A friend at work tells me that it's entirely possible to service your own gas boiler. He says all you have to do is clean the deposits from the heat exchanger, and that he's done this himself for the last 15 years on his current boiler, without it giving him any trouble.
He's got a simple central heating boiler but mine is a combi (a 2-year old Baxi). Is it still possible to do this? More to the to the point, is it advisable?
TIA for any advice.
Yes, it is entirely possible to do it yourself. However, you won't be able to test the combustion gases without a Telegan.
Indeed, afaik the Brit Gas 'service' comprises just a Telegan reading..nothing is cleaned or replaced unless a suspect reading is taken.
sPoNiX
First of all, do a search in Google Groups for articles on gas fitting in this group.
One of the significant points is that the law requires you to be (in effect) a member of CORGI if you want to do gas fitting for others for reward - i.e. as a job. It does not specifically exclude doing your own work but requires you to be "competent" to do gas fitting, and does not specifically define that.
You can take a look at Ed Sirett's gas fitting FAQ to gain an idea of whether you consider that you are.
THe second point is that in addition to any checks that should be done regarding the gas pipework (i.e. is it sound?), the manufacturer's recommended service procedure should be followed. This will be in the installation and service manual which you can often download from the manufacturer's web site.
Cleaning is part of that, quite often, but there may be other things. These checks may involve checking the firing rate, although that is often do-able by running the boiler and timing the gas meter or a pressure check at the burner. That requires a manometer which you can buy for about £15. That is needed for a soundness test anyway.
Increasingly, the manufacturers are recommending flue gas analysis as part of the set up and service test procedure for their products. These cost from around £200. If you really wanted to do your own servicing on an ongoing basis, you would cover the cost in a couple of years.
The remaining point is that you may have to replace certain parts such as gaskets as part of the service procedure. Some types of combi have components in the water valve which will fail after a period of time and need to be replaced anyway. It is possible to buy spares from various sources.
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
Useful info, Andy, thanks.
Mary
This is a case of "if you need to ask, then you shouldn't".
Christian.
Many so called heating men do not have these (these are usually plumbers masquerading as heating engineers) and will not touch a boiler which requires a flue gas analyser. Most regular boilers, like the Baxi combi, only require the use a U tube tester, which a very cheap to buy, to test the burner rate and test the pipe system for soundness.
A visual check on the flames is required to see if it is burning yellow.
Most services consist of cleaning the heat exchanger and a visual look at the burner. Most service men will always ask this question first, "is there anything wrong with it?" or "any smells from it . If the answer is no, then they clean the heat exchanger, look to see if anything obvious is amiss and see if the burner is burning yellow. If not burning yellow then they just leave it. So, you pay for someone running a brush over your heat exchanger.
A top mounted burner condensing boiler doesn't even require the heat exchanger cleaning, so having one of these serviced means he may just looks at the burner and a visual check that nothing is amiss after asking the tell tale questions to user.
That kind of statement is a little unfair don't you think?
Who is he more competent:
The person who understands some of the points required yet has some "grey areas" in their knowledge - but dives in and "has a go" anyway, or, the person who in the situation described, asks questions first until they understand all of the required activities, and then does the work?
Not necessarily. The combi was a complete mystery to me until I looked in one with the handbook and it is all fairly reasonable and straight foward.
BUT, yes, a manometer is cheap and I do know how to use one, and the installer may just glance at the flame, BUT he will still be connecting and commissioning mine for me.
It's just not worth the risk of making a simple mistake.
I would say neither are competent to work on gas appliances.
Christian.
... or is it a case of "if you can't write a helpful reply, then you shouldn't"?
I was merely responding directly to the question. The nature of the question and surrounding text led me to the opinion that the OP would not be considered competent to service gas appliances. Unless, of course, you define "helpful" as saying "yes, of course, go ahead", rather than giving an honest opinion based on the facts that are known or can be deduced, which, I suspect, the OP would find rather more useful.
Christian.
... is it a case of "if you can't write a helpful reply, then you shouldn't"?
Seconded.
Mary
In article , peak man writes
Christian is a regular provider of helpful replies, and advising you to call in a professional if you aren't sure what to do is another one of them.
Well, people find out the answer by asking, generally, and can then tell whether they can do the job or not. Even CORGIs learn by instruction!
Well, it was sort of helpful, but evidently not the way you would have preferred! Hopefully you'll get practical advice as well.
J.B.
Thirded! What the OP should consider is how he would feel if an untrained person did the work and overlooked something that resulted in death or injury that is far too common with defective gas appliances. It is quite evident from the OP that his "friend at work" is not competent to do the work.
Very sound advice too.
Do you think you could service your wood burning, bronze heat exchanger, combi-boiler from that info Mary? ;-)
T i m
I haven't got one. The wood burning oven is still in the pre-planning stage, the timber drying, stones located and clay found. It won't have a bronze - or any metal - heat exchanger though.
I'll continue heating water in the cauldron, it's more conducive to incantations.
Mary whose servicing is always done by Spouse anyway
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