Immersion heater repair

Kirri

Is £130 for an immersion heater repair fair or not? Took about an hour, standard top single element replacement, part online can be bought for £8 exc VAT. Seems excessive?

This is for London however.

andyhop

Immersion heaters wirh a new themostat will be approx £18 for a branded trade item
About an hour....does that mean 40mins or 1hr 20mins?

Did he quote or was he working on a hourly rate?

TBH i would always charge around £100, some can be a nightmare to get out,Normally a issue with space where it means you have to remove the cylinder from its space

Kirri

andyhop wrote: »

Immersion heaters wirh a new themostat will be approx £18 for a branded trade item
About an hour....does that mean 40mins or 1hr 20mins?

Did he quote or was he working on a hourly rate?

TBH i would always charge around £100, some can be a nightmare to get out,Normally a issue with space where it means you have to remove the cylinder from its space

He left the packaging so I checked the exact item online.

Was here 1hr 5 mins ish. Quoted set price but said would take 1.5-2hours so that seemed ok ish at the time!

What part of the country is that £100 for?

andyhop

Edinburgh

If you accepted a quoted price then you really cant dispute it now

What would have happended if he was there for 4 hrs.....would you have paid him extra

Some jobs go better than others! After all a time estimate is exactly that

Kirri

andyhop wrote: »

Edinburgh

If you accepted a quoted price then you really cant dispute it now

What would have happended if he was there for 4 hrs.....would you have paid him extra

Some jobs go better than others! After all a time estimate is exactly that

That's what I love about MSE, every answer I read on here is that slight bit argumentative... I just simply wondered if what I had paid was fair for the job that was done..... As it was he spent half the time talking.

As for whether I'd have paid him more if it took 4 hours - a simple element replacement was not going to take that long so that's a bit of a silly comparison as I would be wondering about his ability then!

Kirri

RichardAndrews wrote: »

The last one I done cost £25 for parts & I charged £75 for an hours work.
Their was also an initial visit to find out what was wrong, contact with the manufacturers, post & packing, travel to and from the job....

Thanks for info, can I ask what part of the country this was for that price?

andyhop

Kirri wrote: »

That's what I love about MSE, every answer I read on here is that slight bit argumentative... I just simply wondered if what I had paid was fair for the job that was done..... As it was he spent half the time talking.

As for whether I'd have paid him more if it took 4 hours - a simple element replacement was not going to take that long so that's a bit of a silly comparison as I would be wondering about his ability then!

I have done emmersion heaters that have taken 6+ hours

Some cylinders are badly fitted, some with no drain off, some that have been built around, Some with side mounted immersions that are fitted at the back and against the wall.

Then theres the ones that are that old and paper thin that when you use your box spanner it twists the cylinder!In areas with hard water, limescale can also be a issue with removal

I wont mention the council fitted jobs that fit non-return valves and when you drain the cylinder it implodes!

Its generally the simple jobs that can cause the headaches