We have an insurance plan for the central heating that was sorted by SMWBO from a supposedly reputable company.
On Wednesday we woke to no heating or hot water.
Called them out. They sent an plumber from an independent co around who said faulty electronic circuit board and the company will call back to arrange a repair.
They called back and said "Your boiler is over 8 years old, tough". I hadn't bothered with looking at the docs and in the very small print it does give a limit of 8 years.
I called the independent plumber who said he didn't want the job as they are too busy with insurance work.
Or old plumber is retired and a couple of recommended guys were booked up so I used Check-a-trade and got a 10/10 recommended guy, he came in the evening after finishing all his other jobs.
He thinks the boiler is about 35 years old. There are no circuit boards to fail in it. The ignition is working fine.
He said the boiler is functioning save for the fact that it's blocked with sludge and probably blocking the flow sensor.
He took some pipes off and they are standard plumbing sizes and all that is left inside them is about 3 or 4mm. The rest is black goo.
So, he will be cleaning out the sludge and fitting a new pump (it has been making some very strange noises recently) and new 2/3 port switch - which we had planned to replace anyway because it wasn't switching between heating and hot water properly.
This is going to be expensive. The money pit keeps giving!
Just goes to show that even with 5* cover, there are so many loopholes that they will avoid paying.
(Oh, we wondered why the immersion heater wasn't working. We hadn't tried it before because the central heating worked. The switch and light works but doesn't go anywhere. The immersion element has been removed and capped off!)
Last edited by: zippy on Fri 22 Jan 21 at 19:46
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