Retired pressure jet oil & gas engineer

[Micklemus 55NCD]

Still learning after 64 years on the tools....... Self employed
47 years. Used to have the monopoly for Whitbread Pubs
within 50 mile radius of Nottingham.......

I've always said the more electrical complexity there is built into the modern boilers the more they will go wrong but it
does not require much inteligence to realize that.
Mind you this fact can earn a savy engineer quite a bit of money who is good at fault finding.......but the knowledgeable engineer can also save the customer a lot of money and also hardship.

 

[PEG]

Welcome,fella.

When you say you had "the monopoly for Whitbread pubs..."i trust that is for work...not fighting,drinking and really poor singing

 

[Micklemus 55NCD]

Quite true but I did get the odd round of applause when I got the heating going when I emerged from the cellar...... never had a sip of beer in any pub whatsoever but I did get an awful lot of diesel they did not want when they went over to gas! Those were the days - my heating was never off!

 

[Richard Burns]

Welcome to the forum.
Some useful experience there.
Different from the usual domestic installation.
Fault finding can be a major headache or a real sense of accomplishment, the problem is ensuing the latter!

 

[Devonchris]

Hi
I used to work for a company that fitted loads of oil burners in the 60s. Potterton mostly. Usually conversion from coal. Used to have a hole cut in boiler door with oxy torch, stick burner through hole and away you go. It was the fuel of the future?

 

[static zap]

Welcome Micklemus .
(Still learning ,there's hope for me yet !)
Make things too niggly, and I would imagine a form of
natural selection happens across the brands? (Boiler wise)

 

[Micklemus 55NCD]

I was asked now and a gain = what are these new fangled combis like which I took to mean are they reliable....... I replied they are OK while they are working but they WILL GO WRONG..... The chaps who work with them must know which ones are the most reliable but my lad who is a sub station fitter has a Ferroli which is 16 years old. It's a none condensing of course & that is one of the major reasons it's run virtually trouble free all those years.
The last time I rang Ferroli I complained about three of their Combis that had faulty circuit boards on all three within the two year guarantee. The tech said =blame it on the government trying to squeeze every bit of gas out of all boilers lately..... They are too complex for reliability. Quite true I said -look at my lad's 13 year (then) Ferroli combi which went wrong once re the PCB when a relay went faulty..... A £40 used one sorted it out & no problem since apart from me having to re-pressurize the expansion vestle & replace the safety valve & auto air cock. As new now & quiet as well. That Gloworm HXi Ultracom in my caravan has a PCB which
has a mind of it's own re temperature accuracy but I'm determined to find out what it is & cure it if at all possible..... Mind you it will use more propane when it's cured of it's shutting down to low flame too soon to the tune of 10 C..... Then again I can reduce the temp by a bit of 'button pushing'............

 

[static zap]

Worrying about carbon foot print , means making things , thin light and flimsy . (and if it's condensing mild nitric acid .... )Still expensive.
( My gas bill is nagging me for an upgrade - but must become tidier 1st )