"Conrad" wrote
| As we are covered by West Midlands Gas maintenance contract -
| I asked them to visit. The Gas Fitter/engineer said that
| it was due to a build up of solids on the heat exchanger and
| that it would need to be replaced. For this to happen the
| system would have to be drained down and on filling 500 ml
| of Fernox boiler noise silencer added, at the time it sounded
| logical. He said this is not covered under the contract and
| that I would have to pay. He left me a quote of £564.83 -
| this seems an awful lot of money.

Is that for the whole job parts and labour, or just for draining down and
adding Fernox? With British Gas and variants one never knows just how far
they're extracting the michael in their pricing.

At 23 years old, if the boiler *is* getting past it, it might be worth
looking at a newer, more efficient, boiler. But not just now. Heating people
will be at their busiest and priciest.

Owain