to system that are properly fitted and this is what caused the damage although there were no leaks until this happened. This company have also had the service contract for the last ten years and have been happy enough to take the money when there are no problems. Can anyone help with what i have described and how would i stand if i take this further which i plan to do, i have contacted Corgi who are doing a report although they don't seem to want to get involved and have had anther plumber look at it and without doubt he says it is what the engineer done that caused the damage. Any advice would be most appreciated.
Baxi boiler, rogue trader?
- Thread starter brooky280
- Start date
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Yes TW they will but i dont suppose they specialise in central heating so therefore what i am looking for before i approach them is some advice from someone in the know who could confirm what i think that the engineer was in the wrong doing what he did.
if the engineer caused the h/ex to split by overheating it then obviously he was in the wrong, but if the h/ex was ready to leak in the first place then maybe not. without knowing the state/condition of boiler or system its a job to say
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B
Bamber gaspipe
You sound like a loser on the make. You either live in a rented apartment, or you are fishing here. Take it up with your landlord.
H
holty
sounds like the engineer tried to get the blockage (air) out by overheating the boiler, known this to be done but in your case the wrong route
N
namsag
The heat exchanger will probably be ok what he has done is melted the rubber gasket (cost about £10) between the 2 sections quite easily done when by thinking it was an airlock instead of a blocked cold feed.
As for pipe being blocked and must be piped wrongly i have seen loads that are piped perfectly but the cold feed still blocks.
Threaten them with whatever and get them back engineer has ballsed up which he has admitted
As for pipe being blocked and must be piped wrongly i have seen loads that are piped perfectly but the cold feed still blocks.
Threaten them with whatever and get them back engineer has ballsed up which he has admitted
Sounds to me like a traditional cold feed blockage. I personally don't think he should have left the boiler on without making sure there was water in it.
Sounds to me like the HE was really ho and the the sudden rush of cold water once the blockage was cleared was a shock to the HE and possibly cracked it.
Impossible to say whether there was already a weak spot in the HE though.
Your main point in a leagl way is that the engineer admitted liability to you whilst at your house
Sounds to me like the HE was really ho and the the sudden rush of cold water once the blockage was cleared was a shock to the HE and possibly cracked it.
Impossible to say whether there was already a weak spot in the HE though.
Your main point in a leagl way is that the engineer admitted liability to you whilst at your house
The legal question is was the engineer negligent in the way he dealt with the repair.
Thats very difficult to prove as it involves actually knowing what the fault(s) were and exactly what the engineer dit to identify and repair them.
There is a further question that its impossible afterwards to reconstitute the series of events.
In my view based solely on your side of the story, the engineer was probably somewhat neligent by operating the boiler with the thermostat out but that might still have happened even if he had not.
I think that the most you could expect is an ex-gratia payment of about £300 towards the cost of a new boiler. Or perhaps fitting a new boiler free if you pay for the unit.
Of course you could try a Court action against them but you would need an expert witness and they cost about £300-£600 for a start. The Court might well take the view that you are being vindictive and award you nominal damages if any as the exact sequence of events is not known or provable.
A Court action might however give an out of Court settlement which they might otherwise refuse to offer so it might still be worth considering filling in the forms.
I would not expect to make any silly mistake but it can happen to anyone. If I made an error I would offer to fit a new boiler labour free.
Tony
Thats very difficult to prove as it involves actually knowing what the fault(s) were and exactly what the engineer dit to identify and repair them.
There is a further question that its impossible afterwards to reconstitute the series of events.
In my view based solely on your side of the story, the engineer was probably somewhat neligent by operating the boiler with the thermostat out but that might still have happened even if he had not.
I think that the most you could expect is an ex-gratia payment of about £300 towards the cost of a new boiler. Or perhaps fitting a new boiler free if you pay for the unit.
Of course you could try a Court action against them but you would need an expert witness and they cost about £300-£600 for a start. The Court might well take the view that you are being vindictive and award you nominal damages if any as the exact sequence of events is not known or provable.
A Court action might however give an out of Court settlement which they might otherwise refuse to offer so it might still be worth considering filling in the forms.
I would not expect to make any silly mistake but it can happen to anyone. If I made an error I would offer to fit a new boiler labour free.
Tony
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had a similar problem with a glowworm hideaway boiler.
i was sub contracting to a large company who have blue vans,defect reported screaming pump. no h/hw.
when i got there i asked the home owner how long has the pump been making the noise,reply 6 days 24/7.
so gas had been burning until boiler stat turns it off.
found ball valve turned off to expansion tank and very dry.no water in boiler at all just steam.
phoned the large companys local technican stating that the heatexchanger is probaly damaged and likely to flood if water introduced to system.
technican told me to fill system,i refused and told him to send his own engineers.
i disconnected gas supply and capped off boiler did ID report as possible cracked heatexchanger.
technican visited property,turned on water and flooded this flat and 2 below.
well thats my penny worth.
experience is priceless.
i was sub contracting to a large company who have blue vans,defect reported screaming pump. no h/hw.
when i got there i asked the home owner how long has the pump been making the noise,reply 6 days 24/7.
so gas had been burning until boiler stat turns it off.
found ball valve turned off to expansion tank and very dry.no water in boiler at all just steam.
phoned the large companys local technican stating that the heatexchanger is probaly damaged and likely to flood if water introduced to system.
technican told me to fill system,i refused and told him to send his own engineers.
i disconnected gas supply and capped off boiler did ID report as possible cracked heatexchanger.
technican visited property,turned on water and flooded this flat and 2 below.
well thats my penny worth.
experience is priceless.
Thanks for the replies, well almost all of them there is always one! Reading them i assume that what he done was wrong but may be hard to prove but with this sort of help it may make it a bit easier. I am not trying to gain money through this i only want them to return the boiler to a working condition. Thanks for the replies so far.
about 300 quid for a new heat x plus half a day fitting.any work required to existing pipework elsewhere is chargeable.
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