"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...
Which probably explains why people
have no faith in British plumbers! Did
they give any reasoning behind this
bizarre behaviour?
Yes. Some of it was bull****, but I wanted to hear it so I
didn't try and correct anything.
The main reason was lack of reliability and expensive repairs.
I can't argue with that -- I don't have the necessary data.
Bloke behind the counter said one of the manufacturers was on
fourth redesign of condensate drain in a year and third redesign
of something else and someone else's heat exchangers usually
failed just after warantee and cost over half the cost of the
boiler, and the tale of woe went on. Basically, after fitting,
they have to keep going back to sort the boiler, which gives the
fitter a bad name, so they don't fit them. I asked specifically
about the Keston (which I chose) and Ariston (which I looked at
because it was the smallest one made). There was some agreement
that Keston was probably as good as you'd get now, but ones
which are 3 years old are badly suffering failed heat exchangers.
Then a comment that whilst it used less gas, it had a 1kW fan
in it bull**** alert so it just used more electric instead.
They were very scathing of Ariston's, but I can't remember why.
Some early Ariston combi's were not that hot. The Microgenus is great
little boiler and they give a 2 year guarantee with it.
If these fools had the intelligence to look around, they would see that some
companies give 3 to 5 years guarantees on all boilers and those with
stainless steel heat exchangers invariably give 5 years on the heat
exchanger. Glow Worm boilers are now predominantly stainless steel heat
exchangers.
You will find that the reason for many heat exchanger failures is that the
boiler was not installed or commissioned correctly. In many cases the
flowrate through the heat exchanger is far too low when TVRs close down.
Also, I presumed from this conversation most gas fitters don't
have a flue gas analyser (and when I spoke to Keston, they also
assumed the gas fitter wouldn't have one). Reading between the
lines, this is why they can't commission or service them.
Ed will clarify. There are many CORGI certificates. Some for gas
installation and some for boiler servicing. If plumber does a CORGI
installation course, he may not be licensed to touch the boiler innards.
Some gas cooker delivery drivers are CORGI registered, but only to connect
up a cooker with a flexible hose and do a soundness test. Ditto with
kitchen fitters who do gas hobs and ovens.
So, what are the issues?
I can believe that boilers based on conventional technology
which has matured over very many decades are probably more
reliable than boilers based on new technology.
Condensers have been around since the 1950s.
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