Storage heater warranty?!

normalpeopleworryme

I am a landlord of a flat. 4 years ago the electric storage heaters stopped working in flat. The letting company arranged for repair, however, repair was not possible, so led to replacement of two of them. I got an invoice for the work, but no warranty etc.

Since then I have moved letting company, and got a new tenant. Last week I got an email saying the two replaced storage heaters are not working. I approached the old lettings company for information on the warreanty - as the work is four years old any info is in their storage facility. They told me they will look for it when they get the chance.

In the meantime the tenant is freezing...so I I get the storage heaters looked at and claim on the warranty in retrospect? Or do I have to wait for warranty conditions to be confirmed?

I don't even know what the warranty on a storage heater should be - I know they have a life expectancy of 40 years...

For extra detail...I am a distance landlord, so can't call round to flat/letting agent etc.

lstar337

Sounds like you are very unlucky.

Storage heaters are usually bomb proof!

Richie-from-the-Boro

I agree with lstar337, 40 to 80+ years with no maintenance would be normal. At best from from a good maker for example Dimplex, you would get 2 years manufacturers warranty. Get a sparky .. .. an element £10 a fuselink £7 input stats are about £40, but if you :

- had 2 that went wrong, and now have ;
- the same 2 that went wrong again ;
- you probably have wiring or CU issues

macman

As above. The odds on two failing at once are very high, so almost certainly a circuit issue.
Manufacturer's warranty is probably the standard 12 months, certainly not 48 months.

normalpeopleworryme

Thanks all for above...

So may as well get someone out to look at them, and not worry about warranty?

And ask them to check wiring?

Thanks again

matelodave

You could always try the Sale of Goods act - although the manufacturer might give a warranty you also have some recourse via the sale of goods act whereby stuff must last a reasonable time and one would think that only 4 years for a storage heater is not a reasonable time. Although you have to prove that there was an intrinsic fault in the units. It sounds unlikely that the two new units would fail at the same time though, so it sounds like you might have another problem which caused it, especially if any others are still soldiering on.


Have a look here for SOG info http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/738369/738375/OFT002_SOGA_explained.pdf

lstar337

normalpeopleworryme wrote: »

Thanks all for above...

So may as well get someone out to look at them, and not worry about warranty?

And ask them to check wiring?

Thanks again

Yeah. Parts are simple and usually inexpensive.

I would certainly try to find out what is causing them to go wrong though, they are usually like old farm equipment, tough as nails!

knightstyle

Storage heaters rarely go wrong in the first 10 years of their life, Dimplex used to give a 10 year guarantee and they are not stupid!
Usually in cases like this it is tenants who cover the vents on the heaters when drying things, causing an overheat device to trip. This is a simple fix for an electrician, sometimes a link of lead melts, sometimes a little thermal trip needs resetting. 30 mins work for the two heaters. If you can be there give them a quick hoover inside whilst the covers are off.

14Westfield

Yeah definitely check the thermal cut outs first as it takes a few minutes and only involves removing the front cover.

normalpeopleworryme

OK - my management company got an electrician in. Here is his diagnosis:

"I have been to this property as it was reported that two of the storage heaters was no longer working one in the hallway and one in the lounge. These was tested on site by wiring them up to a plug and plugging them in instead of them running of economy seven. There was still not heating up so the storage heaters are faulty. The one in the lounge doesn’t matter really as there is another two heaters in the lounge and that is more than enough to heat a room of that size and as for the one in the hallway I would suggest having a convector heater put in as there is no need to have a storage heater in such a small hallway."

I've been quoted £195 for this...any advice?

Richie-from-the-Boro

normalpeopleworryme wrote: »

OK - my management company got an electrician in. Here is his diagnosis:

"I have been to this property as it was reported that two of the storage heaters was no longer working one in the hallway and one in the lounge. These was tested on site by wiring them up to a plug and plugging them in instead of them running of economy seven. There was still not heating up so the storage heaters are faulty. The one in the lounge doesn't matter really as there is another two heaters in the lounge and that is more than enough to heat a room of that size and as for the one in the hallway I would suggest having a convector heater put in as there is no need to have a storage heater in such a small hallway."

I've been quoted £195 for this...any advice?

any advice?

It depends what you contracted him to do. He has not diagnosed any of the easy to diagnose faults on either of the rads or the associated cables and CU's, this I assume because he did not test for faults merely tested for on / off at the unit.

These was tested on site by wiring them up to a plug

Putting the spur to a 13a supply tells you nothing useful, it tells you what you already knew, the heater doesn't work.

There was still not heating up so the storage heaters are faulty

Yes agreed, that's why you sent the sparky, to find out why they were not working.

there is another two heaters in the lounge

Are you sure ? there are another two cheap rate night store heaters in the living room.

that is more than enough to heat a room of that size

If that's the case why were they there in the first place, swapping E7 prices for core rate in the living area will double the leccy costs.

It depends what you contracted him to do. He has delivered no useful information you did not already have. I suspect like many sparkys he was clueless on night store - many are, did you ask him to to diagnose and price the repair of the two night store heaters and their supply [you probably have wiring or CU issues] system ?. Tell him to go back and do the job you wanted, and when done to your satisfaction pay him. NS heater repair is easy to diagnose and cheap & easy to repair, they are just a thermostatically controlled oven full of bricks.