Boiler Blog - Herts Boilers
Herts Boilers also maintain this blog site: http://www.boilerblog.co.uk/
Boiler and Heating Technical Blog
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- Gas leaking in a property, what is your company approach once on site?
- Is a boiler dangerous? Cadent vs a local independent gas engineer, who should I believe to?
- Overheat lockout on an immersion heater, how to reset it?
- Will you offer a free recall if I have a boiler problem right after you serviced my boiler?
- Intermittent loss of heating or hot water – leave demanding on to keep the fault for us
- ATAG boilers – We are their local warranty partner now
- IGM in Harpenden - the best leak detection company in our local
- Pump over run for replacement boilers
- Special articles
1. Gas leaking in a property, what is your company approach once on site?
At gas meter it is bit easy to confirm if there is a gas leaking within a property, but it isn't always straightforward to find the actual leaking point, as a pin hole or loose joint might be in a concealed space alone the gas pipes, either behind walls or under floor boards.
We will charge you one hour labour for £70. We check gas meter and nearby outlet pipe work, we also check gas appliances eg a boiler, cooker and gas fire. For obvious reasons, we can’t check every section of the gas pipe, as access is required.
We can’t promise to find the leaking and get it repaired on our very first visit, so we might still leave your gas off to be safe, but most likely we have narrowed the leaking down to a specific direction or a branch.
(Last edited on 14/03/2024)
2. Is a boiler dangerous? Cadent vs a local independent gas engineer, who should I believe to?
Cadent, or SGN, is a national gas emergency company dealing with gas supply and gas meters. Their engineers are gas safe registered, and are competent up to each gas meter, but they don’t normally have boiler and gas fire sub-tickets. Once attended they also check these appliances beyond a gas meter, but only by a visual inspection, and for precaution reasons, they often shut off gas to stop use of boilers or gas fires if in any doubt. Their judgements on a boiler or fire are not final, so they always suggest occupants to call a competent gas engineer who has gas boiler and gas fire scopes to have a further check. This type of engineers is either a local independent gas operative, or a gas engineer from a company similar to British Gas.
So it is not uncommon that a gas engineer, who is more competent on boiler than engineers from Cadent, finally declares a boiler is safe which is against Cadent advise.
(Last edited on 18/08/2022)
3. Overheat lockout on an immersion heater, how to reset it?
As an immersion heater is getting old and is covered by scale on the surface, sometimes it goes to an overheat lockout. Before calling a plumber or electrician, you might try to give its overheat pop up a reset.
First make sure you use an insulated screwdriver etc, and don’t get yourself executed!
Find the little over heat button and gently push it back in, you should feel a click.
You might also wish to lower down the setting temperature a bit to avoid future nonsense trippings.
(Last edited on 04/08/2023)
4. Will you offer a free recall if I have a boiler problem right after you serviced my boiler?
Normally not. Being a competent boiler engineer, it is unlikely we have caused any harm to your boiler during a boiler service. But an existing joint might develop a leaking, and workmanship mistakes do happen, we will consider to come back free of charge as a recall on a weekday to have a check, providing it is within two weeks of your boiler service. The free recall is limited to one visit only. After two weeks we will still treat your new job as a matter of urgency, eg, we will come back asap, but it is likely a chargeable visit.
In a boiler service, we always clean the AAV - auto air vent. This is a little device inside a boiler to let air out and keep water in. After a good boiler service, a customer might experience a pressure loss shortly due to air escape. This pressure drop should be treated as normal if it is just once.
(Last edited on 04/08/2023)
5. Intermittent loss of heating or hot water – leave demanding on to keep the fault for us
About one in twenty heating and hot water problems reported to us is intermittent, eg, when we attend the problem might not repeat in front of us. We can’t beat a good intermittent problem sometimes!
Heating or hot water often come on and off as programmed. You might not get it on this time, but next time it might be on, that is intermittent.
Once you have a loss on either heating or hot water, we would like you to keep current broken point as it is now by setting heating or hot water always on, without interrupting current faulty, and wait for us to find the fault.
(Last edited on 04/08/2023)
6. ATAG boilers – We are their local warranty partner now
From November 2023, we have been an ATAG local warranty partner to cover west Hertfordshire and south Bedfordshire. We carry on warranty repairs and boiler services for local ATAG boilers on ATAG Heating company behalf.
This is also to show our competency on boiler repairs and services.
(Last edited on 01/11/2023)
7. IGM in Harpenden - the best leak detection company in our local
While dealing with a frequent loss of heating system pressure, the leak is not always at a boiler, but sometimes it is an external leak on a pipe or joint at a concealed space (inside a wall or under floor boards). We as Herts Boilers are a boiler specialist but not a leak detection specialist, so we recommend all our external leak detection jobs to IGM in Harpenden.
In last few year, IGM have found all the leaks on the jobs we recommended, and charged these customers reasonably. It is a trustworthy company.
(Last edited on 01/11/2023)
8. Pump over run for replacement boilers
When replacing some heat only boilers ("heat only boilers" are regular boilers, not combi boilers), the outgoing ones might not have pump over run function, but new Worcester and Vaillvant boilers do require a pump over run now, so it might be a problem by insufficient electrical cable cores between boiler location and airing cupboard where the hot water cylinder, pump and control valves are usually located.
Worcester and Vaillant boilers are frequently favorited for replacement boilers by St Albans customers, but it is sometimes impracticable to put one of these premier boilers on straightway, due to pump over run and bypass reasons. 1. There should be a cable with min 5 cores to new boiler. 2. An auto bypass valve should also be added in the airing cupboard to accommodate this pump over run.
Baxi and Main are still having their current models without pump over run.
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Herts Boilers also maintain this blog site: http://www.boilerblog.co.uk/