Advice to elderly parents with boiler issue

jem16

Yesterday I had a panic call from my 81 and 85 year old parents who said they had a boiler problem and had called Worcsester Bosch with whom that have a maintenance contract with for their boiler.

Apparently water was flowing from the boiler overflow pipe and the pressure was between 3.5 and 4. They were apparently advised to draw some water from the radiators to lower the pressure and an engineer would be sent round on Monday.

Unfortunately my Dad tried to do this with one radiator and ended up with water spraying everywhere. Fortunately he got that stopped by the time I arrived. Unfortunately he had also attempted to do the same with another and hadn't noticed it was still leaking out water from behind the bleed valve. I couldn't get it stopped either as I couldn't get at the lock valve - I think that's what it's called.

Phoned our plumber who talked me through shutting off the radiator to stop the water flow. He said to shut off the boiler and turn off its water supply and call back Worcester and get them out as an emergency.

Still no appointment till Monday so decided to get the plumber out to fix the radiator. He arrived and dealt with the radiator and looked at the boiler for them. Turned out the inlet valve for topping up the boiler was open so closed that and drew off some more water from the radiator to reduce pressure. Boiler now back on and working and plumber paid.

Should we complain to Worcester about the advice given over the telephone to 2 elderly people who were obviously incapable of following these instructions and who could have been burned with hot water from the radiator? At no point were they asked if they could do this. Yes they probably should have said they weren't able but my Dad thought he could - still wants to think he's capable.

espresso

jem16 wrote: »

Yesterday I had a panic call from my 81 and 85 year old parents who said they had a boiler problem and had called Worcsester Bosch with whom that have a maintenance contract with for their boiler.

Apparently water was flowing from the boiler overflow pipe and the pressure was between 3.5 and 4. They were apparently advised to draw some water from the radiators to lower the pressure and an engineer would be sent round on Monday.

Unfortunately my Dad tried to do this with one radiator and ended up with water spraying everywhere. Fortunately he got that stopped by the time I arrived. Unfortunately he had also attempted to do the same with another and hadn't noticed it was still leaking out water from behind the bleed valve. I couldn't get it stopped either as I couldn't get at the lock valve - I think that's what it's called.

Phoned our plumber who talked me through shutting off the radiator to stop the water flow. He said to shut off the boiler and turn off its water supply and call back Worcester and get them out as an emergency.

Still no appointment till Monday so decided to get the plumber out to fix the radiator. He arrived and dealt with the radiator and looked at the boiler for them. Turned out the inlet valve for topping up the boiler was open so closed that and drew off some more water from the radiator to reduce pressure. Boiler now back on and working and plumber paid.

Should we complain to Worcester about the advice given over the telephone to 2 elderly people who were obviously incapable of following these instructions and who could have been burned with hot water from the radiator? At no point were they asked if they could do this. Yes they probably should have said they weren't able but my Dad thought he could - still wants to think he's capable.

Your questions should be why was the inlet valve opened? Who opened the inlet valve and how long had the valve been open?

Worcester simply gave advice on how to lower the system pressure, which is all they could do over the phone when asked.

jem16

espresso wrote: »

Your questions should be why was the inlet valve opened? Who opened the inlet valve and how long had the valve been open?

Already asked those questions yesterday. My Dad says he knows how to top up the pressure using the inlet valve but insists he hasn't done so since sometime last year. Unfortunately I'm not entirely sure that he remembers as he is forgetting more and more things.

The only other person who could have opened it was the Worcester engineer who serviced it in June. However I'm doubtful of that as you wouldn't expect them to do that although it's possible. Problem is that if it's been open since June why would it only show up as a problem now when my Mum noticed water coming out of the overflow pipe? Obviously heating has been used more recently but not sure if that would make a difference.

Worcester simply gave advice on how to lower the system pressure, which is all they could do over the phone when asked.

They weren't asked for advice - they were asked to send an engineer.

The call centre operator gave the advice when my Mum told her that water was leaking from the overflow pipe and the pressure was high. She told them to keep the boiler on.