That's the CH fixed then

[ARW]

Just had a call from a neighbour with no HW or CH.

Potterton HE plus boiler.

Took me 30 seconds to decide to hit the pump in the airing cupboard with a hammer.

Job done

[Chris Hogg]

And when he complains about the bill, you can tell him it was £30 for the call out fee, £5 for hitting the pump, and £65 for knowing what to hit and where to hit it!

[Cursitor Doom]

More likely £900 call-out, 50 quid for hitting the pump and £650 for knowing what bit to hit. Oh, all plus VAT of course. ;-) I know what they charge because I'm a top libel lawyer currently retraining as a plumber for the enhanced income and social status.

[Andrew Gabriel]

My shower pump is currently in need of exactly that before each shower. The little flow detection magnet in the hot pipe gets stuck in the no flow position. This doesn't stop the pump coming on because the one in the cold water side moves and triggers the reed switch, but the hot side one blocks the hot flow until dislodged by a thump.

I took it to bits, but it's impossible to get to the bit where the magnets are to clean it (solvent welded parts). Descalers and other liquid cleaners had no effect.

[tabbypurr]

Hopefully external switches can sort it.

NT

[Another Dave]

I do this automatically every year, end of September time.

Another Dave

[DerbyBorn]

Another Dave wrote in news:o11pmj$fsg$1@dont- email.me:

Glad mine automatically runs for 5 mins a day.

[Johnny B Good]

The joke would've been more believable if you had stuck to the original script and not substituted £s for $s (and not mentioned VAT). :-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Mine has stored HW so runs the pump for that anyway. And cycles the diverter valve at switch on too. So I don't get any nasty surprises when the heating comes on after a period of not being used.

[newshound]

I was going to suggest that! There's a story, doubtless apocryphal, about someone like Trevithick or Bolton doing the same.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

I did read something about somebody being charged 10 shillings and six pence for a plumber to change a tap washer. When he moaned at the plumber he was told:

6 pence for the washer. 10 shillings for knowing how to change it.

[Cursitor Doom]

Er, how long ago did you read this, Pounder?

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Could be here somewhere.

[ARW]

It's all about knowing "where to hit it".

Last night I got a phone call at about 10pm saying that I had to attend to a faulty lift at a medical centre at 8am in this morning.

Fuck knows what the engineers on site had been doing yesterday afternoon. It took me 5 minutes to find the faulty contactor.

[Chris Hogg]

Probably following the instructions in the fault diagnosis manual.

Some years ago, the electric cooling fan on my car radiator wouldn't stop, even though the ignition was off, engine was off and car was stationary. The only way I could stop it was to pull one of the leads off the fan unit. It was pretty obvious to me that the points on the relay that switches in the fan had welded, and I mentioned this when I took it in to be repaired. Took them ages to find the fault, simply because they plugged in their computer to tell them what was wrong, and it didn't, so they were stumped.

That's the trouble with the younger generation: they don't know how stuff actually works, and rely on something, a manual, a computer, whatever, to tell them what to do, but they don't understand the basics and can't seem to think for themselves to work out what's wrong.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Chris Hogg writes

I'll bet it was a 2008/9 Fiesta:-)

>

[Chris Hogg]

Close - a 2005 Fusion.

[ARW]

There was not one. There was a wiring diagram which I can post along with a picture of the control unit if you want to show how easy my diagnosis was.

[Chris Hogg]

I'll take your word for it, especially the bit where it only took you

5 minutes to diagnose, when the so-called engineers were stumped.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I bought a couple of flow switches, and the idea was to cut the little grill out which holds the existing ones captive, free them into the waste bin, and use pipe ones instead. As yet, haven't got around to doing it.