vulcancontinental

Hi VC. I am up at London Colney April 27 & 28 for HE and fault finding courses. Are these ones you are running? Thanks

Hi. I was going to ask Rob how Vokera agents go about cleaning the recouperator on the Synergy e. Looked at one the other day, when opened up the FGA point, there seemed to be a fair bit of (I assume) ally oxide. It clearly needs a clean through but not sure of best way to proceed with it. Cheers

Problem is that given the shelter they get from the workings of the Sale of Goods, the manufacturers see whatever they spend on installer incentives, etc as marketing expenses, not an essential cost of staying in business! In the end, the more installers who think 'Biasi' (or 'Vokera'!) when selecting a boiler to recommend, the more successful that manufacturer becomes - up to a point. That point is when the boiler in question gets some REALLY bad publicity (eg. Potty Suprima / BBC-TV Watchdog) or is consistently bad-mouthed in the trade (Ideal Eyesore). Then they simply change the name and soldier on: 'Barcelona' becomes '100/4' and the customer has no idea what's inside the casing.

You say that you've been trying to get installers to raise their game since forever. I wish I could think of effective ways, too!!

The other great irony is that for boilers (and cars, and everything else 'consumed' by our great civilisation) there's hardly any economic incentive to raise quality of manufacture or installation so that the products actually last longer. If you try to make a car that lasts 20 (or 50!) years, you'll go bust.

Do you reckon that ANY manufacturer (even Vokera!) is going to stick their hand up to take on liabilities that the Sale of Goods Act, etc. has allowed to avoid so far?

Can't see why they would ever take on liability voluntarily!

I always try to tread lightly on this forum full of professional gas engineers.

As I explained recently to the Gas Safe Inspector I think of myself as a heating engineer who had to learn gas for CORGI and then Gas Safe rather than a gas engineer who had to learn heating systems.

I'm 56 and have been a heating engineer since 21. Had my own business for 20 years until illness forced stoppage in 1997. Was CORGI registered from the beginning till 97. I did a bit of teaching and then small odd jobs for the next 7 years but no gas work. 2006 I was contacted by a company working for the WarmFront Scheme to work as a surveyor. Looking at old systems and bringing up too date with a spec and drawing was an absolute dream job, even done three of my own 20 years old. Have done over 5,000 in the past 4 years but looks to be coming to an end now. Have had to become gas registered again though I really feel nervous and rusty as so much has changed. The young guys are so much more switched on with electronics FGA's and CP12's etc. Very appreciative of the information and help, even contradicting advice given on the site. Don't understand why there's so much arguement but i guess the testosterone levels run high sometimes.