Flushing a micro-bore system with British Gas or Npower

[jimk280]

Smoggs, I wasn't knocking the guys who work at the 'coal face' for BG. You're probably one of them by the sounds of it. They're doing their job and they have got some good guys who have a breadth of experience no doubt. If the shareholders at BG didn't lower their prices then i'm afraid they'd be a target for BBC Watchdog and if I paid £3k recently like the poor person previous in the thread I'd be straight on the phone to rogue traders! High volume lower prices..don't make me laugh that's how the majority of honest self employed sole traders do day to day business.

Jim

 

[smoggs03]

did i say half the sales force are going and office staff and its gonna be the engineers quoting jobs lets face it there is no future any other way..

 

[Kip]

Got to love British Gas, they do give the trade a bad name.

Was in a house last week and the customers had BG out looking at their boiler as they'd just got the cover and they come inspect it, after he'd done his inspection he then started to become a sales man, "id recommend getting a carbon monoxide detecter next to your boiler", i was actually stood next to them and i said it would actually be more use next to the fire than the flaming boiler as its a room sealed combi...then it was the magna-clean next, "we also recommend you get one of these, keeps your system sparkling clean, £400 fitted i think he said, i just had to butt in again and said ill do it for half that. Really tho, BG **** me off.

 

[smoggs03]

hahaha bet that guy loves you too.... but yeah thats homecare i hate them too

 

[RoryD]

My cards are always on the table, can't explain why your flush was £1200, perhaps it was so blocked up that cutting out was necessary (= more man hours). You do get what you pay for in this world, vis - a vis BG prices. I've lost count of the number of folk who have gone 3rd party rather than BG, only for me to return and inform them ...they still got sludge. As said before there are non BG blokes out there who can do it, thing is finding them.

just pleased you're pleased

 

[smoggs03]

i'm an installer so have nothing at all to do with repairs/services.. the usual route is to advise a new boiler which will fix everything, in which case i turn up fit new boiler and .........hey presto 4k all works leaving me to fix a cruddy system as well!!!! but 1200 can't work that out and i have price lists??? can only assume each rad needed hand flushing so labour charge x2 but fully qualified engineers??? dunno quessing

 

[RoryD]

Good call smoggs, unusual to have 2 x blokes on the job so there were extenuating circumstances for sure. If I visit 8 x properties in a day, at least half would have sludge. Why don't installers insist on powerflushing before installing new boilers? I don't know if it is workable but I'm considering it wen I decide to go it alone - is it feasable?

 

[jimk280]

In my experience you need 2 guys to powerflush properly. Each rad needs to be flushed and reverse flushed individually and if there's more than 12 rads in a system you'll be working all day. I've yet to find a system i've flushed that doesn't have a couple of leaking lockshield valves that require changing. Powerflushing before installing a new boiler or before commissioning makes sense. I do warranty work for one of the largest oil boiler manufacturers in the UK and I've lost count of the expansion vessels i've changed that are full of black iron oxide due to an installer not flushing correctly. For a dirty system you can't beat a powerflush as long as it's carried out correctly. Sitting in a van for hours reading your paper while the machine flushes is NOT the correct way to flush. I'm sure you'll agree.

 

[RoryD]

Kip, CO Detectors are NOT a pitch, they are best advice which is an industry thing not just BG. The other stuff ...you could have a point, that's the pressure we are all up against. Drop the hang up about BG engineers tho, we use the site too, ppl who fire snidey shots from the comfort of this place **** me off (touche), you should have told him there and then mateand debated it in front of the customer.