British homes have these contraptions called Combi-Boilers, sent to drive us round the bend. There's quite a little industry in their repair. The only domestic horror which could rival it is the Double Glazing salesman but that's another story.
Late at night, when the shadows from the EU bulb were cast long, when a short burst of heat was in order, with coffee at the ready, the boiler ... did not respond, did not fire up, failed to obey it's command, decided to go pear shaped.
As if to underscore its point vigorously, the pilot light also went out and there was no turning it back on.
Brilliant.
This is an ongoing story and the next stage will be brought to you right here. It's of course of absolutely zero interest to you, the reader, what my boiler does but I can tell you it's of great interest to me being without hot water or heating and in the night now, it's getting a fraction chilly where I am. So the Higham is feeling a bit cranky this morning.
LATE UPDATE: Having swapped Friday and Thursday, taking the day off on the promise of repairs being done, he didn't turn up, did he? Phone call at 18:15 and guess what? He'd forgotten about me. Easy to do, of course, Higham's boiler is of a low priority in the scheme of things.
Kill!
UPDATE FRIDAY 11:00: Fan's knackered; also the hot water regulating mechanism is reducing flow and therefore the burner's not firing. Engineer's coming out today but when? He has my number and I have his.
The saga switches to a new post.
Combi-boilers are a pain in the arse, I have one and as you sy when it dies you have no heating and no hot water, I long to return to the days of "normal" boiler and an immersion tank, but I blame the "global warming" advocates, who tell us that these fragile machines are good for the earth and reduce CO2 emmissions, of course they bloody do they never work:(
ReplyDeleteOurs always keeps going tits up, and we have ours (stupidly) covered by the British Gas repair insurance scheme thingy. All that happens is that one of their bods turns up, tells us that it's really old and we should get a new one (would we like a quote?), and that we should buy one of these magnetic water cleaner thingies (gets sample out of bag, £500 to you guv), or that we should have a carbon monoxide detector (only £60 squire ~ omitting to point out they're £5 in Halfords). He then makes the think work again.
ReplyDeleteFor about a week.
Then the bloke turns up, and we go through the whole process again.
Freaking things. I much prefer a proper boiler / tank system, as has been said.
I know of no one yet who has had a combi-boiler for any length of time and is happy about it.
ReplyDeleteThose things are too damn complicated for their own good.
ReplyDeleteRather like a modern car, too much electronics, too many things to go wrong, and too much that can be fixed only by an expensive credentialled "professional".
Fortunately I am blessed to live in an area with no mains gas, so it's oil every time. Simple and easy, and no need to pay any CORGI ransom. Just do it yourself.
And do you know what else? You will NEVER see a newspaper headline that says "House demolished in explosion, local oil company is investigating".
Sadly, that's so.
ReplyDeleteNow, your moniker - Weekend Yachtsman - are you going to be, this weekend? Fair sailing, if so.