THE BOILER IS FIXED!!!11!!1ONE!

[andrewducker]

I took the morning off work, as Julie was going to see her supervisor and the engineer was coming to finally fix the boiler. I pottered around, sorted out a couple of things I'd been meaning to do for ages (sorting out an old endowment policy and posting some memory sticks to my cousin), and he finally turned up around 10:30.

Thankfully the problem turned out to be simple. Apparently there's a pressure vessel in the boiler which needs to be kept pressurised. If it drops too low then it can't balance out the pressure in the central heating system, which then rises too high, the vent valve tries to remedy this, gets stuck open, and all of the water goes out of a small copper pipe into the back garden. The pressure vessel needs to be pumped up once every couple of years.

Which frankly sounds like a bit of a racket - as you have to get an engineer to do it, so that's a visit just for that every couple of years, for the life of the boiler. I also discovered that they do boiler insurance (which I'd rather have anyway) and that this includes a yearly maintenance checkup, which would sort this. And they're priced competitively with British Gas, who I was using with the old boiler. So that may well be the best option.

In other news, I went to see Hugo last night with tisme and momentsmusicaux, and it was amazing. Fuck James Cameron, Martin Scorcese is the master of 3D movie-making. The film had sense of wonder and magic that I've seen in precious few movies that actually _have_ magic in them. Highly recommended.

Comments

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

You mean you weren't planning an annual boiler check?

[andrewducker]

My understanding is that a boiler check is a good idea because it tells you if your boiler is about to start spewing Carbon Monoxide. Sticking a detector next to it seemed vastly cheaper for the same effect.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Nah, an annual service involves cleaning and checking it's working efficiently etc - helps it stay in the best working order. Most modern boilers are pretty incapable of spewing CO apparently, not that I don't still have a detector just incase.

[andrewducker]

The question, then, is whether an annual service is worth actually carrying out on a new-ish boiler. At what point is it actually effective to start paying the cash out?

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

I dunno really. I got 2 annual services included in the installation price of mine and took out a service contract with my gas supplier when it was 4 years old because their plan covered my heating pump which was on its way out and would have cost the price of the annual cover to replace on its own. If the pump hadn't been dying I might have waited until the boiler it was 5 years old before taking one out. But then again, I had a nightmare with my old boiler so I do quite like the peace of mind of the cover.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Mind you, I have a traditional boiler with water tanks and an external pump, if yours is a combi it might require different annual maintenance.

[dreema.livejournal.com]

yay, glad it's fixed with minimum fuss.

[andrewducker]

Their cover provides exactly the same thing - except that they carry all the parts for their boilers, rather than having to get them shipped in (which used to happen when BG did my cover all the time).

[luckylove.livejournal.com]

BG Homecare sorted out my boiler yesterday. Similar problem to Andrew's although finding the "leak" was tricky as my horrible neighbours upstairs and upstairs again both have leaking overflows directly above mine which made it very hard to tell if my one was dripping especially as it was 4pm and dark outside.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

I don't know the details, but nothing ounds like you need a boiler repair dude* to do it

*[As my (engineer)** dad would say that's not an engineer... unless they come and redesign it :-)]
**pedant

[andrewducker]

I'll give you that one :->

[pigwotflies.livejournal.com]

Yay for fixed boiler!

Rob and I saw Hugo on Wednesday. I very much enjoyed it. It felt like a film that _deserved_ 3D, rather than one that just tacked it on because it's the current buzzy thing to do in film. I loved that you could see every dust mote/flake of snow dancing in the air. It was beautifully old-fashioned too, like a classic children's film, rather than a whizzy cartoon style thing with the occasional joke for the adults.

[andrewducker]

Exactly - it reminded me of the children's TV of my childhood!