boiler leaking carbon monoxide month after service

mgararte

Hi

Appreciate any advice. We had our boiler serviced one month ago after a carbon monoxide alarm went off and the enginer who serviced it unblocked the flue which seemed to solve the problem. However we had another alarm the other day and the emergency gas man switched off boiler althought he couldnt find any fault as a precaution. We have had problems with this boiler on and off over the years. Not sure of its age as it was here when I moved in 4 years ago. My questions are should we complain about the service it was npower as they said it was safe and now less than a month later it is leaking carbon monoxide again (unless it was a false alarm but have been told these very rare!) Should we replace boiler as we have a baby in the house and I dont trust it even if it was repaired? Dont really want to calll anyone out to repair it as they will charge call out and a might be nothing wrong if false alarm and may break down again few weeks later. Also on average what does it cost to replace a boiler. We have 2 bedroom terraced house with 5 radiators. any help much appreciated as I am clueless on this!

Premier_2

Have you any proof npower were negligent in their service?
Boilers can go wrong at any time.
It may not even have gone wrong this latest time, perhaps your alarm did? Who supplied that? Perhaps that should be replaced?
Get a competent gas-safe engineer around to see if there is any fault with your boiler (or its installation) before even thinking about forking out for a new boiler.

nPower

Hi mgararte

I am sorry to hear about the problems you are having with your boiler.

Please call npower hometeam on 0800 980 2121 and one of our engineers can come and check your boiler.

Best Wishes
Sally

C_Mababejive

here are a number of things to note;

The complete combustion of natural gas does not produce Carbon Monoxide in appreciable quantities.

A CO alarm sounding is not a definitive indication of CO in the atmosphere

Gas Emergency Service engineers do not possess equipment for the purposes of detection of CO in the atmosphere. They therefore only perform a make safe function i.e turn off/issue warning notice etc

The boiler needs to be assessed by a qualified and competent gas engineer who has the right equipment and experience to make an accurate assessment as to its operation. Being GSR registered does not confer competence or experience.

Have you suffered any symptoms/have you attended the doctors ?

Genuine CO incidents are rare.

mgararte

Hi Sally from Npower. I phoned npower this morning and explained the situation and they will not come and check it for free I have to pay over £80 for a repair which I think is disgusting as it was only just over a month after service that our alarm went off I think they should check it for free. The man I spoke to said if I had phoned within 28 days after service they would have checked it for free but how could I when the alarm didnt go off until 33 days after service! If there are not problems and the alarm was found to have gone off for no reason I would obviously then pay but the alarm has not gone off again since the boiler was switched off so it is highly unlikely that it did go off for no reason. I expected better of npower as the engineer declared the boiler as safe so one would expect it to last longer than one month before leaking again it was obviously not safe. I am not stuck as to what to do as I feel that it should be checked by npower for no charge which would be good customer service but we need a boiler working again quickly as winter is fast approaching. I will not be recommending npower to anyone again and am seriously considering moving my gas and electricity account to another comapny with better service!

Fire_Fox

Follow NPowers complaints procedure and if you don't get any joy, try the ombudsman.

mgararte

Thanks I have emailed a complaint to them and will hopefully hear soon although not sure now whether to await their reply or contact someone else to look at boiler as we have managed so far but it is getting closer to winter niw and we have a young baby so will have to act soon.