Breakdown Engineer question

[sjhayes2010]

Hi

I am a gas engineer, and have a bit of breakdown / fault finding knowledge - I want to get my fault finding / breakdown skills higher, so in your opinion what are the best ways to help do this?

I appreciate any advice you can give me

Many thanks

SJ

 

[picasso]

read and go out and do.

 

[sjhayes2010]

when you say read do you mean read boiler manual? thing is i have heard a lot about things such as some boilers being tricky to work on etc !

 

[mickyg]

get a job with british gas.

 

[sjhayes2010]

tried but no joy mate!

 

[mickyg]

try some of the others. Eon, AA might be taking ppl on? Homeserve? Warmsure? Once you start doing insurance work, you get plenty of jobs to practice, plenty of heaps of carp to work on and and mistakes costs the company not you

 

[sjhayes2010]

thanks I'll try them. I have done a few boiler breaskdowns and also taken old boilers apart etc. Are any maufacturers courses worth attending?

 

[mickyg]

its worth going on manufacturers courses it will help you a bit, but they tend to only talk about the new stuff, and alot of new boilers are very similar now. Only way to get practice on a range of age and design boilers is to get out there working on them.

 

[sjhayes2010]

thanks for your help - only thing i'm worried about is if i get a fault i cannot diagnose or if i have to change a part i've never changed before!

 

[nickso]

thanks for your help - only thing i'm worried about is if i get a fault i cannot diagnose or if i have to change a part i've never changed before!

thats the only way to learn though. doing courses and looking at books is handy but only by actually using your noggin do you learn.

 

[Garfeild]

thanks for your help - only thing i'm worried about is if i get a fault i cannot diagnose or if i have to change a part i've never changed before!

Believe me we've all been there.

 

[sjhayes2010]

i agree with ehat you say! so do you think i have a chance of being ok! as you say you need to do it, but just seems a bit scary at first depending on what the problem is! any tips?!

 

[Garfeild]

You can go on training courses,buy books,etc etc,but the only way to really learn,is by doing it.
As Mickyg says above,try to get a job with a company that does repair and breakdown work.
Npower are currently after engineers,and Orion and Rig energy are a couple of agencies to try.

 

[nickso]

i always tell trainees that as long as they are not complete idiots and damaging customers homes they will be fine.

learn to be careful and methodical and it will become a lot easier, everyone makes mistakes but as long as you understand the basics of boilers and systems then you will quickly get the hang of it. depends how many jobs you do a day. i moaned about it when i first started but doing 8-10 repairs a day gets you good quick.

 

[sjhayes2010]

thanks i will do - what if you get a job but then have a few problems - that is what i'm a bit wary of - will they expect you to be a super breakdown engineer!!! ?