F1 fault on GlowWorm 18SXi

[mjnelson]

Hello,

I woke up last Thursday morning and the boiler (see above) hadn't fired up - house was freezing, boiler was flashing F1. Everything "appeared" ok, pressure was fine, etc. I switched the boiler off, and then back on again. It fired up.

Whilst I'm doing this, my wife phoned Home Serve - we have a policy with them - since we have a 5 week old baby in the house and don't want any heating problems during the current cold weather. They said the soonest they could get to us was Monday - potentially, that would be 4 days without heating with a 5 week old baby in the house. Fortunately, the boiler had fired up, but they were not aware of this whilst my wife was on the phone.

Monday comes....no sign of boiler man. Wife phones up, finds out he is ill - soonest they can now come out is Wednesday. Needless to say, my wife is fuming since this would potentially have been a week without heating, with a 5 week old baby in the house.

She still wanted the boiler man to come out, regardless of the fact that the boiler had fired up ok, since she didn't want the fault re-occuring if it could be avoided by a quick fix from an expert (esp. over a weekend, say).

Boiler man phones up at 8:15am on Wednesday to say he'll be with her between 10 and 12. 1:40 he eventually turns up and tells my wife he's had a terrible morning and not to moan that he's late. Nice.

He quickly checks boiler - says it's firing up ok, and there's nothing wrong. Wife says that F1 fault had occured and house was freezing, baby, etc. etc. He just said "F1 fault means failed to ignite. It can do that sometimes" and left.

So, I guess my question is: can an F1 fault just occur for no "real" reason on a GlowWorm 18SXi, and we can relax, or do we need to pursue this further? Also, is it me, or is 7 days a long time to wait for a visit from the boiler man, when their sales spiel states "aim to be with you in 24hrs"? I'm pretty sure they've never been 7 days late when taking their direct debit.....

Matt

 

[Agile]

You made me smile!

Firstly you seem to expect a premium service from a budget cover!

Secondly, at busy times during the winter, only the independents can come the same day and thats only by working late if they choose to.

Nor should you expect experts! They can only afford to pay lower rates and thus can only attract the newly qualified and the less able.

F1 is a failure to ignite. There will have been a reason, perhaps condensation, which was present then but may never happen again. After the event if the spark electrode is correctly gapped ( and I would have checked that ) then its not possible to guess why it once failed to light.

As for the time he got there thats probably going to be the subject of a new posting I may make later following a customer who started shouting at me over times.

Tony

 

[mjnelson]

Tony,

To be fair, we do (apparently) pay a premium for GlowWorm engineers to attend. So I do, therefore, though posiibly naively, expect "experts" since that is how they justified their more expensive cover. Mea culpa.

As for the arrival time, my point was aimed at his preemptive strike.....oops, I mean statement, since my wife hadn't said anything (didn't have the chance!). But then we all have bad days, I guess.

I didn't realise I was in the wrong - I paid for cover, which apparently aimed for 24hr response, I paid extra for GlowWorm engineers. What more can I do? Where is this premium service available? I'm more than happy to change, and to pay for what I get (or get what I pay for).

I'm looking forward to your post about arrival times - hopefully, it can make me smile too

Thanks for the response,

Matt

 

[Agile]

What they aim for and what they achieve is often a long way apart!

Do you remember the Government's aims in their last election prospectus? What they achieved probably couldn't have been further apart. Massive deficit, biggest recession for ... years, higher unemployment buying out the banks.....

I dont understand the difference between vaillant, glowworm and homeserve engineers. vaillant are ( or maybe were ) good but I am not sure if there is still any difference between G-W and Homeserve any more.

Just possibly british gas have a premium service where they will come within 24 hours but they are unlikely to have the spare parts you might need.

The whole market is based on what people want to pay. We charge £84 but those covers have to reduce the cost per visit to about £18 to keep the annual cost to around £200.

Salaries for the best engineers can be about £45k but those Homeserve people are probably on about £22k-£27k.

Tony

 

[mjnelson]

Yeah.....I think you've hit the nail on the head there.

For me, it's a minefield: go with a different cover and potentially they won't have the parts, but will possibly arrive sooner; cancel all cover and use local independents, but then there's the whole "will they be available, will they have the parts", what if they're too busy. I'd be far more relaxed about it all if we didn't have kids in the house - but a 3 year old and a 5 week old make you feel like you have to ensure they're "provided for", if that makes sense. Personally, if it wasn't for the whole "I am the father and I must provide warmth for my children" Neanderthal syndrome that I am currently suffering, I'd be tempted to cancel the cover and save the money in the bank - either to pay local independents as and when, or to buy a new boiler in 10 years.

Yours confusedly,

Matt the caveman

 

[londonboy]

.... I'd be tempted to cancel the cover and save the money in the bank - either to pay local independents as and when, or to buy a new boiler in 10 years.

Thats what I do, I have a Worcester and touched wood haven't needed to take out a service contract (I used to work for a large heating company).

However in Sussex I know of lots of small/medium sized companies that would probably offer a much better service contract than the big nationals.

 

[mjnelson]

I realise I am opening myself up here to look like a complete wally but.....
.....how do I go about finding a decent, reputable local company to do this? I've phoned local plumbers before and they have stated that they don't provide this kind of cover (in fact, most of them said they didn't "like" this kind of cover and felt they would be taking my money for nothing - and I can see their point - hence why they don't offer this service, but if you want cover cos you're a born worrier like me...how do you find it?!). Can you recommend one/some?

 

[londonboy]

Is it worth you finding it? Or would it be better to put some money aside each month instead?

Theres a company in Sussex called Paynes which I hear are supposed to be good, although I don't know this for myself

 

[mjnelson]

Cheers for that - sometimes you need to hear it from somebody else in order to listen!

I'll also check Paynes out - even if it's just for servicing, etc.

Thanks for the replies,

Matt

 

[Andygasman2010]

Salaries for the best engineers can be about £45k but those Homeserve people are probably on about £22k-£27k.

Which major companies pay about £45k to engineers?