Broken fan on boiler, can we get it working temporarily

unclebulgaria

Its not a mystery to me.
Its called "we are the manufacturer and we want you to bin your older boiler and buy our new one! So we're going to whack the price of our previously £100 fan up to £160+ vat!"
Don't blame the engineer, you could always go and buy it yourself or even, god forbid, ring a stockist yourself and buy one?
Snowcat please don't have me sitting here thinking you are a know all because you're a "journeyman" and a time served engineer so you must be able to fit a new boiler fan!
You most probably could strip one down and make your little phos bronze bearing on the lathe in your garage and fit it all back together again so its working like new, or so you think. Then when the police knock on your door, or the poor sod who read your post, slap the handcuffs on and inform you that you are now under arrest because your neighbour passed away because the boiler you fiddled with poisoned him and not you!
I didn't do a ten day course to fit a fan, its pretty straight forward and can be learnt in less time than that if you're capable.
The point is, not all RGI's are out to make a killing selling a new fan to Mrs unaware and then ripping them off with an inflated labour bill.
Some of us come on here to try and give the best advice we can and point out what the regs are with regards to that advice.
So stop being facetious, if you're capable then great but don't be a smart a!!e.

snowcat75

unclebulgaria wrote: »

Its not a mystery to me.
Its called "we are the manufacturer and we want you to bin your older boiler and buy our new one! So we're going to whack the price of our previously £100 fan up to £160+ vat!"
Don't blame the engineer, you could always go and buy it yourself or even, god forbid, ring a stockist yourself and buy one?
Snowcat please don't have me sitting here thinking you are a know all because you're a "journeyman" and a time served engineer so you must be able to fit a new boiler fan!
You most probably could strip one down and make your little phos bronze bearing on the lathe in your garage and fit it all back together again so its working like new, or so you think. Then when the police knock on your door, or the poor sod who read your post, slap the handcuffs on and inform you that you are now under arrest because your neighbour passed away because the boiler you fiddled with poisoned him and not you!
I didn't do a ten day course to fit a fan, its pretty straight forward and can be learnt in less time than that if you're capable.
The point is, not all RGI's are out to make a killing selling a new fan to Mrs unaware and then ripping them off with an inflated labour bill.
Some of us come on here to try and give the best advice we can and point out what the regs are with regards to that advice.
So stop being facetious, if you're capable then great but don't be a smart a!!e.

But the question is have the Regs created a better standard of fitter (not engineer) than before, when I'm sure most lads were taught as apprentices.


Im not merely talking gas here as the trend has been for intensive courses in every industry usually with high fees and little practical experience, these have replaced the need for proper in house training.


To put in in perspective the last gas fitter I met got his qualification doing a 6 month stretch at HMP, no practical knowledge, but had the paperwork saying he was no qualified.

C_Mababejive

I tend to agree with snowcat that unfortunately, gas engineering, like so many professions, has been subjected to downward pressures by elements in the industry who have sought to create a cheaper labour pool in order to support their own income.

We now have ads in every other magazine advertising courses in x/y/z and promises of high pass rates and earnings of any figure you care to mention.

Whilst there are plenty of very good new engineers they are outnumbered by the useless ones who perhaps have been given false confidence by having a badge stuck on them and a bit of paper from some training centre.

The industry and the training centres are committing a gross disservice to these young men and women by simply taking their money and providing low grade rubber stamping training.

We must also recognise that not everyone carrying a toolbag is an idiot. There are plenty of very capable, knowledgeable and experienced people out there.

There are plenty who are Engineers and are suitably qualified to register as such.

Thats another scam.

Pay your mega fees to some professional registration body to be an Engineer or dont pay them and suddenly you are an engineer or a fitter.

SaveMyMoney_3

Whilst you could take a boiler apart, well I wouldn't I'd recommend being safe and maybe just get the fan replaced. I'm sure getting in a local firm wouldn't be too much hassle and if they're anything like stl heating then I know they won't charge a lot either.