DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD

Bad Central Heating Engineers

This story started when I was called to look at a job which required replacing an electric double oven with a gas double oven. The home owner wanted a price to complete the job and I couldn’t give them a quote over the phone so I said I’d pop over. The idea was to take a quick look, give them an estimate and then  book a time to do the work if they wanted to go ahead. Fate was however about to make us all more miserable than a rainy day in Oldham.

Upon arrival we were met at the rear entry to the house. The balanced flue boiler was running, the back door to the kitchen was open and the products of combustion were entering the kitchen like metal to a magnet! IN the following pictures the misty look to the photos is the exhaust entering the kitchen. If you couldn’t see it you could certainly taste it! I immediately pointed out that I would have to shut off the boiler for their own safety.  I was then told that they had just purchased the property a few days earlier and were in the process of decorating before they moved in.

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The boiler was turned off and isolated and I issued a Warning Notice and affixed an UNSAFE TO USE notice to the boiler. While we discussed various solutions to sort out the situation the phone rang. It was Mr. Homeowner who asked how things were going. Not good she explained and after a bit I took the phone to explain the situation.  So after my lengthy explanation, explanation of measurement issues all backed up in print by my trusty CORGI Gas Regs book so I can show them visually what I’m talking about the home owner then tries to convince me, and himself, that everything is alright. Can you move just the flue? No. Well, just ignore the boiler for now and get the cooker installed! No. It’s not really an issue with us, the boiler has been there for years. No. We don’t want to look at this just now. No. No. No!

It won’t matter what you throw at me unless the suggestion is to move the boiler to a safe location. My answer will be no. I’m not trying to be hard to get along with. I’m not being obtuse because I’ve had a bad day. I’m not taking out a personal vendetta against boilers because my pet cat was crushed by a falling boiler when I was seven years old. I don’t enjoy telling anyone that the house they just bought a few days earlier contains a boiler which is pumping carbon monoxide and other products of combustion through the back door. I know it’s going to cost them cold hard cash. But like it or not; if the situation is unsafe I’m going to disable the appliance. And that’s exactly what I did.

So in the end we didn’t get the call back to install the new cooker. We certainly didn’t get a call to thank us for keeping them safe and preventing the poisoning of themselves and their children. I suspect we won’t get any callback from them at all. This boiler was unsafe and as you can see in the pictures was pumping carbon monoxide into the house. I’m happy that we did our job, I’m happy that if they get a new boiler and don’t ignore my advice they’ll be safe.

In closing however I would like to know why the surveyor didn’t catch this BLAZING error. I mean common! The flue is practically mounted on the back door! This isn’t some gas fitters minor issue that only a gas fitter would spot and then discuss with his other geeky gas fitter mates while drinking a crappy cup of tea at the nearest Parts Centre. This is a blatant disregard for the safety of the purchaser.

For those of you that haven’t yet hit the back button I’ll clarify the situation. The boiler at the home is an older balanced flue boiler. The big square flue brings in fresh air from the outside (the outside ring of the flue) and then once the oxygen from that air is used to aid in the combustion of the gas the exhaust is sent out through the same flue (the inside ring of the flue). The regulation BS5440-2000 (amended) state that the the flue should be a minimum of 600mm for a boiler with a net heat input of 14 to 70kW. In lay terms it means that OUR boiler is about 550mm or around half a metre too close to that door. Look for option ‘C’ on our house diagram and then match that up with the terminal location ‘C’ in the chart.

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This boiler is unsafe.

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