Trades

In the height of the AOL travesty, The usenet group alt.engineering.electrical was quite popular with newbie posts, the common factor was the items queried used electricity, so *that* must be the right group...

Computers, radios, irons, torches, etc.... all an amusement to others discussing heavier things of actual engineering worth.

Now because of search engine optimisation, the current incorrect understandings, perpetuated as 'click me' titles with articles that really don't have any content, will be absorbed all the same as fact by the next AOL generation.

And hence we will still be talking about plumbers....

"Find a Plumber to Repair Your Boiler Cheaply & Quickly"

Since "fitting a central heating system" requires primarily plumbing skills and little more electrical skills than fitting a plug (provided there is a fused spur), I'd have thought a plumber was a good first port of call. Especially with modern microprocessor controlled systems which provide generally helpful error codes.

Not sure where you find a boiler technician these days, but plenty of people calling themselves boiler engineers.

And they would only swap a board or a thermistor for a "control and instrumentation" problem.

If your plumber really told you that going from gravity to a pumped sysem would *definitely* clear a blockage (and I rather doubt if he did) then he was not a terribly competent plumber.

Yes and no. Anyone can work on gas/oil boilers, but, if it concerns the combustion, then they should be Gassafe/OFTEC. Someone on here said changing a circuit board should only be done by Gassafe, as the circuit board controls the flames, I'd say bollocks to that, my understanding is work on the combustion chamber and exhaust can only be done by gassafe, other work, such as changing circuit boards, valves and other ancillaries is quite ok.

I think the problem is that the general public assume anything with pipes is for a plumber to fix. They have not yet grasped the increased complexity of devices has made several things far more specialist. Of course a lot of plumbers have also become heating engineers, but they have to have been certified and have the right qualifications of course. It will take a whole generation or more for this change to sink in. Brian

Back in the sixties when my parents had central heating installed the plumb er installed the boiler, radiators and pipe work water and gas but we had t o wait for an electrician to come round to do the electrickery things. I re member looking at this great big hulking box stood in the corner doing noth ing for several days then one day coming home from school and the whole hou se was warm. I think in those days CORGI may have been around but it was no t a legal requirement to use a CORGI registered installer/plumber.

Richard

It happens that Alan formulated :

Correct, plus they are not allowed to disturb and gas connections.

When a trade organisation lobbies successfully to only allow their members to work on anything, it's not unreasonable to expect that monopoly to only have experts in it? And to be policed by that trade organisation?

I started my career fixing black & white valve televisions, then trained up for colour with transistors and integrated circuits, then we were all expected to retrain for VCRs with their mechanical as well as electronic foibles, not to mention Laservision and a couple of other competing disk technologies, then, through company diversification, computer repair down to component level, printers and other peripherals, and so it goes on.

So a plumber repairing a gas boiler comes as no surprise.

You seem to be discounting the possibility that the plumber himself didn't believe the advice was giving, rather he lied, turned the home owners concern into another reason to buy the pressurised system he was peddling.

All too true, I'm afraid. That's what's so good about DIY. Then only you are responsible for any c*ck-ups.

But your career was fixing TVs and not something like "Wiring a House"

It's not a trade orgainisation.

In '72 my father, uncle and grandfather fitted central heating at my parents' house. They did it all. I remember the gas board van coming round to test and approve it.

Years later, we kept smelling gas. Three times they came out to check and found no problem. We tracked it down ourselves - to the gas board's connection to the meter!

On their third visit, they condemned the living room fire and boiler, as it was over the carpet, without a hearth. Funnily enough, they rapidly cancelled the condemantion when it was pointed out that the fire/boiler had a metal plate base and didn't need a hearth and that it was inspected and approved by thnemselves when it was installed!

SteveW

Not many British people would search for Boiler Technician, they would search for Heating Engineer (or indeed Plumber).

I think there was a time when most boiler installers and service engineers actually understood how heating systems work, and some here clearly still do. But when I'm with friends having boilers installed or serviced by heating engineers, I just never see an engineer who has any clue how any of it works. The installation and servicing is done by rote, and at first deviation from what they expect, it's straight on the phone to the boiler manufacturer to ask what to do. If the response included any explanation of how something works (rather than "turn that screw a quarter turn to the left"), they still haven't got a clue what to do.

I've just had my meter position condemned by a Smart Meter fitter. It was put in that location by the Gas Board when they brought in gas to the house some 35 years ago..